Prof. Dr. Phillip Mckerrow will present a lecture on Ultrasonic sensing for mobile robotics on 25th October at 2pm. The lecture will take place in Graduates room.
Short summary:Ultrasonic mobility aids for blind people were commercialised by Em. Prof. Leslie Kay. Dr. McKerrow uses these sensors to classify objects for landmark navigation of mobile robots. A key to successful landmark navigation is in the quality of the sensing of the landmarks. Classification involves both identifying the object and measuring the correctness of the classification. He developed an outdoor 4-wheel drive mobile robot to investigate using surface roughness and plants as landmarks with a Fuzzy map of paths. As bats use echolocation to navigate in flight, this research has progressed to the development of an indoor aerial robot for use in disaster search.
About the lecturer:
Phillip McKerrow is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Technology and Computer Science at the University of Wollongong. His research interests include machine perception using ultrasonic sensing similar to bat echolocation, landmark navigation for mobile robots and the design and sensor based control of indoor aerial robots. He coordinates the Master of Digital Multimedia and teaches both the programming of multimedia applications and the creation of multimedia content.