Robotics and Mixed Reality

As robots become more ubiquitous in our homes and workplaces, humans need a way to intuitively interact with them: to control them without requiring special training, to visualize and understand their intentions, and to utilize the spatial data that they produce. Mixed Reality devices (both HoloLens and AR-capable mobile devices) are solving the same localization and mapping problems as mobile robots. In order to function, they need to understand the space around them and know where they are in their environment. Our research efforts in this domain focus on developing methods to better localize robots and humans together, and approaches for leveraging spatial intelligence and the sensing capabilities of Mixed Reality devices to enable easier, safer, and more effective human-robot interaction.