FOLLOW US
At our annual symposium each of students were asked to create a research poster. For most of our students, this was the first research poster they have created. Click the PhD researcher’s name to find out more about their project.
At our annual symposium each of students were asked to create a research poster. For most of our students, this was the first research poster they have created. To support them in this, in the weeks prior, our Postdoctoral Research Fellows ran a training session on how to create an effective poster along with tips about how to engage with their audience.
The symposium provided them with an opportunity to practice talking about their research and its potential impact to those within the Centre. We also offered prizes for the top 3 posters as voted by attendees of the symposium.
Our winner was Yuan Liu from QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in our Designing Socio-Technical Robotic Systems program with Jasper Vermeulen (also from QUT and the same research program) coming second and Jagannatha Charjee Pyaraka from Swinburne University of Technology in the Biomimic Cobots Research Program taking third place.
You can view all posters on each of the PhD project pages HERE!
Massive congratulations to our PhD researcher, Barış Balcı who completed his final seminar today!
His thesis is entitled: Methods for Robotic Surface Finishing. His supervisory team include Professor Jonathan Roberts, Associate Professor Jared Donovan and Distinguished Professor Peter Corke and the review panel included Dr Christopher Lehnert, Dr Fangyi Zhang and Associate Professor Mats Isaksson.
His project addresses the challenges of using industrial robots in the surface finishing processes of custom-manufactured goods. Unlike mass manufacturing, in which goods are produced in high volumes with relatively non-changing manufacturing processes, custom manufacturing needs to overcome frequent process changes to deliver different products. These changes create multiple challenges such as cell design and reprogramming for implementing robotics into custom manufacturing scenarios.
Surface finishing for custom-manufactured products currently relies on high-skilled human operators to achieve the required level of position and force accuracy for the desired outcome. The project has created prototype tools for easing the integration of industrial robots into custom surface finishing operations while combining the knowledge of the human operator and the physical capabilities of the industrial robots.
As part of his thesis, Baris will have three papers published. The first two are below with a third to come in the new year:
* B. Balci, J. Donovan, J. Roberts, and P. Corke, “Optimal Workpiece Placement Based on Robot Reach, Manipulability and Joint Torques,” 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE, May 29, 2023.
* B. Balci, J. Roberts, J. Donovan, and P. Corke, “Force Controlled Robotic Surface Finishing with Variable Tool Centre Point (TCP),” 2023 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). Accepted, May 25, 2023.
Barış originally started his PhD as part of the Innovative Manufacturing CRC (IMCRC) Design Robotics project with UAP | Urban Art Projects and ARM Hub (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing). He had to pause his PhD for 2 years during the pandemic. When he returned, we were lucky enough to have him join our Centre.
Our Biomimic Cobots research program have had a great couple of days at the 2023 Australasian Conference for Robotics & Automation) cohosted by UNSW and UTS Robotics Institute.
Our Centre’s researchers were involved in four papers accepted at the conference:
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Fouad (Fred) Sukkar also chaired the Machine Vision session.
We’d like to officially welcome two new Chief Investigators from UTS to the Centre and to our Quality Assurance and Compliance research program.
* Dr. Nathalie Sick is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Technology Management and a core member of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing in the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney.
Prior to joining UTS, Nathalie held positions as Assistant Professor for Innovation and Technology Management at the University of Muenster, Germany and led the interdisciplinary young research group Innovation and Technology Management in Energy Storage with the Helmholtz-Institute Muenster.
* Gavin Paul is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at University of Technology Sydney He is part of the UTS Robotics Institute where he leads the ‘Next Frontiers in Robotics’ research sector. Gavin and team are working with mining, transport, manufacturing, construction, space and partner institutions, to develop the next generation of robots and intelligent systems in the field.
As part of 2023 OzCHI conference held in New Zealand from 1-6th December, our researchers along with those from CSIRO, conducted a workshop on “Empowering People in Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) Why, How, When, and for Whom”. This is the second year this workshop has run and this year it was hybrid.
During the workshop, there were over 17 attendees with a program that included:
A summary of this workshop will be available here: https://workshophri.github.io/OzCHI2023/
The workshop organisers included: Stine S. Johansen, ACC; Hashini Senaratne, CSIRO; Alan Burden, ACC; Melanie McGrath,CSIRO; Claire Mason, CSIRO; Glenda Caldwell, ACC; Jared Donovan, ACC; Andreas Duenser, CSIRO; Matthias Guertler, ACC; David Howard, CSIRO; Yanran Jiang, CSIRO; Cecile Paris, CSIRO; Markus Rittenbruch, ACC; Jonathan Roberts, ACC.
Congratulations to our PhD Researchers who passed their confirmation of candidature over the past month!
Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, QUT (Queensland University of Technology), and UTS joined forces with industry partners from ARM Hub (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing), Cook Medical, and Stryker, making the event both enjoyable and thought-provoking.
The symposium featured a packed agenda including workshops, poster presentations, awards, research program updates, and a keynote talk by Cécile Paris from CSIRO’s Data61 CINTEL.
A note of appreciation goes to Centre Director Jonathan Roberts for his leadership in ensuring the success of the event. We are already looking forward to future gatherings with the same spirit of collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
Objective, systematic research and analysis and interpretation of complex data to provide authoritative, evidence based and timely strategic advice to senior managers.
At the annual ACC Symposium, an awards evening was held with nominations put forward by Centre members in the lead up to the event.
Our annual awards were a great way of celebrating the achievements of our people and their collaborative efforts over the past 12 months.
2023 winners included:
* Best Collaborative Research output: the 2023 OzCHI workshop “Empowering People in Human-Robot-Collaboration” organised by Australian Cobotics Centre and CSIRO’s Data61 researchers.
* Research Achievement: A/Prof Teresa Vidal Calleja
* Best Event: Swinburne’s ‘Encounters with Cobots’ event held in July (Mats Isaksson, Jagannatha Charjee Pyaraka, Anushani Bibile, Chris McCarthy, John McCormick & Michelle Dunn)
* Contribution to Public Debate: Dr Melinda Laundon
* Quiet Achievers: Dr Fouad (Fred) Sukkar & PhD researcher Barış Balcı
* Emerging Leaders: Dr Stine Johansen & Dr Alan Burden
* EPIC Centre Citizens: Dr Melinda Laundon & PhD researcher, Jasper Vermeulen
Well done to our nominees and winners. We look forward to these awards being part of our future symposiums.
