Living and Working With Robots

 

The widespread use of service robots has been predicted to be “just around the corner” for decades. 
This project seeks to overcome the prevailing technical and social hurdles to deploying these robots by building and studying them in communities where they will be used rather than just in laboratories and warehouses. The team will begin its work designing robots for use on UT Austin’s campus in university libraries and other facilities. The goal is to design these robots in a way that upholds human values, does not cause unintentional harm, and improves campus quality of life and productivity. With these elements in place, this project will help create a new model for human-machine partnerships.
 

Team Members

Luis Sentis
Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

News

A CoBot MoMa robot hands a student a mug in a simulated apartment at UT Austin while a professor and a fellow student look on and smile.
Sept. 3, 2026
Samuel Baker Helps Launch UT's $30 Million NSF Robot Center

The Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation grew out of Good Systems, where Baker has co-led the "Living and Working with Robots" project since 2022.

Joydeep Biswas, an associate professor of computer science who will lead the team awarded the NSF grant, sits on a couch smiling, flanked by two robots. On his right, a service robot with a cylindrical base lays its mechanical arm on Biswas' shoulder; to Biswas' left is a robot dog facing him, standing on all four legs.
Aug. 27, 2026
UT to Lead NSF Center That Will Study How Robots and People Learn to Live and Work Together

Led by UT Austin, the forthcoming Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation will bring together 39 researchers from six universities and multiple industry partners to establish a new science of “human-robot co-adaptation” — how people and robots learn from one another and adjust their behavior over long periods in everyday settings. The center grew from Living and Working With Robots, one of Good Systems' core projects, which helped lay the foundation for the new center through its interdisciplinary, values-driven approach to studying human-robot interaction.

Computer Science department chair Peter Stone moderates a panel discussion about the future of AI, machine learning and robotics at the inaugural Texas Symposium on Machine Learning, Responsible AI, and Robotics. Seated next to him, left to right: Good Systems chair Ken Fleischmann, Texas Robotics director José del R. Millán and Machine Learning Lab director Adam Klivans.
March 20, 2026
Leaders in AI, Robotics and Ethical Innovation Come Together at UT Austin

In March, more than 600 leaders in academia, industry, government, nonprofits and the greater Austin community gathered at UT Austin for the inaugural Texas Symposium on Machine Learning, Responsible AI, and Robotics — organized in partnership by Texas Robotics, the Machine Learning Lab and Good Systems.

Videos

Documents

Browse articles, papers, and other outputs from this project.

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Challenge
Good Systems