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
Hierarchical planning for resource-constrained long-term monitoring missions in time-varying environments
Stephens R, Lacerda B & Hawes N (2024), ECAI 2024, 1214-1221
BibTeX
@inproceedings{hierarchicalpla-2024/10,
title={Hierarchical planning for resource-constrained long-term monitoring missions in time-varying environments},
author={Stephens R, Lacerda B & Hawes N},
booktitle={27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2024)},
pages={1214-1221},
year = "2024"
}
Planning under uncertainty for safe robot exploration using Gaussian process prediction
Stephens A, Budd M, Staniaszek M, Casseau B, Duckworth P et al. (2024), Autonomous Robots, 48(7)
BibTeX
@article{planningunderun-2024/8,
title={Planning under uncertainty for safe robot exploration using Gaussian process prediction},
author={Stephens A, Budd M, Staniaszek M, Casseau B, Duckworth P et al.},
journal={Autonomous Robots},
volume={48},
number={18},
publisher={Springer},
year = "2024"
}
A Transparency Paradox? Investigating the Impact of Explanation Specificity and Autonomous Vehicle Perceptual Inaccuracies on Passengers
Omeiza D, Bhattacharyya R, Jirotka M, Hawes N & Kunze L (2024)
BibTeX
@misc{atransparencypa-2024/8,
title={A Transparency Paradox? Investigating the Impact of Explanation Specificity and Autonomous Vehicle Perceptual Inaccuracies on Passengers},
author={Omeiza D, Bhattacharyya R, Jirotka M, Hawes N & Kunze L},
year = "2024"
}
Multi-robot allocation of assistance from a shared uncertain operator
Costen C, Gautier A, Hawes N & Lacerda B (2024), Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2024), 400-408
BibTeX
@inproceedings{multirobotalloc-2024/5,
title={Multi-robot allocation of assistance from a shared uncertain operator},
author={Costen C, Gautier A, Hawes N & Lacerda B},
booktitle={23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2024)},
pages={400-408},
year = "2024"
}
A framework for simultaneous task allocation and planning under uncertainty
Faruq F, Lacerda B, Hawes N & Parker D (2024), ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems, 19(4)
BibTeX
@article{aframeworkforsi-2024/5,
title={A framework for simultaneous task allocation and planning under uncertainty},
author={Faruq F, Lacerda B, Hawes N & Parker D},
journal={ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems},
volume={19},
number={21},
publisher={Association for Computing Machinery},
year = "2024"
}
Watching grass grow: long-term visual navigation and mission planning for autonomous biodiversity monitoring
Gadd M, De Martini D, Pitt L, Tubby W, Towlson M et al. (2024)
BibTeX
@misc{watchinggrassgr-2024/5,
title={Watching grass grow: long-term visual navigation and mission planning for autonomous biodiversity monitoring},
author={Gadd M, De Martini D, Pitt L, Tubby W, Towlson M et al.},
year = "2024"
}
One risk to rule them all: a risk-sensitive perspective on model-based offline reinforcement learning
Rigter M, Lacerda B & Hawes N (2024), Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 36 (NeurIPS 2023)
BibTeX
@inproceedings{onerisktoruleth-2024/2,
title={One risk to rule them all: a risk-sensitive perspective on model-based offline reinforcement learning},
author={Rigter M, Lacerda B & Hawes N},
booktitle={37th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2023)},
year = "2024"
}
Experimental drought reduces the productivity and stability of a calcareous grassland
Jackson J, Middleton S, Lawson C, Jardine E, Hawes N et al. (2024), Journal of Ecology, 112(4), 917-931
BibTeX
@article{experimentaldro-2024/2,
title={Experimental drought reduces the productivity and stability of a calcareous grassland},
author={Jackson J, Middleton S, Lawson C, Jardine E, Hawes N et al.},
journal={Journal of Ecology},
volume={112},
pages={917-931},
publisher={Wiley},
year = "2024"
}
Experimental drought reduces the productivity and stability of a calcareous grassland
Jackson J, Middleton S, Lawson C, Jardine E, Hawes N et al. (2024), Journal of Ecology, 112(4), 917-931
BibTeX
@article{experimentaldro-2024/2,
title={Experimental drought reduces the productivity and stability of a calcareous grassland},
author={Jackson J, Middleton S, Lawson C, Jardine E, Hawes N et al.},
journal={Journal of Ecology},
volume={112},
pages={917-931},
publisher={Wiley},
year = "2024"
}
Right place, right time: proactive multi-robot task allocation under spatiotemporal uncertainty
Street C, Lacerda B, M??hlig M & Hawes N (2024), Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 79, 137-171
BibTeX
@article{rightplaceright-2024/1,
title={Right place, right time: proactive multi-robot task allocation under spatiotemporal uncertainty},
author={Street C, Lacerda B, M??hlig M & Hawes N},
journal={Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research},
volume={79},
pages={137-171},
publisher={AI Access Foundation},
year = "2024"
}
