Research and development activities at CVRL address the following fundamental questions in an effort to arrive at robust solutions to corresponding theoretical, computational, and design problems.

Perceptual capabilities
What is the maximum information that a robot can extract by sensing its environment? More importantly, what is the actual information that a robot needs to extract from its environment in order to exhibit certain desired and possibly intelligent behaviors?

Robot behaviors and sensory-motor coordination
How should perceptual capabilities and control strategies be combined to obtain the desired robot behaviors? How should the characteristics of the environment and the mechanical properties of a robot be taken into account in this process?

Learning
How can a robot acquire skills in a developmental manner, through interaction with its environment? How can a robot accumulate experience, thus improving its acquired skills?