My current research interests are primarily focused around autonomous robotics. In particular, I am working towards developing strategies to allow autonomous decisions regarding the achievement of scientific objectives vs. survivability in hostile environments. In short, this means sending a fully autonomous robotic ARGO and robotic boat to Greenland with the task of perform autonomous scanning of glaciers and ice sheets.
Clearly there are a wide and diverse range of challenges to be seen in such an environment, from large chunks of glacier debris weighing in excess of 4 million tonnes, to massive sheer drops. Some of the issues are similar to those found in Space Robotics: GPS is flaky at best, magnetic compasses do not work, computer vision techniques may be unable to detect the moulins due to the white balance of the area, the computer and mechanical equipment is expected to perform consistently at temperatures as low as -40C, there are significant portions of the year where there is no sun visible, and so the list goes on. It is therefore my hope that my research will be beneficial in a number of robotic disciplines.
At the moment I am at the beginning of my research, but as I progress further I hope to keep this page updated with my latest work. For those interested, a more detailed outline of my research can be found in my funding proposal. Further details of the work being undertaken can be reviewed in my 1st year (more like 7 months) progress report, available here.
Interesting, Related Papers
Apostolopoulos, D. S., Wagner, M. D., Shamah, B. N., Pederson, L., Shillcutt, K. & Whittaker,W. L. (2000), ‘Technology and field demonstration of robotic search for antarctic meteorites’,International Journal of Robotics Research 19(11), 1015–1032.
Barnes, D., Pugh, S. & Tyler, L. (2009), Autonomous science target identification and acquisition(ASTIA) for planetary exploration, in ‘International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems’, IEEE, St. Louis, USA, pp. 3329 – 3335.
Chen, J. L., Wilson, C. R. & Tapley, B. D. (2006), ‘Satellite gravity measurements confirm accelerated melting of greenland ice sheet’, Science 313(5795), 1958–1960.
Neal, M., Blanchard, T., Hubbard, A., Bates, R. & Woodward, J. (2010), A hardware proof of concept for a remote control glacier surveying boat (pending publication).
Ray, L. E., Lever, J. H., Streeter, A. D. & Price, A. D. (2007), ‘Design and power management of a solar-powered “cool robot” for polar instrument networks’, Journal of Field Robotics 24(7), 581–599.
Rignot, E. & Kanagaratnam, P. (2006), ‘Changes in the velocity structure of the greenland ice sheet’,Science 311(5763), 986–990.
Williams, S. & Howard, A. M. (2008), A single camera terrain slope estimation technique for natural arctic environments, in ‘International Conference on Robotics and Automation’, IEEE,Pasadena, CA, USA, pp. 19–23.
Williams, S. & Howard, A. M. (2010a), ‘Developing monocular visual pose estimation for arctic environments’, Journal of Field Robotics 27(2), 145–157.
Williams, S. & Howard, A. M. (2010b), Towards visual arctic terrain assessment, in ‘Field and Service Robotics: Results of the 7th International Conference’, Springer, pp. 91–100.