ACRA 2012

Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2012

Dale Carnegie (General Chair) and Will Browne (Program Chair)

3-5 December, 2012
Wellington, New Zealand

ISBN 978-0-9807404-3-1 ISSN 1448-2053

All full papers submitted to ACRA 2012 will undergo a peer-review process. Each manuscript will be reviewed by at least two reviewers who will give detailed comments. If the submission is accepted, the authors will submit a revised (“camera-ready”) version that takes into account this feedback. The review process is managed by the program chair of the conference.

All papers are reviewed using a single-blind review process: authors declare their names and affiliations in the manuscript for the reviewers to see, but reviewers do not know each other’s identities, nor do the authors receive information about who has reviewed their manuscript.

Welcome to ACRA 2012 at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)

The School of Engineering and Computer Science at VUW is delighted to host the 2012 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation. We welcome this opportunity to again network with an extraordinarily talented group of researchers and hope that this conference provides the opportunity for attendees to establish new collaborations, renew past acquaintances and share strategies for tapping into increasingly scare funding opportunities. The social and industrial needs of robotics and automated systems have never been greater, and Australasian research and industrial institutions are perfectly placed to exploit niche, lowmedium volume, high profit market opportunities. This is a message that our Governments and funding bodies often fail to hear.

As you have come to expect from an ACRA conference, this year the conference has attracted a number of superb submissions. All submissions were subjected to a rigorous peer review process, with each full paper reviewed by at least three members of the 37 Member program committee. A total of 44 full papers from Australia, New Zealand, Middle East and Korea were accepted for presentation and publication. The minimum recommendation for an accepted paper was 3 (out of 5), which corresponds to no reviewers recommending any form of rejection. Indeed, many of the rejected papers were of very high quality and would easily be accepted to most international conferences. We have shortlisted five papers for the Best Student Paper prize. Judging will take place during the conference and will be based on the written paper. The winner will be announced at the conference banquet. For your convenience, the proceedings are available to conference attendees on a USB memory stick. As with previous years the ACRA proceedings are freely published online at the ARAA website to promote wide dissemination of the research and encourage citations of ACRA papers. In addition to the schedule of technical papers, the programme also includes the Annual General Meeting for the ARAA and multiple social events.

Finally, we could not possibly host you in New Zealand without subjecting you to a variety of our local venues and beverages. We have endeavoured not to make any of the morning conference starts so early that you cannot fully enjoy our evening events. We trust you will enjoy the social activities as much as you will the technical discussions.

The ACRA 2012 Organising Committee,
Will Browne (Program Chair)
Christopher Hollitt (Local Chair)
Dale Carnegie (General Chair)

Organisation

Sponsoring Organisations

Australian Robotics and Automation Association Inc.
Victoria University of Wellington

General Chair

Dale Carnegie
Victoria Univerity of Wellington

Program Chair

Will Browne
Victoria University of Wellington

Local Chair

Chris Hollitt
Victoria University of Wellington

Programme Committee

Alen Alempijevic
Ali Bab-Hadiashar
David Ball
John Billingsley
Mike Bosse
Graham Brooker
Damien Browne
Mitch Bryson
XiaoQi Chen
Peter Corke
Gamini Dissanayake
Tom Drummond
Matthew Dunbabin
Robert Fitch
Jose Guivant
Quang Ha
Wai Ho Li
Shoudong Huang
Jay Katupitiya
Jonghyuk Kim
Lindsay Kleeman
Sarath Kodagoda
Wen Lik-Dennis-Lui
Dikai Liu
Tien-Fu Lu
Bruce MacDonald
Robert Mahony
Chris McCarthy
Michael Milford
Reza Moheimani
Simon O’Callaghan
Denny Oetomo
Maurice Pagnucco
Thierry Peynot
Oscar Pizarro
Jonathan Roberts
Andrew Russell

