Autonomous Functions for Smart Cars. The aim of this project is to develop autonomous functions for smart cars, such as lane departure warning, driver fatigue warning, and automatic lane following. Every year 70,000 people are killed in road accidents, 95% of which can be attributed to driver error. The potential outcomes of this project therefore significant. Many of the theoretical methods required for this project have been developed by our group. However, further theoretical refinements fo ....Autonomous Functions for Smart Cars. The aim of this project is to develop autonomous functions for smart cars, such as lane departure warning, driver fatigue warning, and automatic lane following. Every year 70,000 people are killed in road accidents, 95% of which can be attributed to driver error. The potential outcomes of this project therefore significant. Many of the theoretical methods required for this project have been developed by our group. However, further theoretical refinements followed by experimental verification is necessary. For smart cars to be accepted, the systems must be demonstrated to be reliable and to operate in a wide range of conditions.Read moreRead less
Exploiting the Symmetry of Spatial Awareness for 21st Century Automation. This project aims to enable autonomous robotic systems to operate more robustly and more reliably in the complex, cluttered and dynamic environments found in real-world applications. Applying the latest understanding of symmetry in non-linear systems and control provides tools that can be used to develop new design methodologies for spatial awareness algorithms. The outcomes of this project should increase Australia's ca ....Exploiting the Symmetry of Spatial Awareness for 21st Century Automation. This project aims to enable autonomous robotic systems to operate more robustly and more reliably in the complex, cluttered and dynamic environments found in real-world applications. Applying the latest understanding of symmetry in non-linear systems and control provides tools that can be used to develop new design methodologies for spatial awareness algorithms. The outcomes of this project should increase Australia's capacity in high-tech systems and deliver world best open source code for spatial awareness problems to enable the next generation of automation in Australia.Read moreRead less
Image Based Visual Servo Control of Dynamic Under-Actuated Systems. The project builds on earlier work on visual servo control of under-actuated rigid body dynamics to develop and implement sophisticated and robust image based visual servo control for a wide class of under-actuated and fully actuated dynamic systems. The scope of the project extends far beyond basic testing of preliminary results to address key technical issues facing visual servo control algorithms at this time. The project i ....Image Based Visual Servo Control of Dynamic Under-Actuated Systems. The project builds on earlier work on visual servo control of under-actuated rigid body dynamics to develop and implement sophisticated and robust image based visual servo control for a wide class of under-actuated and fully actuated dynamic systems. The scope of the project extends far beyond basic testing of preliminary results to address key technical issues facing visual servo control algorithms at this time. The project is strongly motivated by the host of emerging applications for visual servo control of unmanned aerial vehicles. The experimental program within the project is based on control of a four rotor VTOL `hoverbot'.Read moreRead less
Lifelong robotic navigation using visual perception. Service robots are becoming a major part of our working and personal environments, in much the same way as personal computers already have. This project will develop new methods of practical and useful robot navigation that will enable Australia's industries and services to remain internationally competitive.
Cost-effective autonomous systems for large scale monitoring of marine protected areas. This project seeks to develop autonomous technologies that will enable Australia's expanding system of marine protected areas (MPAs) to more effectively preserve marine biodiversity and long term ecosystem function through scalable, cost-effective monitoring. Monitoring will enable MPA managers to assess whether preservation and sustainability goals are being met and to adapt zoning policies in response. Au ....Cost-effective autonomous systems for large scale monitoring of marine protected areas. This project seeks to develop autonomous technologies that will enable Australia's expanding system of marine protected areas (MPAs) to more effectively preserve marine biodiversity and long term ecosystem function through scalable, cost-effective monitoring. Monitoring will enable MPA managers to assess whether preservation and sustainability goals are being met and to adapt zoning policies in response. Australia will benefit from informed sustainable use policies that preserve the marine environment for future generations without unnecessarily restricting recreational and commercial access today.Read moreRead less
Learning Robotic Navigation and Interaction from Object-based Semantic Maps. Our project aims to develop new learning algorithms that enable robots to perform high-complexity tasks that are currently impossible. Compared to existing methods that rely on low-level sensor data, we aim to achieve this by learning from a high-level graph representation of the environment that captures semantics, affordances, and geometry. The outcome would be robots capable of using human instructions to efficiently ....Learning Robotic Navigation and Interaction from Object-based Semantic Maps. Our project aims to develop new learning algorithms that enable robots to perform high-complexity tasks that are currently impossible. Compared to existing methods that rely on low-level sensor data, we aim to achieve this by learning from a high-level graph representation of the environment that captures semantics, affordances, and geometry. The outcome would be robots capable of using human instructions to efficiently learn complex interaction and navigation behaviours that transfer to unseen environments. Our research should benefit new applications in domains of economic and societal importance that are currently too complex, unsafe, and uncertain for robot assistants, such as aged care, advanced manufacturing and domestic robotics.Read moreRead less
