RoboCrab: An integrative approach to the natural ecology of decision making. The project aims to analyse and model the sophisticated and context-dependent escape behaviour of fiddler crabs under both natural conditions and in controlled laboratory settings. A crucial problem for biology is to understand how animals can make adaptive decisions in natural, complex sensory environments; such understanding also has direct application to robotics. The project plans to examine the effects of eye stabi ....RoboCrab: An integrative approach to the natural ecology of decision making. The project aims to analyse and model the sophisticated and context-dependent escape behaviour of fiddler crabs under both natural conditions and in controlled laboratory settings. A crucial problem for biology is to understand how animals can make adaptive decisions in natural, complex sensory environments; such understanding also has direct application to robotics. The project plans to examine the effects of eye stabilisation and oscillation, record from key neural stages using naturalistic stimuli to derive precise algorithms, and integrate and test the results on a robot model – RoboCrab. This may provide new insight into the integration of low-level sensory input with behavioural decision making circuits and the evolution of escape behaviours.Read moreRead less
Real-time signal processing and distributed robotic telescope networking for co-detection of gravitational waves and their optical counterparts. An international collaboration of scientists will employ a global network of telescopes and detectors to search for ripples in space-time. The project will use novel computational tools to study exotic phenomena in the distant Universe.
Advanced three-dimensional Computer Vision Algorithms for 'Find and Grasp' Future Robots. This project addresses crucial limitations of existing vision systems for the robot grasping of irregular objects in messy living environments. This project aims to undertake fundamental research into novel three-dimensional vision algorithms, exploiting multiple modalities (two-dimensional+three-dimensional+video) for scene labelling, object classification, scene segmentation and grasp synthesis to enable ....Advanced three-dimensional Computer Vision Algorithms for 'Find and Grasp' Future Robots. This project addresses crucial limitations of existing vision systems for the robot grasping of irregular objects in messy living environments. This project aims to undertake fundamental research into novel three-dimensional vision algorithms, exploiting multiple modalities (two-dimensional+three-dimensional+video) for scene labelling, object classification, scene segmentation and grasp synthesis to enable future robots to operate in unstructured environments with highly occluded and cluttered objects. It is expected to significantly advance research and to have broad applications, including home robotics to improve the quality of life of elders and people with special needs. These algorithms may also be used in security (explosive manipulation) and agriculture (field crop harvesting).Read moreRead less
A three dimensional video-based vision system for future robots. With the recent introduction of new three dimensional (3D) video sensors, opportunities for the development of advanced 3D vision systems for robots working in dynamic environments are now becoming possible. A real-time visual robotic system will be developed to substantially reduce the expensive costs associated with elder's health and home care expenses.