Research

Our research develops algorithmic and systems-level methods that enable teams of autonomous robots to perceive, navigate, and make decisions in uncertain, dynamic, and unstructured environments. This includes distributed multi-robot search, tracking, and information gathering; uncertainty-aware navigation and mapping; scalable coordination for tasks such as cooperative exploration and delivery; and performance prediction for multi-robot teams. We combine probabilistic reasoning, planning under uncertainty, and scalable coordination strategies to bridge theory and practice in real-world robotic autonomy.

Highlighted

Toward Predicting Collective Performance in Multirobot Teams

Pujie Xin, Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  19 Aug 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2025.3600164

All

2025

Distributed multi-robot active gathering for non-uniform agriculture and forestry information

Jun Chen, Mingjia Chen, Jun Wang, Qi Mao, Fei Xie, Philip Dames

Frontiers in Plant Science  ·  21 Oct 2025  ·  doi:10.3389/fpls.2025.1699124

Distributed Multi-Robot Multi-Target Simultaneous Search and Tracking in an Unknown Non-convex Environment

Jun Chen, Jiaqing Ma, Philip Dames

arXiv  ·  27 Sep 2025  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.23308

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Autonomous Mobile Agents

Philip Dames

Encyclopedia of GIS  ·  18 Sep 2025  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-319-23519-6_1664-1

Energy Efficient Multi Robot Package Delivery under Capacity-Constraints via Voronoi-Constrained Networks

Alkesh K. Srivastava, Jared Michael Levin, Philip Dames

arXiv  ·  17 Sep 2025  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.14127

DELIVER: A System for LLM-Guided Coordinated Multi-Robot Pickup and Delivery using Voronoi-Based Relay Planning

Alkesh K. Srivastava, Jared Michael Levin, Alexander Derrico, Philip Dames

arXiv  ·  26 Aug 2025  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.2508.19114

Toward Predicting Collective Performance in Multirobot Teams

Pujie Xin, Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  19 Aug 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2025.3600164

SCOPE: Stochastic Cartographic Occupancy Prediction Engine for Uncertainty-Aware Dynamic Navigation

Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  09 Jun 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2025.3578234

Comparison of stochastic optimization strategies in multi-robot multi-target tracking scenarios

Pujie Xin, Philip Dames

Swarm Intelligence  ·  05 Jun 2025  ·  doi:10.1007/s11721-025-00249-y

Effective tracking of unknown clustered targets using a distributed team of mobile robots

Jun Chen, Philip Dames, Shinkyu Park

Autonomous Robots  ·  24 May 2025  ·  doi:10.1007/s10514-025-10200-z

Speech-Guided Sequential Planning for Autonomous Navigation Using Large Language Model Meta AI 3 (Llama3)

Alkesh K. Srivastava, Philip Dames

Lecture Notes in Computer Science  ·  25 Mar 2025  ·  doi:10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_15

Splat-Nav: Safe Real-Time Robot Navigation in Gaussian Splatting Maps

Timothy Chen, Ola Shorinwa, Joseph Bruno, Aiden Swann, Javier Yu, Weijia Zeng, Keiko Nagami, Philip Dames, Mac Schwager

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  17 Mar 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2025.3552348

Distributed Multirobot Multitarget Tracking Using Heterogeneous Limited-Range Sensors

Jun Chen, Mohammed Abugurain, Philip Dames, Shinkyu Park

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  18 Feb 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2025.3543303

2024

Semantic2D: Enabling Semantic Scene Understanding with 2D Lidar Alone

Zhanteng Xie, Yipeng Pan, Yinqiang Zhang, Jia Pan, Philip Dames

arXiv  ·  15 Sep 2024  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.2409.09899

Stochastic Occupancy Grid Map Prediction in Dynamic Scenes

7th Annual Conference on Robot Learning  ·  29 Jul 2024  ·  [no id info]

Artificial Intelligence for Climate Smart Forestry: A Forward Looking Vision

Feng Luo, Ling Liu, G. Geoff Wang, Vijay Kumar, Mark S. Ashton, …, Christopher W. Woodall, Yongkai Wu, Jian Yang, Yin Yang, Liang Zhao

