Seminar: Task-Specific Camera Optimization with Simulation, 20th June, 1:00pm
When: Thursday 20th of June, 1:00pm 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: Chengyang Yan
Title: Task-Specific Camera Optimization with Simulation
Abstract:
The performance of robots in their applications heavily depends on the quality of sensory input. However, designing sensor payloads and their parameters for specific robotic tasks is an expensive process that requires well-established sensor knowledge and extensive experiments with physical hardware. With cameras playing a pivotal role in robotic perception, we introduce a novel end-to-end optimization approach for co-designing a camera with specific robotic tasks by combining derivative-free and gradient-based optimizers. The proposed method leverages recent computer graphics techniques and physical camera characteristics to prototype the camera in software, simulate operational environments and tasks for robots, and optimize the camera design based on the desired tasks in a cost-effective way. We validate the accuracy of our camera simulation by comparing it with physical cameras, and demonstrate the design of cameras with stronger performance than common off-the-shelf alternatives. Our approach supports the optimization of both continuous and discrete camera parameters, manufacturing constraints, and can be generalized to a broad range of camera design scenarios including multiple cameras and unconventional cameras. This work advances the fully automated design of cameras for specific robotics tasks.
Bio:
Chengyang Yan is a second year PhD student at the ACFR in the Robotic Imaging Group. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Sydney in 2022, then he joined the ACFR to pursue a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Donald Dansereau. Chengyang’s research focuses on developing novel camera design methods to benefit the performance of downstream perception tasks.