Our lab is interested in engineering and understanding collaborative autonomy and assured autonomy. We study many topics on the borders of control theory, artificial intelligence, formal methods, and cognitive science. Currently our research focuses on:

• Trustworthy AI/CPS
• Cognitive-aware human-autonomy teaming
• Cognitive neuroengineering
  
• Autonomous UAS and UAS swarms
• AI, aerial robotics, and control for agricultural, environmental, neural engineering, and defense applications

Our lab accepts students from MAE, CS, and BME. If you are interested in joining our lab, please read this first before contacting us.

Recent Lab News

• 11/12/2021 Ryan Liang has successfully completed his MS thesis "Vision-Based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation in Virtual Complex Environment using Deep Reinforcement Learning". He will join Sandia National Laboratories. Congrats Ryan. We wish him a bright future! 
  
• 10/19/2021 Our paper "Drones: Innovative Technology for Use in Precision Pest Management" has won the Journal of Economic Entomology Editor’s Choice Award.
• 08/11/2021 Our lab alumnus, Gang Chen, will join South China University of Technology as an Assistant Professor. Congrats, Gang! Wish you a bright future!
• 08/01/2021 Our team (led by Dr. Xin Liu, Dr. Mason Earles and Dr. Kong) participated in the 3rd International Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge and got 2nd among 45 teams in the part B Machine Learning section.
• 07/27/2021 Our paper "Interpretable Fault Diagnosis for Cyber-physical Systems: A Learning Perspective" is now available online.
• 07/23/2021 Andrew will join Advance.Farm. Congratulations, Andrew. We wish you a bright future!
• 06/21/21 Our lab has received a research grant from the Sony Corporation on "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarms for Large-Scale, Real-Time, and Intelligent Disaster Responses". We are very excited to work with Sony on the project!
• 06/03/21 Our paper "System Identification of Wind Effects on Multirotor Aircraft" is now available online.
• 04/23/21 Our paper "Interpretable Fault Diagnosis for Cyber-Physical Systems: A Learning Perspective" has been accepted by Computer (SI: Formal Methods Applied to Cyber-Physical Systems).
• 02/16/21 Evan's study on using unmanned vehicles for vaccine distribution has been featured by ABC10. Here is the story.
• 12/17/20 Aravind has successfully completed his MS project "Air Quality Monitoring and Gaseous Plume Source Localization Using a UAV". Congrats to Aravind! We wish him a bright future!
• 12/10/20 Our lab has received a DURIP grant from AFOSR on "Network-based Neurophysiological and Psychophysiological Metrics of Human Trust Dynamics When Teamed with Autonomy". We are very excited for the project!

In the Press

• "UC Davis researchers explore sci-fi solutions for neurological diseases" by Noah Pflueger-Peters, UC Davis, Dec. 2020
• "Fighting Fire with Engineering" by Noah Pflueger-Peters, UC Davis, Nov. 2020
• "UC Davis Engineers Lead $36M Effort to Improve Recovery From Spinal Cord Injuries" by Aditi Risbud Bartl, UC Davis, Spt. 30, 2020
• "UC Davis to Lead New Artificial Intelligence Institute for Next-Generation Food Systems" by AJ Cheline, UC Davis, Aug. 2020
• "Using drones and predatory bugs, UC Davis researchers treat crop pests" by Lauren Glevanik, The California Aggie, Jan. 2020
• "Why Drones Are Important in Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century" by Kathy Keatley Garvey, UCANR, Dec. 2019
• "UC Davis Researchers Studying The Use Of Drones To Identify And Mitigate Pests In Crops", CBS13, Dec. 2019
• "Space Engineering", by Noah Pflueger-Peters, UC Davis, Oct. 2019
• "NASA Selects Two New Space Tech Research Institutes for Smart Habitats", NASA.gov, April 2019