Active Visual Navigation in an Unexplored Environment. This project will develop a new method for robotic navigation in which goals can be specified at a much higher level of abstraction than has previously been possible. This will be achieved using deep learning to make informed predictions about a scene layout, and navigating as an active observer in which the predictions informs actions. The outcome will be robotic agents capable of effective and efficient navigation and operation in previous ....Active Visual Navigation in an Unexplored Environment. This project will develop a new method for robotic navigation in which goals can be specified at a much higher level of abstraction than has previously been possible. This will be achieved using deep learning to make informed predictions about a scene layout, and navigating as an active observer in which the predictions informs actions. The outcome will be robotic agents capable of effective and efficient navigation and operation in previously unseen environments, and the ability to control such agents with more human-like instructions. Such capabilities are desirable, and in some cases essential, for autonomous robots in a variety of important application areas including automated warehousing and high-level control of autonomous vehicles. Read moreRead less
Visual Tracking: Geometric Fitting and Filtering. One of the most elementary things that people and sighted animals do is to follow moving objects with their eyes. Movement is a cue to the importance and relevance of objects in a scene. Visually tracking objects allows the determination of important characteristics - distance to the object, shape of the object, likely behaviour of the object etc. Though systems have been built that can perform visual tracking: accuracy and reliability must be i ....Visual Tracking: Geometric Fitting and Filtering. One of the most elementary things that people and sighted animals do is to follow moving objects with their eyes. Movement is a cue to the importance and relevance of objects in a scene. Visually tracking objects allows the determination of important characteristics - distance to the object, shape of the object, likely behaviour of the object etc. Though systems have been built that can perform visual tracking: accuracy and reliability must be improved though a better understanding of the underlying processes. Applications include visual inspection (industrial automation), surveillance (civil and military), robot vision for scene understanding and navigation, multimedia production (automatic human motion capture for example), and human computer interfaces.
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Advancing Human–robot Interaction with Augmented Reality. This research aims to advance emerging human-robot interaction (HRI) methods, creating novel and innovative, human-in-the-loop communication, collaboration, and teaching methods. The project expects to support the creation of new applications for the growing wave of assistive robotic platforms emerging in the market and de-risk the integration of collaborative robotics into industrial production. Expected outcomes include methods and tool ....Advancing Human–robot Interaction with Augmented Reality. This research aims to advance emerging human-robot interaction (HRI) methods, creating novel and innovative, human-in-the-loop communication, collaboration, and teaching methods. The project expects to support the creation of new applications for the growing wave of assistive robotic platforms emerging in the market and de-risk the integration of collaborative robotics into industrial production. Expected outcomes include methods and tools developed to allow smart leveraging of the different capacities of humans and robots. This should provide significant benefits allowing manufacturers to capitalize on the high skill level of Australian workers and bring more complex high-value manufactured products to market. Read moreRead less
Human Cues for Robot Navigation. The world has many navigational cues for the benefit of humans: sign posts, maps and the wealth of information on the internet. Yet, to date, robotic navigation has made little use of this abundant symbolic information as a resource. This project will develop a robot navigation system that can navigate using information beyond the robot's range sensors by incorporating knowledge gained by reading room labels, following human route directions or interpreting maps ....Human Cues for Robot Navigation. The world has many navigational cues for the benefit of humans: sign posts, maps and the wealth of information on the internet. Yet, to date, robotic navigation has made little use of this abundant symbolic information as a resource. This project will develop a robot navigation system that can navigate using information beyond the robot's range sensors by incorporating knowledge gained by reading room labels, following human route directions or interpreting maps found on the web. This project will demonstrate the robot's navigation ability by comparing its performance with a human as it learns to find its way around campus by asking for directions, reading signs and maps, and searching the internet for clues.Read moreRead less