Dr. Usama Mehmood

Usama Mehmood works on runtime verification of Cyber-physical systems (CPS). Typically, CPSs are defined as physical and engineered systems, which are controlled and monitored by computers. In the design of such CPS, powerful techniques such as model predictive control or reinforcement learning approaches are increasingly being considered instead of traditional component design.  Despite high performance, such designs are difficult to formally prove correct.  Considering that many CPS are safety-critical systems, the motivation of his research is to devise new techniques for CPS safety assurances. He has applied his research on multi-agent robotic systems and smart grids. Apart from contributions in the field of runtime verification, he has also worked on swarm robotics. He has synthesized distributed controllers for dynamic robotic agents which are able to achieve a range of objectives including obstacle avoidance, target seeking, and predator avoidance while moving safely and cohesively.