Table of Contents

PLANNING

Towards Robotic Visual & Acoustic Stealth for Outdoor Dynamic Target Tracking
Matthew Dunbabin (CSIRO), Ashley Tews (CSIRO)
Path Planning with Maximum Expected Map Deformation
Mark Whitty (University of New South Wales), Jose Guivant (University of New South Wales)
Motion Planning of a Planar 3R Manipulator Utilising Fluid Flow Trajectory Generation
Darwin Lau (University of Melbourne), Jonathan Eden (University of Melbourne), Denny Oetomo (University of Melbourne)

LIDAR SENSING

Road Terrain Type Classification based on LMS Data
Shifeng WANG (University of Technology, Sydney), Sarath Kodagoda (University of Technology, Sydney), Lei SHI (University of Technology, Sydney)
A Mutual Information Approach to Automatic Calibration of Camera and Lidar in Natural Environments
Zachary J. Taylor (Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation), Juan Nieto (Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation)
Movie
A Novel Approach to 3D Laser Scanning
David Wood (Ocular Robotics), Mark Bishop (Ocular Robotics)
Omni-VISER: 3D Omni Vision-Laser Scanner
Usman Qayyum (Australian National University)
Movie
Characterisation of the Victoria University Range Imaging System
Benjamin Mark Moffat Drayton (Victoria University of Wellington), Dale A. Carnegie (Victoria University of Wellington), Adrian A. Dorrington (University of Waikato)

RGB-D SENSING

Plane-based detection of staircases using inverse depth
Titus Jia Jie Tang (Monash University), Wen Lik Dennis Lui (Monash University), Wai Ho Li (Monash University)
Movie
Using Kinect for monitoring warehouse order picking operations
Xingyan Li (University of Auckland), Ian Yen-Hung Chen (University of Auckland), Stephen Thomas (University of Auckland), Bruce A. MacDonald (University of Auckland)
Movie
STALKERBOT: Learning to Navigate Dynamic Human Environments by Following People
Liz Murphy (QUT), Peter Corke (QUT)
Proximity Sensing and Reactive Control for Safe Manipulation
Changmook Chun (Korea Institute of Science and Technology), Chansu Suh (Korea Institute of Science and Technology), Sungchul Kang (Korea Institute of Science and Technology)
Movie
Improving the Performance of ICP for Real-Time Applications using an Approximate Nearest Neighbour Search
Samuel Philip Marden (UNSW), Jose Guivant (UNSW)

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

UAV Rendezvous: From Concept to Flight Test
Daniel Briggs Wilson (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Ali Haydar Goktogan (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Salah Sukkarieh (Australian Centre for Field Robotics)
Nonlinear Dynamic Modeling for High Performance Control of a Quadrotor
Moses Bangura (ANU), Robert Mahony (ANU)
Guidance, Navigation and Control of a Small-Scale Paramotor
Jack Umenberger (The University of Sydney)
100Hz Onboard Vision for Quadrotor State Estimation
Inkyu Sa (QUT), Peter Corke (QUT)
Movie
Paper Plane: Towards Disposable Low-Cost Folded Cellulose-Substrate UAVs
Paul EI Pounds (University of Queensland)

SLAM

Laser-to-Radar Sensing Redundancy for Resilient Perception in Adverse Environmental Conditions
Marcos Paul Gerardo Castro (Australian Centre of Field Robotics / University of Sydney), Thierry Peynot (Australian Centre of Field Robotics / University of Sydney)
Image Salience Weighting for Improving Appearance-Based Place Recognition using a Supervised Classifier System
Henry Williams (Victoria University of Wellington), Will Browne (Victoria University of Wellington), Michael Milford (Queensland University of Technology)
CAT-GRAPH+: Towards Odometry-driven Place Consolidation in Changing Environments
Stephanie M. Lowry (QUT), Gordon F. Wyeth (QUT), Michael J. Milford (QUT)
Towards Brain-based Sensor Fusion for Navigating Robots
Adam Jacobson (Queensland University of Technology), Michael Milford (Queensland University of Technology)

