Objectives

The objective of this forum is to provide final year undergraduate students from engineering and science, insight into Australia's leading autonomous systems group, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems.

The projects and teaching conducted by CAS cover all areas, from sea and land, to air and space.

And the projects aren't small ... some projects are worlds-first, fusing innovative research and development from academia with industry.

And what about industry!! ... Most of the funding that comes to CAS is of industry origin, further illustrating advances the made at the centre.

Have you ever asked yourself:

• How do I develop a navigation system for a 60 tonne straddle carrier simply using a GPS receiver and an Inertial Navigation System (INS)? And by the way, what is GPS and INS? And what is a straddle carrier?
   
• Can a robot dog really think, play soccer, find the goalposts (not to mention the back of the net) when all it can see is a psychedelic blur? And how do those robot dogs find each other without scent?
   
•  What control algorithms allow optimal trajectory following for an excavator in a non-holonomic fashion, given dual point boundary conditions and given that all I have are force transducers on the linkage arms? And can you say that sentence ten times quickly? I thought not...
   
•  How do I generate a map of the outside world from laser data while driving around in a Holden Ute, not knowing before hand what the world looks like or where I am in the world? Furthermore, could I use such an algorithm for an autonomous lunar rover, for urban warfare, or for picking up money under the couch?
   
•  What collision avoidance algorithms are needed for a 400 tonne haul truck given that all I am using is a radar unit? In particular, how much stopping room do I have before I squash the thing before me?
   
•  How do I get multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) communicating map information with one another? Also, what does it take to develop a UAV from scratch? And, how does one handle the problem of cow pats on the runway? 
   
•  Do the people working on the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) project get to go to the Great Barrier Reef for free? 
   
• Why are there so many acronyms in Field Robotics (FR)?
• If so, then this is the right forum for YOU!!