Nobel Prize in Physics
Speaker: Dr Andrew Doherty (University of Queensland)
Date: 30th October 2009
July 27th, 2009
Upcoming Colloquia
Big Toys - Thinking for Themselves
Speaker: Dr Ben Upcroft (University of Queensland)
Date: 6th November 2009
I will present some of the robots that I have worked on over the years
which I tend think of as toys to satisfy the inner kid in me. These
robots include aircraft, amphibious all terrain ground vehicles,
commercial vehicles such as a Toyota Rav 4, and mining vehicles such
as haul trucks and shovels. I will also describe how some of these
robots work and how they think. My major focus in research is
perception for robots i.e. how to build a representation of the world
so that the robot can make intelligent decisions in that world. I will
describe some of the techniques we use to build useful worlds using
vision and laser information. I will also describe some of the
decision making processes we use for these platforms. Finally, robots
are dangerously close to autonomously operating in civilian areas
including public transport, construction, mining, and in airspace for
monitoring purposes. I will touch on why this is dangerous and why
this is the major bottle neck for ubiquity of robots in the present
civilian market.
July 28th, 2009