SENSING - Robust Vision

Seeing Robustly: Research in Autonomous Vehicles, Construction, the Dark and more…

Speakers: Niko Suenderhauf, James Mount, Daniel Richards, Fan Zeng, Sean McMahon

The Robust Vision program is developing robotic vision algorithms and novel vision hardware to enable autonomous systems to see and act in all viewing conditions. The program is developing a suite of algorithms that enable robots to perceive their environments and consequently act purposefully under the incredible range of environmental conditions possible, including low light and rain, and is leveraging and developing innovative sensing systems to facilitate robot operation under all viewing conditions including novel camera filters and low light cameras. This talk will review some of the key research areas to date, progress and outcomes and discuss how research is being translated into funded industry applications.

• Overview: Michael Milford (pre-recorded)
• Improving Localization with Semantics: Niko Suenderhauf (representing PhD researcher Sourav Garg)
• Low Latency High Accuracy Positioning Systems: PhD researcher James Mount
• Low Light Sensing: PhD researcher Daniel Richards
• Positioning for Autonomous Mining Vehicles: Affiliated Postdoctoral researcher Fan Zeng
• Robust Hazard Detection: PhD researcher Sean McMahon

LEARNING - Visual Learning

Visual (Deep) Learning

Speaker: Vijay Kumar

The Visual Learning program has developed a large range of methodologies in the last couple of years.  From the RefineNet segmentation that helped our winning Amazon Picking Challenge team to the development of deep metric learning, weakly supervised learning, interaction recognition, text recognition in the wild, and unsupervised depth estimation.  We are now entering an exciting phase for the visual learning program, where we are actively seeking collaborations with other programs in order to develop a large range of methodologies that will help the centre achieve the goal of creating robots that see.  In this talk, we will discuss recent papers that have been published by our program and the challenging problems that we will be working during the second half of the life of the Centre.

ACTING - Vision and Action

How to visualise grasping the real-world - perhaps not literally.....

Speaker: Robert Mahony

The vision and action program is actively engaged in understanding advanced versions of the visual servo task through the work of Fangyi Zhang and Jurgen Leitner and the new work of Zheyu Zhang and Rob Mahony.  The Amazon Picking Challenge provides a prime example of state of the art vision guided servo control and it is clear that there is still a lot of progress to be made despite the success of the ACRV team.   The new horizon in this project is to start to tackle the question of manipulation beyond the reaching task and the research and we are looking forward to incorporating the vision of Valerio Ortenza in this.  In separate work in the program we are developing algorithms to identify highly dynamic scenes using visual flow (Cedric Scheerlinck), light field cameras (Dorian Tsai, Sean Obrien), and continuous version of SLAM (Rob Mahony/Jochen Trumpf/Viorela Ila).  This work is key in providing low latency, high resolution information to mobile robotic vehicles such as navigating quadrotors through complex environments (Jean-Luc Stevens).

UNDERSTANDING - Semantic Representations

Speaker: Ian Reid

TECHNOLOGY - Algorithms & Architecture

Speaker: Tom Drummond

Jon Roberts, Chief Investigator

Talk title: Design Robotics - working with designers, the arts and construction industries

Abstract: Over the past three years, robotics researchers (engineers) at QUT have been working with researchers from the Schools of Design, Music and Fashion. What started as a collaboration to develop robot shows that entertain people has now morphed into a major collaboration that has so far seen the creation of a major ($8M) IMCRC and industry project with other major projects in the pipeline. This talk will tell that story and explore why such collaborations are critical if we want to have major impact and why we must let go of the idea that us engineers are the only “robotics researchers”.

Sergiy Bogomolov, ANU

Talk title: Verification and AI Planning for Robotics

Abstract: Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are networks of physical and digital components and present a next generation of large-scale highly-interconnected networked embedded systems. On the one hand, CPS open enormous opportunities as they form the core of emerging smart devices and services which are going to revolutionize many traditional industries such as automotive, traffic management, power generation and delivery, as well as manufacturing. On the other hand, highly autonomous systems pose special engineering challenges as any unexpected behaviour might lead to large financial losses or even human deaths.

In this talk, we address this challenge and propose automatic techniques to analyze CPS. For this purpose, we use the concept of hybrid automata which has proven to be particularly useful to model CPS. We give an overview of techniques to ensure efficient analysis of hybrid automata. In particular, we present support-function based representation of region state space and discuss ways to refine it. Finally, we use the  autonomous driving scenario to showcase the connection between verification and hybrid planning as well as their possible applications in the robotics domain.

Bio: Sergiy Bogomolov is a Lecturer at the Australian National University. Prior to joining ANU Sergiy was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Sergiy is broadly interested in algorithms and techniques to support design and development workflow of trustworthy and resilient autonomous systems. For this purpose, he uses and develops techniques on the interface of cyber-physical systems verification and AI planning. In order to ensure his research has a lasting impact in the community, he actively pursues research collaborations and is supported by a number of agencies. These include Defense Science and Technology Group (Australia) and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (USA). His Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees are from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Mathilde Desselle, QUT

Breakfast forum: Women in STEM

Mathilde Desselle is our guest speaker for our Women in STEM breakfast forum at RoboVis 2017.