2023 IEEE 5th International Conference on Cognitive Machine Intelligence (CogMI)  ·  19 Feb 2024  ·  doi:10.1109/CogMI58952.2023.00011

Distributed Multi-robot Tracking of Unknown Clustered Targets with Noisy Measurements

Jun Chen, Philip Dames, Shinkyu Park

Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics  ·  01 Feb 2024  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-51497-5_10

Distributed Multiple Hypothesis Tracker for Mobile Sensor Networks

Pujie Xin, Philip Dames

Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics  ·  01 Feb 2024  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-51497-5_22

Comparing Stochastic Optimization Methods for Multi-robot, Multi-target Tracking

Pujie Xin, Philip Dames

Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics  ·  01 Feb 2024  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-51497-5_27

2023

The Convex Uncertain Voronoi Diagram for Safe Multi-Robot Multi-Target Tracking Under Localization Uncertainty

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems  ·  22 Nov 2023  ·  doi:10.1007/s10846-023-01986-0

Artificial Intelligence for Climate Smart Forestry: A Forward Looking Vision

Feng Luo, Ling Liu, G. Geoff Wang, Vijay Kumar, Mark S. Ashton, …, Christopher W. Woodall, Yongkai Wu, Jian Yang, Yin Yang, Liang Zhao

2023 IEEE 5th International Conference on Cognitive Machine Intelligence (CogMI)  ·  01 Nov 2023  ·  doi:10.1109/cogmi58952.2023.00011

Stochastic Occupancy Grid Map Prediction in Dynamic Scenes

Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

arXiv  ·  13 Oct 2023  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.2210.08577

DRL-VO: Learning to Navigate Through Crowded Dynamic Scenes Using Velocity Obstacles

Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  30 Mar 2023  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2023.3257549

2022

Time Constraint Finite-Horizon Path Planning Solution for Micromouse Extreme Problem

Anway Bose, Joseph Bruno, Philip Dames, Li Bai

2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS)  ·  19 Dec 2022  ·  doi:10.1109/MASS56207.2022.00054

Autonomous Ground Navigation in Highly Constrained Spaces: Lessons Learned From the Benchmark Autonomous Robot Navigation Challenge at ICRA 2022 [Competitions]

Xuesu Xiao, Zifan Xu, Zizhao Wang, Yunlong Song, Garrett Warnell, …, Lauren Bramblett, Rahul Peddi, Nicola Bezzo, Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine  ·  07 Dec 2022  ·  doi:10.1109/MRA.2022.3213466

Autonomous Ground Navigation in Highly Constrained Spaces: Lessons Learned From the Benchmark Autonomous Robot Navigation Challenge at ICRA 2022 [Competitions]

Xuesu Xiao, Zifan Xu, Zizhao Wang, Yunlong Song, Garrett Warnell, …, Lauren Bramblett, Rahul Peddi, Nicola Bezzo, Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine  ·  01 Dec 2022  ·  doi:10.1109/mra.2022.3213466

Active Multi-Target Search Using Distributed Thompson Sampling

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

Springer Science and Business Media LLC  ·  15 Jul 2022  ·  doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1849567/v1

The Convex Uncertain Voronoi Diagram for Safe Multi-Robot Multi-Target Tracking Under Localization Uncertainty

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

Springer Science and Business Media LLC  ·  19 May 2022  ·  doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1530901/v1

A Comparison of the Probability Hypothesis Density Filter and the Multiple Hypothesis Tracker for Tracking Targets of Multiple Types

[no publisher info]  ·  09 Mar 2022  ·  [no id info]

The semantic PHD filter for multi-class target tracking: From theory to practice

Jun Chen, Zhanteng Xie, Philip Dames

Robotics and Autonomous Systems  ·  01 Mar 2022  ·  doi:10.1016/j.robot.2021.103947

Multi-class Target Tracking Using the Semantic PHD Filter

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics  ·  17 Feb 2022  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95459-8_32

distributed-tracking

2021

RASCAL: Robotic Arm for Sherds and Ceramics Automated Locomotion

Deborah Wang, Brandon Lutz, Peter J. Cobb, Philip Dames

2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)  ·  18 Oct 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561057

Distributed Multi-Target Tracking for Heterogeneous Mobile Sensing Networks with Limited Field of Views

