Welcome to ACRA 2000

ACRA 2000 is different from previous National Robotics Conferences held in Australia in at least three ways. First, there has been a deliberate timing and location plan to have the PRICAI (Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence) 2000 conference and ACRA 2000 run together in recognition of the overlap .between the two represented research communities. Delegates to either conference will be able to mingle in the tea and lunch breaks. Secondly, Robocup 2000 is being held in Melbourne in the same week as ACRA 2000 and PRIeAI 2000 giving delegates to either conference the opportunity to follow the competition, with the finals expected on Sunday, 3rd of September. Finally, the set of papers selected for presentation at ACRA 2000 illustrate an incredible diversity of application domains and includes research on aircraft, submersibles, road vehicles and construction machines; also represented are a great variety of sensing modalities, including vision, tactile sensing, ultrasonics and radar. This richness of the field as represented in our conference should be celebrated, since it points to a promising future for related applications which have a place in all modem technologically mature societies. Let’s hope that some ofthese can be realised in Australia rather than migrating overseas looking for commercialisation opportunities.

All papers except the invited keynote presentations have been fully peer reviewed either as full papers or in extended abstract fonn as indicated in the contents.

Particular thanks to the staff of the Monash Conference Management Office for their support in organising this conference.

Ray Jarvis
Program Chair

Organisation

Sponsoring Organisations

Co-Chairs

Programme Committee

Table of Contents

Index of Authors

A Sonar Sensor with Random Double Pulse Coding,
Fast, Robust Colour Vision for the Monash Humanoid,
Using Volatile Chemicals to Help Locate Targets in Complex Environments Leal, J Probabilistic 2D Mapping of Unstructured Environments Lillywhite, J Distributed Digital Control of a Robot Arm Lim, P An Experimental Tele-Operated Robotic System Liu, M Friction Torques Estimation and Compensation for Robot Arms,
Theory and Experiment of Decentralized Nonlinear and Adaptive Control of Robot Arms Loy, G A 3D Head Tracker for an Automatic Lipreading System Majumder, S Sensor Fusion and Map Building for Underwater Navigation Mann, G Stability Control in an Actively-Balanced Bipedal Robot Matsui, T Localisation Using Automatically Selected Landmarks from Panoramic Images Millar, J B Automatic Extraction of Lip Feature Points O’Brien, J Development of a Large Scale, Tool-Development-Manipultor for Construction Applications Oh, S Autonomous Battery Recharging for Indoor Mobile Robots Overs, L System Design for a Small Autonomous Helicopter Owens, R A 3D Head Tracker for an Automatic Lipreading System Price, A Fast, Robust Colour Vision for the Monash Humanoid Quach, N H Friction Torques Estimation and Compensation for Robot Arms Robert-Ribes, J Automatic Extraction of Lip Feature Points Roberts, J Flight Control Using an Artificial Neural Network,
Height Estimation for an Autonomous Helicopter,
Obstacle Detection for a Mining Vehicle Using a 2D Laser,
System Design for a Small Autonomous Helicopter Rougeaux, S A Novel Mechanism for Stereo Active Vision,
Tracking with Hybrid-Drive Active Vision Russell, R A A Robot Scorpion Using Ground Vibrations for Navigation,
Object Recognition by a ‘Smart’ Tactile Sensor,
Using Volatile Chemicals to Help Locate Targets in Complex Environments Rye, D C A Comparative Study of Variable Structure and Model Reference Adaptive Control for Hydraulic Servo Systems Scheding, S Probabilistic 2D Mapping of Unstructured Environments,
Sensor Fusion and Map Building for Underwater Navigation Sharma, S An Experimental Tele-Operated Robotic System Sikka, P Height Estimation for an Autonomous Helicopter,
System Design for a Small Autonomous Helicopter Silpa-Anan, C Development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle towards Visual Servo Control Sutherland, O Tracking with Hybrid-Drive Active Vision Taylor, G Fast, Robust Colour Vision for the Monash Humanoid Taylor, K Autonomous Battery Recharging for Indoor Mobile Robots Thompson, s Localisation Using Automatically Selected Landmarks from Panoramic Images Truong, H A Novel Mechanism for Stereo Active Vision Wallander, A A Robot Scorpion Using Ground Vibrations for Navigation Walter, D Motion Control for Fast Mobile Robots: A Trajectory-based Approach Wettergreen, D A State Estimation System for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle,
Development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle towards Visual Servo Control,
Robust Camera Calibration for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Wyeth, G Distributed Digital Control of a Robot Arm,
Flight Control Using an Artificial Neural Network Zelinsky, A A Novel Mechanism for Stereo Active Vision,
A State Estimation System for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle,
Automatic Extraction of Lip Feature Points,
Autonomous Battery Recharging for Indoor Mobile Robots,
Localisation Using Automatically Selected Landmarks from Panoramic Images,
Reinforcement Learning for Visual Servoing of a Mobile Robot,
Robust Camera Calibration for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle,
Tracking with Hybrid-Drive Active Vision