Videos -

QUT and Centre researchers have developed Harvey the robotic capsicum (red pepper) harvester, a new agricultural robot prototype designed to robotically identify and harvest capsicums. Harvey’s robotic arm has a camera and a unique cutting tool attached. Using data from the camera, the robot creates a 3D model of each fruit and its surroundings and plans and controls the robotic arm and cutting tool as they locate and detach the fruit.

Check out our 2017 Robotic Vision Summer School (RVSS) held annually at ANU’s Kioloa Campus. Register your interest now for 2018!

“Sharkcano.” It’s not the title of some campy summer blockbuster, but rather a real-world phenomenon that went viral in 2015, when scientists on a National Geographic expedition found sharks living inside one of the most active underwater volcanoes on Earth.

Not surprisingly, the team was eager to go back and learn more, but how do you explore an environment that could easily kill you? You send in robots, of course.

Among those featured in the video is Centre Chief Investigator Matt Dunbabin (QUT).

The Semantic Representation program is one of five major programs taking place inside the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision. Program Leader Stephen Gould (ANU) describes the various areas of research going on in the program, and how they work together to help robots better “understand” their environment.

Members from the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision competed at the Amazon Picking Challenge at RoboCup 2016 in Germany. Team members talk about the challenge, what it was like to compete in it, and what they learned from it all.

Published on Aug 27, 2016

Robots dancing with a human at this QUT Creative Industries event

Robotics and big data are transforming jobs, advancing technologies and disrupting every sector of the economy. QUT researchers are at the forefront of this transformation in agriculture. Their agricultural robot, AgBot II, and robotic capsicum harvester, Harvey, are part of a new generation of agricultural machines.

QUT’s AgBot II prototype is equipped with cameras, sensors and software and is designed to work in autonomous groups to navigate, detect and classify weeds and manage them either chemically or mechanically as well as apply fertilizer for site specific crop management. AgBot II is currently being trialled in the field. Associate Investigator Tristan Perez, Research Affiliate Chris McCool and QUT researchers talk about the project.

Anja Taylor from ABC TV’s Catalyst program joins QUT researchers Centre Chief Investigator Dr Matthew Dunbabin and Research Fellow Feras Dayoub as they test their COTSbot robot on the Great Barrier Reef. The COTSbot is designed to control highly destructive crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.

QUT roboticists have developed the world’s first robot designed to seek out and control the Great Barrier Reef’s crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), which are responsible for an estimated 40 per cent of the reef’s total decline in coral cover. The COTSbot completed its first sea trials this week in Queensland’s Moreton Bay to test its mechanical parts and navigation system.

Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci) are described as one of the most significant threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Since the 1960’s, land-based nutrient runoff has accelerated outbreaks of COTS which are destroying large areas of reef. With few natural predators, traditional control of COTS required manually injecting the starfish in excess of 10 times with a biological agent. In 2014, a new agent was released, which was developed by the James Cook University (JCU) requiring only one injection per starfish. This advancement provided the stimulus for us to revisit automated (robotic) COTS population control and monitoring.

The intention of COTSbot is to provide a proof-of-concept robotic system that consolidates prior and ongoing research into image-based COTS detection, robotic vision, manipulator control, and shallow water Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) design, navigation and control, to directly facilitate COTS reduction. This multi-stage project will validate and demonstrate AUV performance to stakeholders and ensure the system components are a useful and flexible enabling foundation technology for environmental monitoring beyond the problem of COTS control.

This work presents a novel vision-based underwater robotic system for the identification and control of Crown-Of-Thorns starfish (COTS) in coral reef environments. COTS have been identified as one of the most significant threats to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. These starfish literally eat coral, impacting large areas of reef and the marine ecosystem that depends on it. Evidence has suggested that land-based nutrient runoff has accelerated recent outbreaks of COTS requiring extensive use of divers to manually inject biological agents into the starfish in an attempt to control population numbers. Facilitating this control program using robotics is the goal of our research.

QUT’s Agricultural Robot, AgBot II, is a new robot fully designed and fabricated at QUT by our team of researchers and engineers. AgBot II is expected to play a vital role in the day-to-day operation of future farms. In this video we can see the fabrication of the robot, which took two weeks.

A short video of the official launch of the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision (ACRV), held at QUT in Brisbane (Australia) on Monday 9th March 2015.