GRASP on Robotics is an inaugural series of talks hosted by the GRASP Laboratory. GRASP leverages academic, research, and industry connections to deliver a set of high class tech talks with the mission of providing technical topics and meaningful discussions.
Join the live-stream here Fridays from 10:30am -11:45am followed by a Q&A panel between our speaker, faculty, and students until 11:45am.
Spring 2025 GRASP on Robotics: Reid Simmons, Carnegie Mellon University, “AI-Based Assistants for the Elderly”
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom.
ABSTRACT
As the population ages, the need grows for AI agents to assist people to remain living independently. Older adults are typically set in their ways, so AI agents should adapt to their ways of doing things, rather than the other way around. To that end, we are exploring various approaches to learning to personalize assistive agents, including the use of bandit algorithms, foundational models, neuro-symbolic architectures, and theory of mind. This talk will present our approaches and results in several assistive areas, including meal preparation and exercise coaching, as well as work in learning policies from humans. Much of the research is being supported by AI-CARING, an NSF-sponsored Institute devoted to developing AI technologies to help older adults with cognitive and physical decline remain in their homes.