ACRA 2017
Event Details
Dec 2017
Building 11, University Technology Sydney, Australia
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Individual application Organisation applicationACRA 2017
Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9807404-8-6 ISSN: 1448-2053
ISBN: 978-0-9807404-8-6 ISSN: 1448-2053
Program
Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2017
December 11-13, 2017 at The University of Technology Sydney
Each presentation is 12mins prez + 3mins Q&A (Total 15mins)
Registration Desk:
8:00 am-11:00 am: Monday
Monday, 11 December 2017
09.15 – 09.30: Welcome
09.30 – 10.00: Invited Talk: Ken Waldron – A Memoir of Fifty Years of Robotics Research
10.00 – 11.00: Session 1: Modelling and Control
11.00 – 11.30: Morning tea
11.30 – 12.30: Session 2: Student Award Nominee Papers
12.30 – 14.00: Lunch
14.00 – 15.30: Session 3: Human Robot Interaction and Systems
15.30 – 16.00: Afternoon tea
16.00 – 17.30: Session 4: Machine Learning
18.00 – 20.00: Opening Night Pizza/Drinks
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
09.00 – 10.30: Session 5: SLAM
10.30 – 11.00: Morning tea
11.00 – 12.45: Session 6: Perception
12.45 – 14.00: Lunch
14.00 – 15.30: Session 7: Robotic vision
15.30 – 16.00: Afternoon tea
16.00 – 17.30: Session 8: Path Planning
18.30 – 22.30: Banquet (including AGM)
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
09.00 – 10.30: Session 9: Sensing and Control
10.30 – 11.00: Morning tea
11.00 – 12.30: Australian Robotics and Vision Roadmap
12.30 – 13.30: Lunch
13.30 – 15.30: Tours (FEIT and Data Arena)
Invited Talk – A Memoir of Fifty Years of Robotics Research

Kenneth J Waldron Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, U. of Technology, Sydney
Chair: Sarath Kodagoda
Dr. Waldron obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering Science from the University of Sydney (Australia). He received his PhD from Stanford University in 1969. He was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Engineering by the University of Sydney
in 1999. After a period with Australian Iron and Steel Pty. Ltd. He has held teaching appointments at Stanford, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Houston, before joining The Ohio State University in 1979. He served as department chairman from April 1st, 1993 to June 30th, 2000. He joined Stanford University on September 1st, 2000. He became Professor (Research) Emeritus of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University in 2011. He holds a half-time appointment at the University of Technology, Sydney effective July 2007.
Dr. Waldron’s research interests include machine design in general, and particularly geometric, mechanical and software design of robots and computer coordinated mechanical systems. He has a particular interest in locomotory biomechanics and in the design of computer coordinated vehicles and robotic systems for use in unstructured environments. Dr. Waldron is a Fellow of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a Senior Member of IEEE. He was Technical Leader of the ASME Systems and Design Group and was President of IFToMM the International Federation for Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science from 2000 to 2007. He received the ASME Leonardo da Vinci Award in March 1988, the Mechanisms Award in 1990, the Machine Design Award in 1994, the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award in 2002 and the Dedicated Service Award in 2004. He was a speaker in the ASME Distinguished Lecturers Program from 1996 to 1999. He also received the Joseph F. Engelberger Award of the Robotic Industries Association in 1997.
Session 1: Modelling and Control
Chair: Jonathan Roberts
Steep Terrain Ascension Controller for Hexapod Robots | Alberto Elfes (CSIRO), Navinda Kottege (CSIRO), Thomas Molnar (CSIRO, University of Queensland), Ryan Steindl (CSIRO), Fletcher Talbot (CSIRO) | digest |
Active Task Design in Adaptive Control of Redundant Robotic Systems | Wenjie Lu (University of Technology Sydney), Dikai Liu (University of Technology Sydney) | digest |
A New Manipulability Measure for the Control of CRAM: A Cable-driven Remote Access Manipulator | Ali Haydar Goktogan (Australian Centre for Field Robotics), Wilhelm Johan Marais (The University of Sydney) | digest |
Loop Shaping Design Procedure for Quadrotor Control with Weights Designed by Resolving a Constrained Non-linear Optimization Problem | Jonathan Currie (Auckland University of Technology), Joseph Thomas (Auckland University of Technology), David Wilson (Auckland University of Technology) | paper |
Session 2: Student Award(s) Nominee Papers
Chair: Bruce MacDonald
Quasi-Static Balance of a Bioinspired Robotic-Seagull Ornithopter Perching on a Wire | Yuxin Pan (The University of Sydney), Ali Haydar Goktogan (Australian Centre for Field Robotics) | paper |
Energy-Optimal Kinodynamic Planning for Underwater Gliders in Flow Fields | James Ju Heon Lee (University of Technology Sydney), Chanyeol Yoo (University of Technology Sydney), Raewyn Hall (DSG), Stuart Anstee (DSG), Robert Fitch (University of Technology Sydney) | paper |
Simultaneous Optical Flow and Segmentation (SOFAS) using Dynamic Vision Sensor | Timo Stoffregen (Monash University), Lindsay Kleeman (Monash University) | paper |
Modular Deep Q Networks for Sim-to-real Transfer of Visuo-motor Policies | Fangyi Zhang (Queensland University of Technology), Jürgen Leitner (Queensland University of Technology), Michael Milford (Queensland University of Technology), Peter Corke (Queensland University of Technology) | paper |
Session 3: Human Robot Interaction and Systems
Chair: Dikai Liu