INFORMATION HANDLING

Robocup Standard Platform League – rUNSWift 2012 Innovations
Sean C. Harris (UNSW)
Movie
Monte Carlo Sampling of Non-Gaussian Proposal Distribution in Feature-Based RBPF-SLAM
Nina Marhamati (Advanced Robotics and Automated Systems, K. N. Toosi University of Technology), Hamid Taghirad (Advanced Robotics and Automated Systems, K. N. Toosi University of Technology), Kasra Khosoussi (Centre of Autonomous Systems, University of Technology, Sydney)
Novelty based Learning of Primitive Manipulation Strategies
Ben Border (Monash University), R. Andrew Russell (Monash University)
Building Large-Scale Occupancy Maps using an Infinite Mixture of Gaussian Process Experts
Soohwan Kim (The Australian National University), Jonghyuk Kim (The Australian National University)
Mutual Information Based Data Selection in Gaussian Processes for People Tracking
Zulkarnain Zainudin (University of Technology Sydney), Sarath Kodagoda (University of Technology Sydney)

HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION AND ASSISTIVE ROBOTICS

A Study of Feature Extraction Algorithms for Optical Flow Tracking
Navid Nourani Vatani (University of Sydney), Paulo Borges (CSIRO ICT Centre), Jonathan Roberts (CSIRO ICT Centre)
How People Naturally Describe Robot Behaviour
James P. Diprose (The University of Auckland), Beryl Plimmer (The University of Auckland), Bruce A. MacDonald (The University of Auckland), John G. Hosking (Australian National University)
A cooperative approach to the design of an Operator Control Unit for a semi-autonomous grit-blasting robot
Stefan Lie (University of Technology Sydney)
Skype: a communications framework for robotics
Peter Corke (QUT), Kyran Findlater (QUT), Elizabeth Murphy (QUT)
Teleoperation of a humanoid robot using full-body motion capture, example movements, and machine learning
Christopher Stanton (University of Western Sydney), Anton Bogdanovych (University of Western Sydney)
Movie

ROBOT OPERATION

jmeSim: An open source, multi platform robotics simulator
Adam Haber (University of New South Wales)
Sensor Selection Based Routing for Monitoring Gaussian Processes Modeled Spatial Phenomena
Linh Van Nguyen (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia), Ravindra Ranasinghe (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia), Sarath Kodagoda (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia), Gamini Dissanayake (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
A Novel Approach to Automated Systems Engineering on a Multi-Agent Robotics Platform using Enterprise Con guration Testing Software
Stephen Cossell (ScriptRock Inc.)
Dynamic Modelling and Analysis of a Vectored Thrust Aerial Vehicle
Wei Yuan (University of New South Wales), Hiranya Jayakody (University of New South Wales), Jayantha Katupitiya (University of New South Wales)
Towards Reduced-Order Models for Online Motion Planning and Control of UAVs in the Presence of Wind
Ashray A. Doshi (The University of Queensland), Surya P. Singh (The University of Queensland), Adam J. Postula (The University of Queensland)

CONTROL

An Enhanced Dynamic Model for Mckiben Pneumatic Muscle Actuators
Ruiyi Tang (University of Technology, Sydney), Dikai Liu (University of Technology, Sydney)
Second-order Sliding Mode Control for Offshore Container Cranes
Raja Mohd Taufika Raja Ismail (University of Technology Sydney), Quang Ha (University of Technology Sydney)
Locally Weighted Learning Model Predictive Control for Elastic Joint Robots
Christopher Lehnert (QUT), Gordon Wyeth (QUT)
Movie

