Seminar: Robot Navigation and Mapping with Learning and Sensor Fusion, 18th April, 4:00pm

When: Thursday 18th of April, 4:00pm AEST

Where: This seminar will be partially presented at the ACFR seminar area, J04 lvl 2 (Rose St Building) and partially online via Zoom. RSVP

Speaker: AProf Maurice Fallon

Title: Robot Navigation and Mapping with Learning and Sensor Fusion

Abstract:

In this talk I will focus on multi-sensor state estimation and 3D mapping methods for dirty, dark and dusky environments – underground mines, natural environments such as forests and construction sites. Fusing vision, inertial, lidar and kinematic sensing creates a variety of algorithmic challenges but also promises redundancy and complementarity. Additionally by leveraging learning, a robot can better understand its surroundings through semantic mapping and avoid degenerate failure modes. Field results will be demonstrated using quadrupeds, drones and handheld mapping systems.

Bio:

Maurice Fallon is an Associate Professor at University of Oxford. He leads the Dynamic Robot Systems Group which focuses on perception, mapping and navigation and focuses on dynamic robots (quadrupeds, handheld systems and drones). Originally from Ireland, Maurice did his PhD on audio source tracking in at the University of Cambridge. He was a post doc working on marine navigation in John Leonard’s Marine Robotics Group after that. From 2012-2015 he was the perception lead of MIT’s team in the DARPA Robotics Challenge developing state estimation algorithms for the Boston Dynamics Atlas robot. He moved to Oxford in 2017 to take up a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He has been a PI on several large UK and EU collaborative projects including deploying platforms measuring radiation maps of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, exploring mines and creating digital models of forests.