2025 ARC Annual Review

Welcome! The Automotive Research Center presents this event to bring together members of the automotive research community from across academia, government and industry to share our latest research developments. It is an opportunity to share ideas, discuss Army-relevant efforts, and to leverage and transfer our efforts to industry.

Agenda

2025 Day 1 - June 17

8:00 AM	Light breakfast Foyer
9:00	Welcome Towsley Auditorium Dr. Bogdan Epureanu and Dr. David Gorisch Opening Remarks Prof. Arthur Lupia, Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation, U of M
9:20	Keynote Towsley Auditorium From Lab to Warfighter Faster: Methods and Partners for Transition BG Scott Meyers, Assistant Adjutant General - Initiatives, Michigan National Guard
9:55	State of the ARC Towsley Auditorium Dr. Bogdan Epureanu, ARC Director Dr. David Gorisch, Chief Scientist, US Army DEVCOM GVSC
10:20	Break, light refreshments
10:40	Case Study 1 Towsley Auditorium Forging Further with Foliar Foresight: Perception and Planning for Autonomous Navigation through Vegetated Terrains
11:20	Case Study 2 Towsley Auditorium From Pixels to Paths: Tensor Network-Driven Behavioral Cloning for Autonomous Vehicles in Virtual Environments
12:00 PM	Group photo before lunch Towsley Auditorium Lunch Foyer
1:30	Technical Session 1 Towsley Auditorium \| ML 103/123 \| ML 105/121
3:10 - 5:30	ARC Technology Showcase - Posters and Networking Foyer

2025 Day 2 - June 18

8:00 AM	Light breakfast Foyer
9:00	Welcome Towsley Auditorium Dr. Bogdan Epureanu and Dr. David Gorisch Opening Remarks Mr. Michael Cadieux, Director, US Army DEVCOM GVSC
9:20	Keynote Towsley Auditorium Defense Economics Drives Digital Design and Opportunity For the Knowledgeable and Creative Dr. Bruce D. Jette, President & CEO, Innvistra LLC
9:55	Debate Towsley Auditorium Digital Engineering: Zero Shot or Zero Chance? This dynamic debate will explore the transformative potential of digital engineering in the domain of ground vehicle systems, with a focus on innovation, feasibility, and long-term impact. Our distinguished debaters will assume roles at the two extreme positions to defend: either "Zero Shot"—championing the idea that digital engineering is poised for immediate and radical success, or "Zero Chance"—arguing that digital engineering faces insurmountable challenges and is unlikely to deliver on its promises. Prof. Jian Cao, NAE member, Assoc. VP for Research, Northwestern University COL Ryan A. Howell, Ph.D., PM Abrams, PEO GCS COL Jeffrey Jurand, PM Maneuver Combat Systems, PEO GCS Prof. Alan Taub, NAE member, Robert H. Lurie Professor of Engineering, U of M
10:55	Break, light refreshments
11:00	Technical Session 2 Towsley Auditorium \| ML 103/123 \| ML 105/121
12:10 PM	Break (for transition to Auditorium)
12:15	Awards & Lunch Towsley Auditorium Announcing Winners of Best Student Poster Competition Announcing Recipient of ARC Excellence in Research Award (ARC-ERA)

Technical Talks Matrix

The Technical Talks allow ARC projects to report on their research goals and outcomes. Each talk will consist of a 15-minute presentation followed by 5-minute for Q&A.

2025 Day 1 - June 17

Technical Session 1

	1A: Perception and Planning Session Chairs: Jon Smereka, Parasmothy Jayakumar (GVSC) Towsley Auditorium	1B: Human-Autonomy Interactions Session Chair: Victor Paul (GVSC) ML 103/123	1C: Materials and Structures Session Chair: Katie Sebeck (GVSC) ML 105/121
1:30	Project 1.38, PI: Carruth Robust Perception in Adverse Conditions: Detecting, Diagnosing, and Recovering from Camera Occlusions	Project 2.17, PIs: Tilbury, Robert Adapting Robot Communication to Estimated Situation Awareness Improves Performance in Human-Robot Teams	Project 3.19, PI: Lu, Epureanu, Popa Intelligent Ultrasound to Adaptively Control Interfacial Properties and Reactions
1:50	Project 1.39, PI: Al Faruque Adaptive and Efficient Perception for Autonomous Ground Vehicles Operating in Highly Stochastic Environments under Sensing Uncertainties	Project 2.18, PI: Kim Task Allocation and Communication Strategies in Human-AI Teaming: An Empirical Investigation Using Dual-Task Simulation	Project 3.23, PI: KW Wang Adaptive Structures with Embedded Autonomy for Advancing Ground Vehicles
2:10	Project 1.40, PI: Goodin Touch-based Sensing for Evaluating Vegetation in Complex Navigation Environments	Project 2.19, PIs: Barton, Vermillion Who’s The Boss? Understanding Human-Autonomy in Shared Driving Applications	Project 3.24, PI: Valdevit, Apelian Additively Manufactured All-metallic Metamaterial Solutions for Protection of Electronic Systems in Autonomous Vehicles
2:30	Project 1.41, PIs: Ersal, Epureanu Resilient Trajectory Planning for Extreme Mobility on Challenging Slopes	Project 2.20, PIs: Carruth, Bethel Multi-Directional Reliance and Effective Collaborative Human-Autonomy Teaming	Project 3.27, PIs: Veerapaneni, Stokes Quantum Computing Innovation for Off-Road Mobility
2:50 - 3:10	Project 1.42, PI: Vasudevan Hybrid Learning-based Policy for High-Speed Autonomous Off-Road Navigation	Project 2.21, PIs: Tilbury, Robert Human-Autonomy Collaboration for Escaping Local Minima	-