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)  ·  18 Oct 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561888

Towards Safe Navigation Through Crowded Dynamic Environments

Zhanteng Xie, Pujie Xin, Philip Dames

2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)  ·  27 Sep 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/IROS51168.2021.9636102

Towards Safe Navigation Through Crowded Dynamic Environments

Zhanteng Xie, Pujie Xin, Philip Dames

2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)  ·  27 Sep 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/iros51168.2021.9636102

RASCAL: Robotic Arm for Sherds and Ceramics Automated Locomotion

Deborah Wang, Brandon Lutz, Peter J. Cobb, Philip Dames

2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)  ·  30 May 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/icra48506.2021.9561057

Distributed Multi-Target Tracking for Heterogeneous Mobile Sensing Networks with Limited Field of Views

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)  ·  30 May 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/icra48506.2021.9561888

Multi-Class Target Tracking Using the Semantic PHD Filter

2019 International Symposium Robotics Research (ISRR)  ·  25 Mar 2021  ·  [no id info]

Collision-Free Distributed Multi-Target Tracking Using Teams of Mobile Robots with Localization Uncertainty

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)  ·  10 Feb 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341126

distributed-tracking

2020

Collision-Free Distributed Multi-Target Tracking Using Teams of Mobile Robots with Localization Uncertainty

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)  ·  24 Oct 2020  ·  doi:10.1109/iros45743.2020.9341126

Distributed Multi-Target Search and Tracking Using a Coordinated Team of Ground and Aerial Robots

2nd IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems  ·  10 Jan 2020  ·  [no id info]

Distributed and Collision-Free Coverage Control of a Team of Mobile Sensors Using the Convex Uncertain Voronoi Diagram

Jun Chen, Philip Dames

2020 American Control Conference (ACC)  ·  03 Jan 2020  ·  doi:10.23919/acc45564.2020.9147359

distributed-tracking

2019

Centimeter-Level Recording for All: Field Experimentation with New, Affordable Geolocation Technology

Peter J. Cobb, Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, Philip Dames

Advances in Archaeological Practice  ·  13 Aug 2019  ·  doi:10.1017/aap.2019.21

Distributed multi-target search and tracking using the PHD filter

Philip M. Dames

Autonomous Robots  ·  22 Feb 2019  ·  doi:10.1007/s10514-019-09840-9

distributed-tracking

2018

Guest Editorial Special Section on Aerial Swarm Robotics

S.-J. Chung, A. Paranjape, P. Dames, S. Shen, V. Kumar

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  03 Aug 2018  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2018.2860098

A Survey on Aerial Swarm Robotics

Soon-Jo Chung, Aditya Avinash Paranjape, Philip Dames, Shaojie Shen, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Transactions on Robotics  ·  03 Aug 2018  ·  doi:10.1109/TRO.2018.2857475

2017

Distributed multi-target search and tracking using the PHD filter

Philip Dames

2017 International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)  ·  01 Dec 2017  ·  doi:10.1109/MRS.2017.8250924

distributed-tracking

Distributed multi-target search and tracking using the PHD filter

Philip Dames

2017 International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)  ·  01 Dec 2017  ·  doi:10.1109/mrs.2017.8250924

Autonomous robotic exploration using a utility function based on Rényi’s general theory of entropy

Henry Carrillo, Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar, José A. Castellanos

Autonomous Robots  ·  12 Aug 2017  ·  doi:10.1007/s10514-017-9662-9

Detecting, Localizing, and Tracking an Unknown Number of Moving Targets Using a Team of Mobile Robots

Philip Dames, Pratap Tokekar, Vijay Kumar

Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics  ·  27 Jul 2017  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51532-8_31

Detecting, localizing, and tracking an unknown number of moving targets using a team of mobile robots

Philip Dames, Pratap Tokekar, Vijay Kumar

The International Journal of Robotics Research  ·  05 Jun 2017  ·  doi:10.1177/0278364917709507

Automated System for Semantic Object Labeling With Soft-Object Recognition and Dynamic Programming Segmentation

Jonas Cleveland, Dinesh Thakur, Philip Dames, Cody Phillips, Terry Kientz, Kostas Daniilidis, John Bergstrom, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering  ·  01 Apr 2017  ·  doi:10.1109/TASE.2016.2631085

