Robustness in AI and robotics shows great promise if systems can transition from the lab to real-world environments, moving beyond the single-operator per robot paradigm. However, the unstructured nature of the real-world demands nuanced decision-making from robots. In this talk, Prof. Scherer will outline approaches, progress, and results in multi-modal sensing, nuanced perception inputs, navigation in difficult terrain, and extensions to multi-robot teams, as well as future research directions.