26 accepted papers
There has been a growing interest in autonomous systems designed to operate in adverse conditions (e.g. smoke, dust), where the visible light spectrum fails. In this context, Ultra-wideband (UWB) radar is capable of penetrating through such challenging environmental conditions due to the lower frequ…
Autonomous mobile robot systems have been extremely useful in exploration tasks for inspection and surveying of unknown environments, where map quality and exploration speed are often important factors. To effectively increase the exploration speed, multi-robot systems and collaborative exploration
There has been a growing interest in autonomous systems designed to operate in adverse conditions (e.g. smoke, dust), where the visible light spectrum fails. In this context, Ultra-wideband (UWB) radar is capable of penetrating through such challenging environmental conditions due to the lower frequ
Ultraviolet (UV) germicidal radiation is an established non-contact method for surface disinfection in medical environments. Traditional approaches require substantial human intervention to define disinfection areas, complicating automation, while deep learning-based methods often need extensive fin
Traditional reinforcement learning-based robotic control methods are often task-specific and fail to generalize across diverse environments or unseen objects and instructions. Visual Language Models (VLMs) demonstrate strong scene understanding and planning capabilities but lack the ability to gener…
To perform target-following tasks in unknown environments, a robot must identify the target’s position and plan an efficient path to reach it. Traditional LiDAR-based localization systems face challenges in distinguishing the target from objects with similar appearances. Meanwhile, existing target-f
Introducing robotics in the healthcare sector revolutionizes medical services by providing advanced treatments, medication management, and robotic assistance while overcoming resource limitations. In the current healthcare domain, an intermediate robotic communication platform is essential for distr…
Cleaning glass surfaces is a prevailing maintenance problem in high-rise buildings. In the traditional methods of cleaning windows, hanging on ropes poses significant occupational hazards to workers. Furthermore, most glass facades feature window frames to securely fasten the glass panels to the bui…
LiDAR and cameras are frequently used as sensors for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). However, these sensors are prone to failure under low visibility (e.g. smoke) or places with reflective surfaces (e.g. mirrors). On the other hand, electromagnetic waves exhibit better penetration prop
To accomplish task efficiently in a multiple robots system, a problem that has to be addressed is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) has been used for many SLAM solutions due to its superb accuracy, but its performance degrades in featureless environmen…
In this paper, we propose a ground-based monocular UAV localisation system that detects and localises an LED marker attached to the underside of a UAV. Our system removes the need for extensive infrastructure and calibration unlike existing technologies such as UWB, radio frequency and multi-camera
With the increasing need for multi-robot for exploring the unknown region in a challenging environment, efficient collaborative exploration strategies are needed for achieving such feat. A frontier-based Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) exploration can be deployed to explore an unknown environmen
General Visual Inspection is a manual inspection process regularly used to detect and localise obvious damage on the exterior of commercial aircraft. There has been increasing demand to perform this process at the boarding gate to minimize the downtime of the aircraft and automating this process is…
Relative localization between autonomous robots without infrastructure is crucial to achieve their navigation, path planning, and formation in many applications, such as emergency response, where acquiring a prior knowledge of the environment is not possible. The traditional Ultra-WideBand (UWB)-bas…
There has been an increasing demand to automate the non-patient care matters so that the clinical staff can focus on delivering patient care. For example, out-patients undergoing chemotherapy increases their toilet usage frequency due to the treatment. As they are undergoing chemotherapy, their outp…
There has been an increasing demand for physical human-robot collaboration during the design prototyping phase. For example, users would like to maneuver the end-effector compliantly in free space followed by supplying a contact force to obtain a firm adhesive connection. The technical challenges is
Place recognition is essential for SLAM system since it is critical for loop closure and can help to correct the accumulated drift and result in a globally consistent map. Unlike the visual slam which can use diverse feature detection methods to describe the scene, there are limited works reported t…
Automatic targeting of plant cells to perform tasks like extraction of chloroplast is often desired in the study of plant biology. Hence, this paper proposes an improved cell segmentation method combined with a robust tracking algorithm for vision-guided micromanipulation in plant cells. The objecti…
This paper presents a novel sliding mode controller for trajectory tracking of the piezo-driven stage. The tracking performance of piezoelectric actuator is mainly affected by the hysteresis nonlinearity. Sliding mode control is a possible solution to achieve better tracking performance. However, co…
There are an increasing number of applications that require the end-effector of a robotic manipulator to be compliant in response to the intended force exerted by a human operator. In physical human-robot interaction, the stability and compliance are often affected in the presence of both human and
Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy is a recommended treatment method for large kidney stone removal. However, the first and most important step, i.e., getting the percutaneous access to create the tract between the targeted calyx and the flank skin, is challenging as the surgeon is often occupied by sever…
Relative positioning between multiple mobile users is essential for many applications, such as search and rescue in disaster areas or human social interaction. Inertial-measurement unit (IMU) is promising to determine the change of position over short periods of time, but it is very sensitive to err…
Robotic image-guided micromanipulation contributes towards the ease of operation, speed, accuracy, and repeatability in cell manipulation. However, such technology is not fully exploited because of the challenges in the integration of robotic modules with existing microscope systems, and the difficu…
In monocopter flight, two important parameters are required for control: angular rates and heading direction. Small monocopters fly at a very high speed (more than 600rpm), which can be out of the typical gyroscope limit. Very high speed gyroscopes do exist, but the price is high and it can only mea…
In this paper, we propose a workflow algorithm for timely tracking of the tool tip during cell manipulation using a template-based approach augmented with low level feature detection. Doing so addresses the problem of adverse influences on template-based tracking during tool-cell interaction while m…
Micromanipulation during live microscopic imaging relies heavily on good manual controls, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination. However, unassisted manual operations in these procedures greatly limit the speed, repeatability, and ease of operation. This is especially challenging in the case of micro…