Sergei Nirenburg
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY·Computer Science
Robots could take on dangerous or exhausting jobs, but people need to trust them and communicate with them naturally. That requires robots that understand what people say, can explain their own decisions, and learn from instruction.
- Fields
Computer Science
Engineering
- Topics
cognitive robotics
human-robot interaction
human-robot teaming
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Assess the commercial translation potential of a cognitive-robotics technology through experiential learning and first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem.
- Evaluate a dual-layer robot framework that pairs a strategic cognitive layer for reasoning and natural language understanding with a real-time sensorimotor control layer.
- Identify high-risk application settings where explainable AI, adaptive learning through language and vision, and long-horizon planning could make robots trusted members of human–robot teams.
More about the research
This project explores whether a cognitive-robotics technology that aims to turn general-purpose robots into trusted teammates has commercial potential.
Why it matters
Robots that understand language and explain their reasoning could take on hazardous or fatigue-inducing jobs while keeping humans in charge of decisions. This project assesses whether such explainable cognitive robots could be adopted in high-risk settings where human–robot trust is essential.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shuran Song
Stanford University, CA·Computer Science·Early-career
Develop hierarchical task representations, built in hyperbolic space (a tree-like curved geometry), learned from large-scale unlabeled instructional videos to model the steps of everyday activities such as cooking and repair.
Petras Swissler
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Engineering
Develop a swarm of interlocking hexagonal robotic tiles with motorized surfaces and docking interfaces that self-assemble into all-terrain conveyors, drawing on how fire ants link bodies into rafts.
Patricio Vela
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Engineering
Develop an instrument for measuring worker, robot and supervisor technology adoption and performance through a grounded theory study of collaborative robotics in industry.
The school
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: 5 labs on PI Pages, $140M a year on research, 113 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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