Charles C. Cossette - Machine Learning Engineer & Robotics Researcher

I am currently a Machine Learning Engineer at Waymo, where I work on world models for autonomous driving. Before that, I was at Zoox working on the autonomous vehicle's collision avoidance system. I previously completed my Ph.D. in Robotics with the DECAR Group at McGill university, under the supervision of James Forbes and David Saussié.

At Zoox, I developed algorithms that predict the motion of other agents/objects around the vehicle, and to correspondingly compute collision probabilities. During my PhD, our research focused on planning, estimation, and control algorithms for multi-robot teams. We specifically researched how to best use ultra-wideband radio to enable collaboration between robots.

Some things I've done

Fast and Accurate Collision Probability Estimation for Autonomous Vehicles using Adaptive Sigma-Point Sampling

From my work at Zoox. A paper on computing collision probabilities for generic dynamic objects, where their trajectories consist of Gaussian-distributed positions and orientations.

Optimal multi-robot formations for relative pose estimation using range measurements

A paper quantifying and describing how robots can put themselves in particular formations that will provide the best range-based relative positioning accuracy.

Relative position estimation between two UWB devices with IMUs

A paper describing a real-time algorithm for estimating the relative position between two robots, each possessing a single ultra-wideband transceiver, and a 9DOF inertial measurement unit.

PyMLG - Matrix Lie Groups in PyTorch, Jax, Numpy, and C++

Pure-static implementations in python for common matrix Lie groups. Their definition as pure-static classes makes usage ultra simple.

navlie - A python package for state estimation on Lie groups

A problem-agnostic state estimation library for robotics, containing a variety of ready-to-use algorithms.

High-powered Rocketry

An old passion of mine. As part of an engineering design team, I competed in international rocketry competitions, where the challenge was to design a rocket to hit a specific altitude with precision.