AI Colloquium with Prof. Aaron Johnson on “Robots Making Contact with an Uncertain World”

On Monday, March 9, 2026, Prof. Aaron Johnson from Carnegie Mellon University will hold a presentation on “Robots Making Contact with an Uncertain World” at the University of Bonn (Room 0.016). The event will take place from 14:00 to 16:00 (Europe/Berlin).

About the AI Colloquium

The AI Colloquium, organized by the Lamarr Institute, the Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security (RC Trust) and the Center for Data Science & Simulation at TU Dortmund University (DoDas), provides a platform for leading researchers to present groundbreaking work in the field of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. These 90-minute sessions, unlike other colloquia, focus on interactive dialog and international collaboration and include one-hour lectures and 30-minute Q&A sessions. The colloquium will be held mainly in English. The hybrid format of the colloquium ensures that all interested parties can participate either in person or online via Zoom.

About the Talk

In this talk, Prof. Johnson will present recent work on handling uncertainty in dynamics and contact conditions. The goal is both to reduce uncertainty where possible and to develop strategies that do not require perfect knowledge of the world state. Specifically, the talk will cover results on learning off-road driving in novel environments, walking control for legged robots moving through vegetation, and modeling uncertainty in hybrid dynamical systems.

About the Speaker

Aaron M. Johnson is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with additional appointments in the Robotics Institute and Electrical & Computer Engineering departments. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. His research interests are in hybrid systems, state estimation, control, learning, legged robots, and field robotics. He is an ASME Fellow and the recipient of the NSF Career award, the ARO Young Investigator Award, and the Best Paper award at the ICRA Workshop on Legged Robots, among other awards. For the 2025-2026 school year, he is a Visiting Professor and Hans Fischer Fellow at Technical University of Munich (TUM). 

Dr.Brendan Balcerak Jackson

Managing Director to the profile