Robotic Systems Lab, Australian National University
Founded in October 1996, the Robotic Systems Lab (RSL), which is part of the Department of Systems Engineering of the Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering of the Australian National University, (ANU) has tackled research projects related to the R3 constraint, which is short for Real-robots working in the Real-world in Real-time.
Composed of a group with four academics, 3 research support staffs, 8 PhD students, 2 masters students and spearheaded by Professor Alex Zelinsky, the group’s main research fields are cooperative robot systems, mobile robot navigation, active vision, robot learning and human-robot/computer interaction.
The lab is also part of ANU’s Center for Visual Science, and has likewise established various projects, which include: mobile robots in collaboration with the Intelligent Robot Laboratory of the Tsukuba University, submersible robots with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics of the Sydney University, and the human-robot interaction with the Intelligent Systems Division of the Electrotechnical Laboratory.
In December of 2000, the Robotic Systems Lab launched its first ever start-up company, the Seeing Machines. This company was founded by several of RSL’s very own researchers and engineers. The company’s industrial research is being funded and supported by the Volvo Technological Development Corporation.
Among the multiple projects that the Robotic Systems Lab has undertaken includes Mobile Robotics projects, which aim not only to develop a robust and reliable mobile robot for long term operations, but also to develop a teleoperation interface allowing web based control in a lab environment.
Another project is the Intelligent Vehicle Project, which aims to develop an intelligent vehicle to do intelligent vehicle system research. RSL has also managed to build an autonomous submersible robot under its Autonomous Submersible Robot project. Through this project, the group aims to investigate fundamental issues of autonomous operation of underwater transportation. The lab has also researched the actuators based on Shape Memory Alloys, (SMA) which is deemed very useful in robotics.
Past projects under the Robotic Systems Laboratory include: Reinforcement Learning, the High Performance Binocular Active Vision, Stereo Tracking for Head Pose and Gaze Point Estimation, Visual Interface for Human-Robot Interaction, the Dexterous Manipulator, and the Gesture Interface to Virtual Environments.
