Biography
Lars Kunze is Professor in Safety for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the University of West England. Prior to this, he was a Departmental Lecturer in Robotics in the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) and the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford (where he is now a visiting fellow), and a Stipendiary Lecturer in Computer Science at Keble College. He is a Programme Fellow of the Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP) and a Co-Editor of the German Journal of Artificial Intelligence (KI Journal, Springer). At ORI, Lars leads the Cognitive Robotics Group (CRG).
Lars studied Cognitive Science (BSc, 2006) and Computer Science (MSc, 2008) at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and partly at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
He received his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, in 2014.
In May 2013, Lars was appointed as a Research Fellow in the Intelligent Robotics Lab at the School of Computer Science at Birmingham University.
In March 2017, he joined the Oxford Robotics Institute at Oxford University.
Research Interests
Lars' areas of expertise lie in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). His goal is to enable robots to understand their surroundings, to act autonomously, and to explain their own behaviour in meaningful human terms. To this end, his research concerns the design and development of fundamental AI techniques for autonomous robot systems. He focusses on the combination of knowledge representation, reasoning, machine learning, and robot perception; motivated by applications in complex, real-world environments.
Research Projects
- Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP), Sense-Assess-eXplain (SAX) Building trust in autonomous vehicles in challenging real-world driving scenarios. (https://ori.ox.ac.uk/projects/sense-assess-explain-sax/)
- EU H2020, Autonomous Decision Making in Very Long Traverses (ADE) Realising planetary rover systems with autonomous decision making capabilities in the context of opportunistic science missions. (https://www.h2020-ade.eu)
Research Group
Research Activity
- Programme Fellow of the Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP)
- Editor of the German Journal of Artificial Intelligence (KI Journal, Springer)
DPhil Supervision Interests
I am looking for DPhil students to join the Cognitive Robotics Group (CRG) at the Oxford Robotics Institute. I am open to supervising DPhil students with an interest in perception, inference, learning, and interaction.
Recent Publications
S-RAF: a simulation-based robustness assessment framework for responsible autonomous driving
Omeiza D, Somaiya P, Pattinson J-A, Ten Holter C, Stilgoe J et al. (2024), Proceedings of the 2024 AAAI Fall Symposia, 4(1), 89-96
BibTeX
@inproceedings{srafasimulation-2024/11,
title={S-RAF: a simulation-based robustness assessment framework for responsible autonomous driving},
author={Omeiza D, Somaiya P, Pattinson J-A, Ten Holter C, Stilgoe J et al.},
booktitle={AAAI Fall Symposium 2024},
pages={89-96},
year = "2024"
}
CERES: Critical-Event Reconstruction via Temporal Scene Graph Completion
Panagiotaki E, Pramatarov G, Kunze L & De Martini D (2024)
BibTeX
@misc{cerescriticalev-2024/10,
title={CERES: Critical-Event Reconstruction via Temporal Scene Graph Completion},
author={Panagiotaki E, Pramatarov G, Kunze L & De Martini D},
year = "2024"
}
NAR-*ICP: Neural Execution of Classical ICP-based Pointcloud Registration Algorithms
Panagiotaki E, De Martini D, Kunze L & Veli??kovi?? P (2024)
BibTeX
@misc{naricpneuralexe-2024/10,
title={NAR-*ICP: Neural Execution of Classical ICP-based Pointcloud Registration Algorithms},
author={Panagiotaki E, De Martini D, Kunze L & Veli??kovi?? P},
year = "2024"
}
What's missing from this picture? Ethical, legal, and practical challenges for autonomous-vehicle data-recorders
Ten Holter C, Kunze L, Pattinson J-A, Salvini P, Attias J et al. (2024), TAS '24: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
BibTeX
@inproceedings{whatsmissingfro-2024/9,
title={What's missing from this picture? Ethical, legal, and practical challenges for autonomous-vehicle data-recorders},
author={Ten Holter C, Kunze L, Pattinson J-A, Salvini P, Attias J et al.},
booktitle={2nd International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS 2024)},
year = "2024"
}
I can do anything with my AV data (but I won???t do that): public attitudes towards data recorders in self-driving cars
Pattinson J-A, Ten Holter C, Grieman K, Salvini P, Kunze L et al. (2024)
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icandoanythingw-2024/9,
title={I can do anything with my AV data (but I won???t do that): public attitudes towards data recorders in self-driving cars},
author={Pattinson J-A, Ten Holter C, Grieman K, Salvini P, Kunze L et al.},
booktitle={2nd International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS 2024)},
year = "2024"
}
OORD: the Oxford Offroad Radar Dataset
Gadd M, De Martini D, Bartlett O, Murcutt P, Towlson M et al. (2024), IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 25(11), 18779-18790
BibTeX
@article{oordtheoxfordof-2024/8,
title={OORD: the Oxford Offroad Radar Dataset},
author={Gadd M, De Martini D, Bartlett O, Murcutt P, Towlson M et al.},
journal={IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems},
volume={25},
pages={18779-18790},
publisher={IEEE},
year = "2024"
}
How well do drivers adapt to remote operation? Learning from remote drivers with on-road experience
Hardin B, Salvini P, Jirotka M & Kunze L (2024), 2024 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 23-28
BibTeX
@inproceedings{howwelldodriver-2024/7,
title={How well do drivers adapt to remote operation? Learning from
remote drivers with on-road experience},
author={Hardin B, Salvini P, Jirotka M & Kunze L},
booktitle={35th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV 2024)},
pages={23-28},
year = "2024"
}
On self-driving cars and its (broken?) promises. A case study analysis of the German Act on Autonomous Driving
Salvini P, Kunze L & Jirotka M (2024), Technology in Society, 78, 102628
BibTeX
@article{onselfdrivingca-2024/6,
title={On self-driving cars and its (broken?) promises. A case study analysis of the German Act on Autonomous Driving},
author={Salvini P, Kunze L & Jirotka M},
journal={Technology in Society},
volume={78},
number={102628},
pages={102628},
publisher={Elsevier BV},
year = "2024"
}
Real-time 3D semantic occupancy prediction for autonomous vehicles using memory-efficient sparse convolution
Sze S & Kunze L (2024), 00, 1286-1293
BibTeX
@inproceedings{realtimedsemant-2024/6,
title={Real-time 3D semantic occupancy prediction for autonomous vehicles using memory-efficient sparse convolution},
author={Sze S & Kunze L},
booktitle={2024 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)},
pages={1286-1293},
year = "2024"
}
RobotCycle: Assessing Cycling Safety in Urban Environments
Panagiotaki E, Reinmund T, Mouton S, Pitt L, Shanthini AS et al. (2024)
BibTeX
@misc{robotcycleasses-2024/6,
title={RobotCycle: Assessing Cycling Safety in Urban Environments},
author={Panagiotaki E, Reinmund T, Mouton S, Pitt L, Shanthini AS et al.},
year = "2024"
}