Automated System for Semantic Object Labeling With Soft-Object Recognition and Dynamic Programming Segmentation

Jonas Cleveland, Dinesh Thakur, Philip Dames, Cody Phillips, Terry Kientz, Kostas Daniilidis, John Bergstrom, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering  ·  01 Apr 2017  ·  doi:10.1109/tase.2016.2631085

A Multi-Robot Control Policy for Information Gathering in the Presence of Unknown Hazards

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research  ·  23 Feb 2017  ·  [no id info]

Detecting, Localizing, and Tracking an Unknown Number of Moving Targets Using a Team of Mobile Robots

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research  ·  23 Feb 2017  ·  [no id info]

2016

A Multi-robot Control Policy for Information Gathering in the Presence of Unknown Hazards

Mac Schwager, Philip Dames, Daniela Rus, Vijay Kumar

Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics  ·  26 Aug 2016  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-319-29363-9_26

Active Magnetic Anomaly Detection Using Multiple Micro Aerial Vehicles

Philip M. Dames, Mac Schwager, Daniela Rus, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters  ·  01 Jan 2016  ·  doi:10.1109/LRA.2015.2511444

Active Magnetic Anomaly Detection Using Multiple Micro Aerial Vehicles

Philip M. Dames, Mac Schwager, Daniela Rus, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters  ·  01 Jan 2016  ·  doi:10.1109/lra.2015.2511444

2015

Automated detection, localization, and registration of smart devices with multiple robots

Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar

2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)  ·  01 Aug 2015  ·  doi:10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294139

An automated system for semantic object labeling with soft object recognition and dynamic programming segmentation

Jonas Cleveland, Dinesh Thakur, Philip Dames, Cody Phillips, Terry Kientz, Kostas Daniilidis, John Bergstrom, Vijay Kumar

2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)  ·  01 Aug 2015  ·  doi:10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294159

Autonomous Localization of an Unknown Number of Targets Without Data Association Using Teams of Mobile Sensors

Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering  ·  01 Jul 2015  ·  doi:10.1109/TASE.2015.2425212

Autonomous robotic exploration using occupancy grid maps and graph SLAM based on Shannon and Rényi Entropy

Henry Carrillo, Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar, Jose A. Castellanos

2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)  ·  01 May 2015  ·  doi:10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139224

Autonomous robotic exploration using occupancy grid maps and graph SLAM based on Shannon and Rényi Entropy

Henry Carrillo, Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar, Jose A. Castellanos

2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)  ·  01 May 2015  ·  doi:10.1109/icra.2015.7139224

Experimental Characterization of a Bearing-only Sensor for Use With the PHD Filter

Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar

arXiv  ·  01 Jan 2015  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.1502.04661

2014

Playing Fetch with Your Robot: The Ability of Robots to Locate and Interact with Objects

Philip Dames, Dinesh Thakur, Mac Schwager, Vijay Kumar

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine  ·  01 Jun 2014  ·  doi:10.1109/MRA.2013.2295947

2013

Modeling, design, and control of 6-DoF flexure-based parallel mechanisms for vibratory manipulation

Thomas H. Vose, Matthew H. Turpin, Philip M. Dames, Paul Umbanhowar, Kevin M. Lynch

Mechanism and Machine Theory  ·  01 Jun 2013  ·  doi:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2012.12.007

Cooperative multi-target localization with noisy sensors

Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar

2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation  ·  01 May 2013  ·  doi:10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630825

Technical Report: Cooperative Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors

Philip Dames, Vijay Kumar

arXiv  ·  01 Jan 2013  ·  doi:10.48550/arXiv.1302.3857

2012

A decentralized control policy for adaptive information gathering in hazardous environments

Philip Dames, Mac Schwager, Vijay Kumar, Daniela Rus

2012 IEEE 51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)  ·  01 Dec 2012  ·  doi:10.1109/CDC.2012.6426239

Automated detection, localization, and registration of smart devices with multiple robots | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

[no publisher info]  ·  [no date info]  ·  doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294139

An automated system for semantic object labeling with soft object recognition and dynamic programming segmentation | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

[no publisher info]  ·  [no date info]  ·  doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294159