VISION – OBJECT RECOGNITION

Visual Sea-floor Mapping from Low Overlap Imagery using Bi-objective Bundle Adjustment and Constrained Motion
Michael Warren (Queensland University of Technology), Peter Corke (Queensland University of Technology), Oscar Pizzaro (University of Sydney), Stefan Williams (University of Sydney), Ben Upcroft (Queensland University of Technology)
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Michael S. Bewley (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Bertrand Douillard (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Navid Nourani-Vatani (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Ariell Friedman (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Oscar Pizarro (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Stefan B. Williams (Australian Centre for Field Robotics)
Matching Objects across the Textured–Smooth Continuum
Ognjen Arandjelovic (Deakin University)
Towards an Efficient and Robust Optic Flow Algorithm for Robotic Applications
Juan David Adarve Bermudez (Australian National University), Li Wusen (Nanjing University of Science and Technology), Robert Mahony (Australian National University), David Austin (MadJ innovations)

Index of Authors

Author Papers
Arandjelovic, Ognjen
Matching Objects across the Textured–Smooth Continuum
Austin, David
Towards an Efficient and Robuts Optic Flow Algorithm for Robotic Applications
Bangura, Moses
Nonlinear Dynamic Modeling for High Performance Control of a Quadrotor
Bermudez, Juan David Adarve
Towards an Efficient and Robuts Optic Flow Algorithm for Robotic Applications
Bewley, Michael S.
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Bishop, Mark
A Novel Approach to 3D Laser Scanning
Bogdanovych, Anton
Teleoperation of a humanoid robot using full-body motion capture, example movements, and machine learning
Border, Ben
Novelty based Learning of Primitive Manipulation Strategies
Borges, Paulo
A Study of Feature Extraction Algorithms for Optical Flow Tracking
Browne, Will
Image Salience Weighting for Improving Appearance-Based Place Recognition using a Supervised Classifier System
Carnegie, Dale A.
Characterisation of the Victoria University Range Imaging System
Chen, Ian Yen-Hung
Using Kinect for monitoring warehouse order picking operations
Chun, Changmook
Proximity Sensing and Reactive Control for Safe Manipulation
Corke, Peter
STALKERBOT: Learning to Navigate Dynamic Human Environments by Following People
Corke, Peter
100Hz Onboard Vision for Quadrotor State Estimation
Corke, Peter
Skype: a communications framework for robotics
Corke, Peter
Visual Sea-floor Mapping from Low Overlap Imagery using Bi-objective Bundle Adjustment and Constrained Motion
Cossell, Stephen
A Novel Approach to Automated Systems Engineering on a Multi-Agent Robotics Platform using Enterprise Con guration Testing Software
Diprose, James P.
How People Naturally Describe Robot Behaviour
Dissanayake, Gamini
Sensor Selection Based Routing for Monitoring Gaussian Processes Modeled Spatial Phenomena
Dorrington, Adrian A.
Characterisation of the Victoria University Range Imaging System
Doshi, Ashray Atul
Towards Reduced-Order Models for Online Motion Planning and Control of UAVs in the Presence of Wind
Douillard, Bertrand
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Drayton, Benjamin Mark Moffat
Characterisation of the Victoria University Range Imaging System
Dunbabin, Matthew
Towards Robotic Visual & Acoustic Stealth for Outdoor Dynamic Target Tracking
Eden, Jonathan
Motion Planning of a Planar 3R Manipulator Utilising Fluid Flow Trajectory Generation
Findlater, Kyran
Skype: a communications framework for robotics
