Author: Ellie Lauritsen

On the back of their recent win of the Boston Dynamics SPOT robot, we interviewed PhD researchers Michael Somerfield and Bina Rajan about their plans for the quadruple robot, including how they will modify its capabilities to enhance their workflows.

Michael: My research is directly in the field of Legged Robotics, so the spot allows me to test my research on a world-class platform.

Bina: My work is oriented around understanding the behaviour of camera blur on moving platforms. it would be interesting to understand this behaviour on a quadrupedal platform like spot.

What tasks or experiments do you envision Spot performing in your research?

At the end of 2024, ARIAM PhD researchers Michael Somerfield and Bina Rajan created the winning submission to the SafetyCulture Innovation Challenge. The competition invited university students and professional engineers to unleash their inner innovator for a chance to win a share of $5,000 in prizes, plus a Boston Dynamics Spot robot. Using the decommissioned Cape Don lighthouse vessel as a backdrop, Michael and Bina’s submission demonstrated an innovative idea for how Spot could revolutionise shipping inspection; boosting efficiency, safety, and productivity in a work environment. On March 19, the SafetyCulture team invited the winners to collect the robot in person and to tour their amazing offices in Surry Hills.

As the first off the shelf quadrupedal platform our Hub has acquired, our researchers plan to combine and utilise various sensor suites to test multi-modal data collection techniques for inspection, SLAM, 3d image reconstructions and many other ideas yet to be discovered.

The ELO₂ Consortium—co-led by EPE Oceania and Lunar Outpost Oceania—has been selected by the Australian Space Agency to build Australia’s first lunar rover, nicknamed “Roo-ver.” This $42 million national project will harness the innovation and expertise of universities, SMEs, and industry partners from every corner of Australia to design, manufacture, and operate the rover right here at home.

ARIAM CI’s Ian Manchester, Salah Sukkarieh, Thierry Peynot, Niko Sünderhauf and Dimity Miller are all involved and will be contributing advanced robotics technologies to this mission. This milestone showcases Australian ingenuity on the global stage, sparks new jobs and research opportunities in the growing space industry, and strengthens our contribution to NASA’s Artemis Program, with “Roo-ver” set to be remotely operated on the Moon from Australia. Stay tuned as we embark on this once-in-a-lifetime mission to put an Aussie-made rover on the lunar surface and usher in a new era of national space leadership!

Congratulations to Prof. Stefan Williams, Associate Prof. Thierry Peynot and Dr. Donald Dansereau on the award of their Australian Research Council Discovery Project: Introspection for Resilient Robotic Perception in Challenging Environments.

Their project aims to enhance robotic perception in challenging environments such as murky water and extreme weather where state-of-the-art approaches fail. By developing new representations and processing architectures capable of introspection, it enables robots to recognise and adapt to their own perceptual limitations.

The expected outcomes are robotic systems with unprecedented resilience in challenging application domains like infrastructure monitoring and autonomous driving. This should bring economic benefit to Australia with broad robotic deployments in environmental monitoring and understanding of critical marine and terrestrial ecosystems, parks, and infrastructure, and improved mobility for the elderly and disabled.

Last week ARIAM Research Hub members immersed themselves in the history of the MV Cape Don for two days of data collection and vessel analysis.

Using the Emesent Hovermap and Leica fixed scanner, our researchers surveyed the interior and exterior of the vessel; enabling us to develop a model for use by our researchers & partners in simulations and future robotics operations.

Data will also be shared with The Sea Heritage Foundation to report on the condition of the upper and lower decks; assisting them with the monitoring and maintenance of the MV Cape Don.

Congratulations to our Deputy Director, Prof. Stefan Williams and team, notably Dr. Lachlan Toohey on being awarded an Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) Seed Grant to fund the testing stage of their Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The AUV can hover above the seafloor to collect better data in difficult conditions. It is designed for use in environmental surveys of offshore infrastructure assessments (such as windfarms), scientific data collection and various defence applications. AEA supports Australian researchers to get their ideas off the whiteboard and into a commercial future.

ARIAM director Ian Manchester, alongside Dr Andrew Hill (Rio Tinto Centre) featured in the March 2024 issue of Mining Magazine. The article discussed the recent advancements in mining automation, as well as the importance of university and industry collaboration in driving future development.

Read the full article here:

Future opportunities for automation and AI in mining