Metareasoning for Robots : Adapting in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments

This book is a state of the art resource that robotics researchers and engineers can use to make their robots and autonomous vehicles smarter. Readers will be able to describe metareasoning, select an appropriate metareasoning approach, and synthesize metareasoning policies. Metareasoning for Robots adopts a systems engineering perspective in which metareasoning is an approach that can improve the overall robot or autonomous system, not just one component or subsystem. This book introduces key concepts, discusses design options for metareasoning approaches and policies, and presents approaches for testing and evaluation of metareasoning policies. After considering the conceptual design phase, it discusses how to implement metareasoning in the robot’s software architecture and how to synthesize metareasoning policies.  Every chapter has references to valuable works on robotics and metareasoning, and the book uses examples from the author’s own research andfrom other research groups to illustrate these ideas. In addition, this book provides links to books and papers for readers who wish to investigate these topics further.  

Jeffrey W. Herrmann, PhD., is a Professor at the University of Maryland, where he holds a joint appointment with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research. He is a member of Society of Catholic Scientists, IISE, ASME, and the Design Society. He is an associate editor for the ASME Journal of Autonomous Vehicles and Systems. In 2012 he and Gino Lim were the conference chairs for the Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference.Dr. Herrmann earned his B.S. in applied mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow from 1990 to 1993, he received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida. His dissertation investigated production scheduling problems motivated by semiconductor manufacturing. He held a post-doctoral research position in the Institute for Systems Research from 1993 to 1995.

Dr. Herrmann’s research, service, and teaching activities have established him as a leader in the following areas: (1) developing novel mathematical models to improve public health preparedness, (2) describing and modeling engineering design decision-making processes, and (3) using risk-based techniques to improve path planning for autonomous systems. Through February 2023, he has published over 140 journal papers and refereed conference papers and fifteen book chapters, co-authored an engineering design textbook, edited two handbooks, and authored a textbook on engineering decision making and risk management. Dr. Herrmann and his colleagues have been awarded over $34 million in research contracts and grants, including research awards from NSF, Amazon, the Naval Air Warfare Center, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Army Research Laboratory. He has advised over 50 Ph.D. dissertations and M.S. theses. In 2003, Dr. Herrmann received the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Jiri Tlusty Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award; in 2013, he was named a Diplomate of the Society for Health Systems. In 2016, his textbook won the IIE/Joint Publishers Book of the Year award.