About this event

About this event

Australia is a large, sparsely populated, resource rich country a long way from anywhere; and is consequently the ideal place to do field robotics. The past decade has seen substantial technical development and investment in field robotics, especially in civilian applications such as cargo handling, mining, agriculture and marine environments; applications which are of central importance to the Australian economy. 

This talk will describe a number of technical advances in the areas of perception, large machine control, and systems engineering that have enabled significant progress in the -Yìscience¡ of field robotics and which have led to significant commercial developments especially in cargo handling, mining and marine systems.  

The talk will also aim to look forward to the next decade, what technical challenges need to be addressed and where the opportunities for future commercial developments will come from.

Biography

Hugh Durrant-Whyte received the B.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of London, U.K., in 1983, and the M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Systems Engineering, from the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1985 and 1986, respectively. From 1987 to 1995, he was a University Lecturer in Engineering Science, the University of Oxford, U.K. and a Fellow of Oriel College Oxford. Since 1995 he has been Professor of Mechatronic Engineering at University of Sydney. 

Achievements

He has been awarded two Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowships; in 2002 and 2007. His research work focuses on robotics and sensor networks. He has published over 350 research papers and has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, including the 2009 ATSE Clunes Ross Award, the 2007 IFR/IEEE Invention and Entrepreneurship Award, and four IEEE best paper awards. 

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE), a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). He was named the 2008 Professional Engineer of the Year by the Institute of Engineers Australia Sydney Division.

Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR)

Hugh Durrant-Whyte leads the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney. The ACFR comprises over 200 researcher staff and PhD students, is one of the largest engineering research group in Australia and is the largest Field Robotics group in the world. 

The ACFR incorporates the ARC Centre of Excellence in Autonomous Systems, the Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation, and the BAE Systems Strategic Partnership in Autonomous Systems. 

The ACFR is highly regarded for both research and its work with industry including automation in cargo handling, mining, defence, aerospace and marine systems. Hugh has also founded three successful start-up companies in the autonomous systems and sensor technology field.

Cost

This is a free public lecture

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