She is a project manager at QUT, working towards the establishment of the Herston Biofabrication Institute that will apply 3D imaging, modelling and printing to medicine. She is also an ABC Radio Brisbane Community Correspondent for science, and a Queensland Community Digital Champion. An award-winning biomedical research manager, she has 10 years’ experience driving strategic life sciences research initiatives in Europe and Australia, and is passionate with finding technology-based approaches to advance human health. She is a Board Director for the Tech Girls Movement foundation, promoting positive role models to encourage and raise awareness of STEM careers for girls. Previously, she served on the board of directors of Women in Technology for three years. She is a coordinator for the National Science Week “Catch a Rising Star: Women in Science in Regional QLD” program. Mathilde is the winner of the 2016 Women in Technology – InfoTech Professional Award, and holds a Masters of Business and Biotechnologies from the Catholic University of Lille, France, and a Masters of Economics and Management from the Littoral University of the Opal Coast, France.

Trent Lund, PwC Australia

Talk title: Emerging trends in Australia: Implications for robotics and vision

Abstract: Trent will share his observations on the state of innovation and emerging trends PwC are seeing in the national and international landscape. In particular Trent will share insights into Australian corporate segments and around the challenges they are seeking to solve with technology and the implications for robotics and vision.

Bio: Trent is the Lead Partner for Innovation & Digital Ventures at PwC Australia. He helps organisations leverage emerging technologies to transform ideas into customer-centered, commercial outcomes. With two decades of industry knowledge, Trent has worked across the globe – including in the Asia-Pacific, United Kingdom and the Middle East. He has worked in business consultancy and new ventures where innovation is leveraged to identify new sources of value. Trent is a member of the Centre’s End User Advisory Board.

Tat-Jun Chin, Chief Investigator

Talk title: Coresets for Geometric Vision Problems

Abstract: With the basic principles and algorithms of structure-from-motion well established, researchers have begun to consider large-scale reconstruction problems involving millions of input images. Such large-scale problems can arise from Internet-scale databases or long-term video observations in robotic exploration. The significant problem sizes involved compel practitioners to either use bigger computers (e.g., distributed computational architectures, GPU) to perform the required optimisation, or accept approximate solutions for the reconstruction; this talk focusses on the latter paradigm. Specifically, we discuss examples and the potential of coreset approximation schemes in geometric vision problems. A coreset is a small subset of the input data, such that solving the geometric problem on the coreset guarantees a bounded approximation error. This provides a theoretically justified approximation scheme for large-scale optimisation problems in geometric vision.

Matt Dunbabin, Chief Investigator

Talk title: Robot vision in the wild – challenges and opportunities of vision in natural environments

Jo Karabitsios, Evexia

Knowledge Leadership Workshop Facilitator

Jo Karabitsios is a registered Psychologist, working in both the clinical and organisational psychology domains. Jo works as an Executive Coach and Organisational Consultant, providing services to a wide range of individuals and groups from both the private and public sector. She has developed a thorough understanding of the array of difficulties and challenges faced by organisations in relation to team dynamics, well-being, change, risk management and psychosocial hazards and stressors.

Along with colleague David Whittingham from Evexia, Jo will continue her work with our early career researchers through the Centre’s Knowledge Leadership program, facilitating a day long workshop during RoboVis 2017.

David Whittingham, Evexia

Knowledge Leadership Workshop Facilitator

David Whittingham is a Workplace and Forensic Psychologist, working as a Workplace Consultant and Executive Coach in the private and public sectors. He has developed a thorough understanding of the risks and engagement drivers of team dynamics, well-being, change, and is well versed in risk management of psychosocial hazards and stressors, as well as neuro-diversity in workplaces.

Along with colleague Jo Karabitsios from Evexia, David will continue his work with our early career researchers through the Centre’s Knowledge Leadership program, facilitating a day long workshop during RoboVis 2017.

Kate Aldridge

RoboVis 2017 Coordinator

For any questions related to RoboVis 2017, contact Kate directly

Sarah Allen

RoboVis 2017 Coordinator

For any questions related to RoboVis 2017, contact Sarah directly

Sean McMahon

3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Coorindator

Sean won the award for best 3MT presenter at RoboVis 2016. This year, he will coordinate the round and invites any PhD researcher and Research Fellows interested in participating to contact him.

3MT Rules_RoboVis 2017

Chao Ma

Demo Session Coorindator

If you’d like to present a technical demonstration at RoboVis, contact Chao directly

Demo Session Guidelines_Robovis2017_FINAL

Viorela Ila

Poster Session Coordinator

Keen to present a research poster? For the first time this year, we’ll run a poster session at RoboVis. More details to follow soon. In the meantime, you can register your interest by contacting Viorela

Poster Session Guidelines_RoboVis2017_FINAL

Feras Dayoub

Session Chair

Feras will be there to start off our proceedings on Wednesday and ensure the program runs smoothly throughout the day, including introducing our speakers and keeping the presentations on time.

Valerio Ortenzi

Session Chair

Valerio will be there to start off our proceedings on Thursday and ensure the program runs smoothly throughout the day, including introducing our speakers and keeping the presentations on time.

Thuy Mai

Adelaide Node Administration Officer

Thuy Mai will coordinate flight arrangements for our Adelaide researchers. Contact Thuy

Sandra Pedersen

Monash Node Administration Officer

Sandra will coordinate flight arrangements for our Monash researchers. Contact Sandra

Carol Taylor

ANU Node Administration Officer

Carol will coordinate flight arrangments for our ANU researchers. Contact Carol

Peter Corke

Centre Director

Sue Keay

Chief Operating Officer