Jonathan Roberts
Research Director Autonomous Systems Lab
Contact
Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies
PO Box 883
Kenmore
QLD 4069
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3327 4501
Fax: +61 7 3327 4455
Email
Science Area
- Robotics
Biography
Jonathan's main research interest is in the area of Field Robotics and in particular making machines operate autonomously in unstructured environments. His formal training was in the area of Aerospace Systems including control systems, aerodynamics, power systems, communications, and aircraft and space craft design. He graduated from the University of Southampton, UK, with an Honours degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering in 1991. Jonathan furthered his interest in computer vision while completing a PhD (1991-1994) at the University of Southampton where he also developed skills in parallel computing.
In 1995 Jonathan joined CSIRO to work in the area of mining robotics and has since then worked on numerous large robot machines including 3,500 tonne draglines, 30 tonne underground haul trucks and autonomous underground explosive loading vehicles. In 2004 he accepted the position of Science Leader - Robotics. Since March 2009, Jonathan has been Research Director of the Autonomous Systems Lab. Jonathan was President of the Australian Robotics & Automation Association Inc. from 2007-2008. Jonathan is also currently the Deputy Director of the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA), a joint venture between CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
Jonathan is the co-inventor of the UAV Outback Challenge, a UAV competition started in 2007 and run each year since. The UAV Challenge pits teams against one another to find and rescue lost bushwalker Outback Joe and win $50,000. Jonathan is rumoured to know Outback Joe personally.
Academic Qualifications
| 1994 | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Vision. "Attentive Visual Tracking and Trajectory Estimation for Dynamic Scene Segmentation", Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Southampton, UK |
| 1991 | Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Aerospace Systems Engineering, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Southampton, UK |
Recent Professional Experience
| 2009-Present | Research Director Autonomous Systems Lab |
| 2007-Present | Adjunct Professor Queensland University of Technology (QUT) |
| 2008-Present | Adjunct Professor University of Queensland |
| 2004-2009 | Principal Research Scientist & Science Leader Robotics, CSIRO ICT Centre |
| 2001-2004 | Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology |
| 1995-2001 | Research Scientist, CSIRO Manufacturing Science and Technology |
Summary of Science & Technical Output
| Books/Book chapters | 2 |
|---|---|
| Journal | 12 |
| Refereed Conference/Workshop | 84 |
| Technical/Client Reports | 0 |
| Invited Presentations | 2 |
| Patents | 2 |
Science Citizenship
| 2006-Present | Member of editorial board, International Journal of Field Robotics (JFR) |
| 2010-Present | Video Editor of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine |
| 2007-2008 | President of Australian Robotics & Automation Association (ARAA) |
| 2007-2009 | Associate Editor of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine |
| 2007 | Member of International Programme Committee, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) |
| 2007,2009-2010 | Member of International Programme Committee, Field and Service Robotics (FSR) |
| 2007,2009-2011 | Member of International Programme Committee, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) |
| 2007 | Member of International Programme Committee, International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR) |
| 2007 | Member of International Programme Committee, Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles (IAV) |
| 2006 | Editor, International Journal of Field Robotics (JFR) Special Issue on UAVs |
| 2005-2006 | Vice-president of Australian Robotics & Automation Association (ARAA) |
| 2005 | Publicity co-chair, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) |
| 2005 | Member of International Programme Committee, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) |
| 2005 | Local arrangements co-chair, Field and Service Robotics (FSR) |
| 2003 | Co-chair, Australasian Conference on Robotics & Automation (ACRA) |
| 1999 | Co-chair, Australasian Conference on Robotics & Automation (ACRA) |
Top 10 Publications
| Publication details |
|---|
| J. Roberts, G. Winstanley and P. Corke, "3D Imaging for a very Large Excavator", International Journal of Robotics Research, vol 22, no. 7/8, pp 467-478, Jul 2003 |
| J. Roberts, E. Duff and P. Corke, "Reactive Navigation and Opportunistic Localization for Autonomous Underground Mining Vehicles", The International Journal of Information Sciences, vol 145, pp 127-146, 2002 |
| J. Roberts, P. Corke and G. Winstanley, "Development of a 3,500 tonne field robot", International Journal of Robotics Research, vol 18, no. 7, pp 739-752, Jul. 1999 |
| J. Roberts and D. Charnley, "Parallel Attentive Visual Tracking", Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol 7, no. 2, pp 205-215, 1994 |
| J.M. Roberts, P.I. Corke and G. Buskey, "Low-Cost Flight Control System for a s Small Autonomous Helicopter", Proceedings of IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp 546-551, Taipai, Sep. 2003 |
| S. Saripalli,J. Roberts, P. Corke, G. Buskey and G. Sukhatme, "A Tale of Two Helicopters", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and System, pp 805-810, Las Vegas, Oct. 2003 |
| G.Buskey, J. Roberts, P.Corke and P. Ridley, "Sensing and Control for a Small-Size Helicopter", International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER), Sant' Angelo d'Ischia, Italy, Jul. 2002 |
| G. Buskey, J. Roberts and G. Wyeth, "Autonomous Helicopter Hover Using an Artificial Neural Network", Proceedings of IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp 1635-1640, Seoul, Korea, May 2001 |
| G. Buskey, J. Roberts, P. Corke and G. Wyeth, "Helicopter automation a using a low-cost sensing system", Computing & Control Engineering Journal, Apr-May, no. 2, pp 8-9, 2004 |
| S. Nuske, J. Roberts and G. Wyeth, "Robust outdoor visual localization using a three-dimensional-edge map", Journal of Field Robotics, vol 26, no. 9, pp 728 - 756 |