Friedman, Ariell
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Gerardo Castro, Marcos Paul
Laser-to-Radar Sensing Redundancy for Resilient Perception in Adverse Environmental Conditions
Goktogan, Ali Haydar
UAV Rendezvous: From Concept to Flight Test
Guivant, Jose
Path Planning with Maximum Expected Map Deformation
Guivant, Jose
Improving the Performance of ICP for Real-Time Applications using an Approximate Nearest Neighbour Search
Ha, Quang
Second-order Sliding Mode Control for Offshore Container Cranes
Haber, Adam
jmeSim: An open source, multi platform robotics simulator
Harris, Sean C.
Robocup Standard Platform League – rUNSWift 2012 Innovations
Hosking, John G.
How People Naturally Describe Robot Behaviour
Jacobson, Adam
Towards Brain-based Sensor Fusion for Navigating Robots
Jayakody, Hiranya
Dynamic Modelling and Analysis of a Vectored Thrust Aerial Vehicle
Kang, Sungchul
Proximity Sensing and Reactive Control for Safe Manipulation
Katupitiya, Jayantha
Dynamic Modelling and Analysis of a Vectored Thrust Aerial Vehicle
Khosoussi, Kasra
Monte Carlo Sampling of Non-Gaussian Proposal Distribution in Feature-Based RBPF-SLAM
Kim, Jonghyuk
Building Large-Scale Occupancy Maps using an Infinite Mixture of Gaussian Process Experts
Kim, Soohwan
Building Large-Scale Occupancy Maps using an Infinite Mixture of Gaussian Process Experts
Kodagoda, Sarath
Road Terrain Type Classification based on LMS Data
Kodagoda, Sarath
Mutual Information Based Data Selection in Gaussian Processes for People Tracking
Kodagoda, Sarath
Sensor Selection Based Routing for Monitoring Gaussian Processes Modeled Spatial Phenomena
Lau, Darwin
Motion Planning of a Planar 3R Manipulator Utilising Fluid Flow Trajectory Generation
Lehnert, Christopher F
Locally Weighted Learning Model Predictive Control for Elastic Joint Robots
Li, Wai Ho
Plane-based detection of staircases using inverse depth
Li, Xingyan
Using Kinect for monitoring warehouse order picking operations
Lie, Stefan
A cooperative approach to the design of an Operator Control Unit for a semi-autonomous grit-blasting robot
Liu, Dikai
An Enhanced Dynamic Model for Mckiben Pneumatic Muscle Actuators
Lowry, Stephanie M.
CAT-GRAPH+: Towards Odometry-driven Place Consolidation in Changing Environments
Lui, Wen Lik Dennis
Plane-based detection of staircases using inverse depth
MacDonald, Bruce A.
How People Naturally Describe Robot Behaviour
MacDonald, Bruce A.
Using Kinect for monitoring warehouse order picking operations
Mahony, Robert
Nonlinear Dynamic Modeling for High Performance Control of a Quadrotor
Mahony, Robert
Towards an Efficient and Robuts Optic Flow Algorithm for Robotic Applications
Marden, Samuel Philip
Improving the Performance of ICP for Real-Time Applications using an Approximate Nearest Neighbour Search
Marhamati, Nina
Monte Carlo Sampling of Non-Gaussian Proposal Distribution in Feature-Based RBPF-SLAM
Milford, Michael
Image Salience Weighting for Improving Appearance-Based Place Recognition using a Supervised Classifier System
Milford, Michael
CAT-GRAPH+: Towards Odometry-driven Place Consolidation in Changing Environments
Milford, Michael
Towards Brain-based Sensor Fusion for Navigating Robots
Murphy, Elizabeth
Skype: a communications framework for robotics
Murphy, Liz
STALKERBOT: Learning to Navigate Dynamic Human Environments by Following People
Nguyen, Linh Van
Sensor Selection Based Routing for Monitoring Gaussian Processes Modeled Spatial Phenomena
Nieto, Juan
A Mutual Information Approach to Automatic Calibration of Camera and Lidar in Natural Environments
Nourani-Vatani, Navid
A Study of Feature Extraction Algorithms for Optical Flow Tracking
