Biography
Professor Nick Hawes completed a BSc (1999) and PhD (2004) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Birmingham, before completing post-doctoral positions at MIT's Media Lab Europe in Dublin, and in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. From 2009, he led a research group around AI applied to robotics at Birmingham, progressing to the title of Reader in Autonomous Intelligent Robotics.
Nick moved to Oxford in September 2017, joining the Oxford Robotics Institute as an Associate Professor and Pembroke College as a Tutorial Fellow.
He became Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute within the Department of Engineering Science, in 2022.
Awards and Achievements
Nick was selected to give the Lord Kelvin Award Lecture at the 2013 British Science Festival. This honour is given to an active researcher who has demonstrated outstanding communication skills to a general audience.
Research Interests
Nick’s research interests lie in the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to create intelligent, autonomous robots that can work with or for humans. He has worked on long-term autonomy for mobile robots; mixed initiative or shared autonomy between humans and robots; information-processing architectures for intelligent systems; the integration of AI planning techniques into a variety of robot systems; and the use of qualitative semantic and spatial representations to enable robots to reason about the possibilities for action in their worlds.
Research Groups
DPhil Opportunities
I am currently looking for DPhil students to join the GOALS lab at the Oxford Robotics Institute. DPhil topics will be in the area of long-term autonomy, the integration of learning and (probabilistic) planning, shared autonomy, or verification methods applied to robot behaviour.
Recent Publications
Quantile-Coupled Flow Matching for Distributional Reinforcement Learning
Groom M, Darvariu V-A, Kunze L, Wilson J & Hawes N (2026)
BibTeX
@misc{quantilecoupled-2026/5,
title={Quantile-Coupled Flow Matching for Distributional Reinforcement Learning},
author={Groom M, Darvariu V-A, Kunze L, Wilson J & Hawes N},
year = "2026"
}
Failing Forward: Design and Deployment Lessons from Real-World Human-Robot Interaction
Tian L, Kirschbaum A, Neef C, Foster ME, Cooper S et al. (2026), 1384-1386
BibTeX
@inproceedings{failingforwardd-2026/3,
title={Failing Forward: Design and Deployment Lessons from Real-World Human-Robot Interaction},
author={Tian L, Kirschbaum A, Neef C, Foster ME, Cooper S et al.},
booktitle={Companion Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction},
pages={1384-1386},
year = "2026"
}
Risk-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Mobile Manipulation
Groom M, Wilson J, Hawes N & Kunze L (2026)
BibTeX
@misc{riskawarereinfo-2026/3,
title={Risk-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Mobile Manipulation},
author={Groom M, Wilson J, Hawes N & Kunze L},
year = "2026"
}
Wytham Woods
(2026)
BibTeX
@book{wythamwoods-2026/2,
title={Wytham Woods},
author={},
publisher={Oxford University PressNew York},
year = "2026"
}
Biodiversity research requires more motors in air, water and on land
Qi M, Gadd M, De Martini D, Davis KJ, Xiong B et al. (2025), Methods in Ecology and Evolution
BibTeX
@article{biodiversityres-2025/12,
title={Biodiversity research requires more motors in air, water and on land},
author={Qi M, Gadd M, De Martini D, Davis KJ, Xiong B et al.},
journal={Methods in Ecology and Evolution},
number={2041-210x.70217},
publisher={Wiley},
year = "2025"
}
Receding Horizon Control for Signal Temporal Logic Using Robustness-Conserving Partial Formula Evaluation
Ilyes R, Brudermüller L, Hawes N & Lacerda B (2025), IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10(10), 10775-10782
BibTeX
@article{recedinghorizon-2025/10,
title={Receding Horizon Control for Signal Temporal Logic Using Robustness-Conserving Partial Formula Evaluation},
author={Ilyes R, Brudermüller L, Hawes N & Lacerda B},
journal={IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
volume={10},
pages={10775-10782},
publisher={Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)},
year = "2025"
}
Multi-Agent Pickup and Delivery with Mobile Pickups
Flammini B, Hawes N & Lacerda B (2025), 00, 10525-10531
BibTeX
@inproceedings{multiagentpicku-2025/10,
title={Multi-Agent Pickup and Delivery with Mobile Pickups},
author={Flammini B, Hawes N & Lacerda B},
booktitle={2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
pages={10525-10531},
year = "2025"
}
Decremental Dynamics Planning for Robot Navigation
Lu Y, Xu T, Wang L, Hawes N & Xiao X (2025), 00, 4559-4565
BibTeX
@inproceedings{decrementaldyna-2025/10,
title={Decremental Dynamics Planning for Robot Navigation},
author={Lu Y, Xu T, Wang L, Hawes N & Xiao X},
booktitle={2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
pages={4559-4565},
year = "2025"
}
The complexity dynamics of grokking
DeMoss B, Sapora S, Foerster J, Hawes N & Posner I (2025), Physica D Nonlinear Phenomena, 134859
BibTeX
@article{thecomplexitydy-2025/8,
title={The complexity dynamics of grokking},
author={DeMoss B, Sapora S, Foerster J, Hawes N & Posner I},
journal={Physica D Nonlinear Phenomena},
pages={134859},
publisher={Elsevier},
year = "2025"
}
SafeMove: multi-model navigation for fail-resistant autonomous nuclear material transport
Marquez-Gamez D, Harrison M, Pilon C, Marwood R, Stephens S et al. (2025), WM2025 Conference Proceedings
BibTeX
@inproceedings{safemovemultimo-2025/6,
title={SafeMove: multi-model navigation for fail-resistant autonomous nuclear material transport},
author={Marquez-Gamez D, Harrison M, Pilon C, Marwood R, Stephens S et al.},
booktitle={51st Annual Waste Management Symposia (WM2025)},
year = "2025"
}