2025 Day 2 - June 18

Technical Session 2

	2A: Digital Engineering and Multi-Agent Systems Session Chair: Matt Castanier (GVSC) Towsley Auditorium	2B: Human-Autonomy Interactions Session Chair: Victor Paul (GVSC) ML 103/123	2C: Terramechanics Session Chair: Katie Sebeck (GVSC) ML 105/121
11:10	Project 5.21, PI: Parsa Multi-Phase Vector Symbolic Architectures for Distributed and Collective Intelligence in Multi-Agent Autonomous Systems	Project 2.22, PI: Yue Wang Preference-based Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning for Human-Robot Collaborative Bounding Overwatch	Project 3.20, PI: Sugiyama Modeling of a Ground Vehicle Operating in Shallow Water
11:30	Project 5.22, PI: Vlahopoulos Detecting Elusive Faults in ROS2 Systems using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm	Project 2.23, PI: Gorodetsky Incremental tensor decompositions for discovering low-dimensional latent spaces and their applications for generative modeling	Project 3.22, PIs: Sandu, Yerro-Colom Terramechanics of Saturated Clays: Assessing Tire Performance Through Experimental and Numerical Approaches
11:50 - 12:10	Project 5.23, PI: Epureanu A Hierarchical Transformer Approach to Automate Co-Design of Vehicle Attributes and their Team Operations	Project 2.A98, PI: Louie Exploring the Influence of Embodiment on Data and Conversation Quality for Virtual Agent Interviewers	Project 3.25, PI: Sugiyama Machine Learning-Augmented Multi-Fidelity Tire-Soil Interaction Model for Autonomous Off-Road Mobility Prediction

Poster Session

Every ongoing ARC project contributes to the poster session. It is an excellent opportunity to interact with researchers and network.

1.38 Recognizing and Reconstructing Distorted and Obscured Perceptual Sensor Data Resulting from Soiling of the Sensor

1.39 Adaptive and Efficient Perception for Autonomous Ground Vehicles Operating in Highly Stochastic Environments under Sensing Uncertainties

1.40 Predicting Vegetation Override Forces for Path Planning in Off-Road Terrain

1.41 Resilient Trajectory Planning for Extreme Mobility on Challenging Slopes

1.42 Hybrid Learning-based Policy for High-Speed Autonomous Off-Road Navigation

1.43 Enhancing Fault Tolerance and Resilience in Autonomous Ground Vehicles through Detection and Diagnosis of Physical and Digital Attacks on Perception Systems

2.17 Adaptive Communication based on Estimated Situation Awareness Improves Performance in Human-Robot Teams

2.18 Task Allocation and Communication Strategies in Human-AI Teaming: An Empirical Investigation Using Dual-Task Simulation

2.19 Who’s The Boss? Understanding Human-Autonomy in Shared Driving Applications

2.20 A Shared Meta-Model Framework to Enable Multi-Directional Reliance for Effective Collaborative Human-Autonomy Teaming

2.21 SA-AHI: Situation Awareness and Adaptive Human Intervention

2.22 Preference-based Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning for Human-Robot Collaborative Bounding Overwatch

2.23 Gamified scenario generation at scale: Tensor Networks to reduce the cost of training generative models

2.24 Multimodal Real-Time Cognitive Load and Emotional State Detection for Human-Machine Interactive Formations

2.25 Dynamic allocation of information through auditory, visual, and haptic interfaces to minimize cognitive burden and maximize performance during crew-AI teaming

2.26 Shared Mental Models Improve Performance in Human-Robot Teams During Unforeseen Events

2.A97_1 Behavioral Cloning of Realistic Autonomy Models

2.A97_2 Supporting Data Analysis of Virtual Experimentation

2.A97/A98 Exploring the Influence of Embodiment on Data and Conversation Quality for Virtual Agents

3.19 Intelligent ultrasound to adaptively control interfacial properties and reactions

3.20 Modeling of a ground vehicle operating in shallow water

3.22 Tire-Mud Interactions - Modeling and Experimental Validation

3.23 Adaptive Structures with Embedded Autonomy for Advancing Ground Vehicles

3.24 Additively manufactured all-metallic metamaterial solutions for protection of electronic systems in autonomous vehicles

3.25 Machine Learning-Augmented Multi-Fidelity Tire-Soil Interaction Model for Autonomous Off-Road Mobility Prediction

3.27 Tackling complementarity problem at scale via continuous-variable quantum computing

3.A116 Electrochemical Performance of Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Using Optimized Graphitic Carbon Nitride as the Sulfur Host

3.A117 High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells

3.A118 Structural Integrity Assessment of Army Ground Vehicle Structures for Predictive Maintenance

4.37 Risk Averse Vehicle Signature Management And Control To Enable Silent Mobility/Watch

5.21 Brain Inspired Probabilistic Occupancy Grid Mapping with Hyperdimensional Computing

5.22 Detecting Elusive Faults in Autonomous Systems Using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm

5.23 Automated Co-Design of Vehicles and their Teaming Operations for Optimal Off-Road Performance

5.24 LLM-Enabled Operation Management of Multi-Agent Systems

5.25 Contested Logistics: A DDDAS Framework with Dynamic Bayesian Belief Networks

IE.04 From Pixels to Paths: Tensor Network-Driven Behavioral Cloning for Autonomous Vehicles in Virtual Environments

IE.06 Virtual Engineering Evaluation Tests (VEET) for Autonomous Vehicle Testing