Nourani-Vatani, Navid
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Oetomo, Denny
Motion Planning of a Planar 3R Manipulator Utilising Fluid Flow Trajectory Generation
Peynot, Thierry
Laser-to-Radar Sensing Redundancy for Resilient Perception in Adverse Environmental Conditions
Pizzaro, Oscar
Visual Sea-floor Mapping from Low Overlap Imagery using Bi-objective Bundle Adjustment and Constrained Motion
Pizzaro, Oscar
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Plimmer, Beryl
How People Naturally Describe Robot Behaviour
Postula, Adam J.
Towards Reduced-Order Models for Online Motion Planning and Control of UAVs in the Presence of Wind
Pounds, Paul EI
Paper Plane: Towards Disposable Low-Cost Folded Cellulose-Substrate UAVs
Qayyum, Usman
Omni-VISER: 3D Omni Vision-Laser Scanner
Raja Ismail, Raja Mohd Taufika
Second-order Sliding Mode Control for Offshore Container Cranes
Ranasinghe, Ravindra
Sensor Selection Based Routing for Monitoring Gaussian Processes Modeled Spatial Phenomena
Roberts, Jonathan
A Study of Feature Extraction Algorithms for Optical Flow Tracking
Russell, R. Andrew
Novelty based Learning of Primitive Manipulation Strategies
Sa, Inkyu
100Hz Onboard Vision for Quadrotor State Estimation
Shi, Lei
Road Terrain Type Classification based on LMS Data
Singh, Surya P.
Towards Reduced-Order Models for Online Motion Planning and Control of UAVs in the Presence of Wind
Stanton, Christopher
Teleoperation of a humanoid robot using full-body motion capture, example movements, and machine learning
Suh, Chansu
Proximity Sensing and Reactive Control for Safe Manipulation
Sukkarieh, Salah
UAV Rendezvous: From Concept to Flight Test
Taghirad, Hamid
Monte Carlo Sampling of Non-Gaussian Proposal Distribution in Feature-Based RBPF-SLAM
Tang, Ruiyi
An Enhanced Dynamic Model for Mckiben Pneumatic Muscle Actuators
Tang, Titus Jia Jie
Plane-based detection of staircases using inverse depth
Taylor, Zachary J.
A Mutual Information Approach to Automatic Calibration of Camera and Lidar in Natural Environments
Tews, Ashley
Towards Robotic Visual & Acoustic Stealth for Outdoor Dynamic Target Tracking
Thomas, Stephen
Using Kinect for monitoring warehouse order picking operations
Umenberger, Jack
Guidance, Navigation and Control of a Small-Scale Paramotor
Upcroft, Ben
Visual Sea-floor Mapping from Low Overlap Imagery using Bi-objective Bundle Adjustment and Constrained Motion
Wang, Shifeng
Road Terrain Type Classification based on LMS Data
Warren, Michael D.
Visual Sea-floor Mapping from Low Overlap Imagery using Bi-objective Bundle Adjustment and Constrained Motion
Whitty, Mark
Path Planning with Maximum Expected Map Deformation
Williams, Henry
Image Salience Weighting for Improving Appearance-Based Place Recognition using a Supervised Classifier System
Williams, Stefan
Visual Sea-floor Mapping from Low Overlap Imagery using Bi-objective Bundle Adjustment and Constrained Motion
Williams, Stefan B.
Automated species detection: An experimental approach to kelp detection from sea-floor AUV images
Wilson, Daniel Briggs
UAV Rendezvous: From Concept to Flight Test
Wood, David
A Novel Approach to 3D Laser Scanning
Wusen, Li
Towards an Efficient and Robuts Optic Flow Algorithm for Robotic Applications
Wyeth, Gordon F.
Locally Weighted Learning Model Predictive Control for Elastic Joint Robots
Wyeth, Gordon F.
CAT-GRAPH+: Towards Odometry-driven Place Consolidation in Changing Environments
Yuan, Wei
Dynamic Modelling and Analysis of a Vectored Thrust Aerial Vehicle
Zainudin, Zulkarnain
Mutual Information Based Data Selection in Gaussian Processes for People Tracking