Augmented Telepresence for Remote Inspection with Legged Robots | Benjamin Tam (CSIRO), Navinda Kottege (CSIRO), Branislav Kusy (CSIRO) | paper |
UoA Robot Manager Framework V2 | Seung Ho Lee( The University of Auckland), Kijong Han (The University of Auckland), Min Ho Lee (The University of Auckland), Lukas Vogel (Augsburg University), Jong Yoon Lim (The University of Auckland), Bruce A. MacDonald (The University of Auckland), Ho Seok Ahn (The University of Auckland) | paper |
Effect of External Force and Bimanual Operation on Upper Limb Pose during Human-Robot Collaboration | Richardo Khonasty (University of Technology Sydney), Marc Carmichael(University of Technology Sydney), Dikai Liu (University of Technology Sydney), Stefano Aldini (University of Technology Sydney) | digest |
Heart Simulator: A Periodic Pump to Simulate the Cardiac Motion in an Aortic Test-rig | Siyuan Chen (University of Technology, Sydney), Viet Hung Doan (University of Technology, Sydney), Liang Zhao (University of Technology, Sydney), | paper |
Human User Impressions of Damping Methods for Singularity Handling in Human-Robot Collaboration | Marc G. Carmichael (University of Technology Sydney), Stefano Aldini (University of Technology Sydney), Dikai Liu (University of Technology Sydney) | digest |
Session 4: Machine Learning
Chair: Teresa Vidal Calleja
Learning to Navigate by Growing Deep Networks | Thushan Ganegedara (The University of Sydney), Lionel Ott (The University of Sydney), Fabio Ramos (The University of Sydney) | paper |
Auxiliary Tasks To Improve Trip Hazard Affordance Detection On Construction Sites | Sean McMahon (Queensland University of Technology), Tong Shen (The University of Adelaide), Niko Sünderhauf (Queensland University of Technology), Ian Reid (The University of Adelaide), Chunhua Shen (The University of Adelaide), Michael Milford (Queensland University of Technology) | digest |
Row Following in Pergola Structured Orchards by a Monocular Camera Using a Fully Convolutional Neural Network | Jamie Bell (University of Auckland), Bruce A. MacDonald (University of Auckland), Ho Seok Ahn (University of Auckland) | digest |
Session 5: SLAM
Chair: Jose Guivant
Efficient Active SLAM based on Submap Joining | Yongbo Chen (University of Technology, Sydney), Shoudong Huang (University of Technology, Sydney), Robert Fitch (University of Technology, Sydney), Jianqiao Yu (Beijing Institute of Technology), | paper |
Sparse Point-Plane SLAM | Mehdi Hosseinzadeh (The University of Adelaide), Yasir Latif (The University of Adelaide), Ian Reid (The University of Adelaide) | paper |
Robust Dense Optical Flow with Uncertainty for Monocular Pose-Graph SLAM | Yonhon Ng (The Australian National University), Jonghyuk Kim (The Australian National University), Hongdong Li (The Australian National University) | paper |
Vector Distance Function Based Map Representation for Robot Localisation | Janindu Arukgoda (University of Technology, Sydney), Ravindra Ranasinghe (University of Technology, Sydney), Lakshitha Dantanarayana (University of Technology, Sydney), Gamini Dissanayake (University of Technology, Sydney), Tomonari Furukawa (Virginia Polytechnic Institude and State University) | digest |
Session 6: Perception
Chair: Alen Alempijevic
Motion States Inference through 3D Shoulder Gait Analysis and Hierarchical Hidden Markov Models | Julien Collart (University of Technology, Sydney), Robert Fitch (University of Technology, Sydney), Alen Alempijevic (University of Technology, Sydney) | digest |
Using Planar Point Correspondence to Calibrate Camera Arrays for Light Field Acquisition | Ashley W. Stewart (Queensland University of Technology), Donald G. Dansereau (Stanford University) | paper |
Fusing Lidar and Semantic Image Information in Octree Maps | Julie Stephany Berrio Perez (The University of Sydney), James Robert Ward (The University of Sydney), Stewart Worrall (The University of Sydney), Wei Zhou (The University of Sydney), Eduardo Nebot (The University of Sydney) | digest |
Session 7: Robotic Vision
Chair: Michael Milford
Extending Parallax Parameterised Bundle Adjustment to Stereo | Brenton Leighton (University of Technology, Sydney), Liang Zhao (University of Technology, Sydney), Shoudong Huang (University of Technology, Sydney), Gamini Dissanayake (University of Technology, Sydney) | paper |
Straightening Sequence-Search for Appearance-Invariant Place Recognition using Robust Motion Estimation | Sourav Garg (Queensland University of Technology), Michael Milford (Queensland University of Technology), | digest |
Image Rejection and Match Verification to Improve Surface-Based Localization | James Mount (Queensland University of Technology),Michael Milford (Queensland University of Technology) | digest |
Enhancing Underground Visual Place Recognition with Shannon Entropy Saliency | Fan Zeng (Queensland University of Technology),Adam Jacobson (Queensland University of Technology), David Smith (Caterpillar), Nigel Boswell (Caterpillar), Thierry Peynot (Queensland University of Technology), Michael J. Milford(Queensland University of Technology) | digest |
Session 8: Path Planning
Chair: Robert Fitch
Path planning for autonomous bulldozers | Masami Hirayama (Komatsu Ltd.), Jose Guivant (University of New South Wales), Jayantha Katupitiya(University of New South Wales), Mark Whitty(University of New South Wales), | digest |
A Distributed Search Algorithm for Multiple Robots with Collision Avoidance | Xiaotian Yang (The University of New South Wales) | paper |
The collision avoidance control algorithm of the UAV formation flight | Jialong Zhang (Northwest Polytechnical Univerity) | paper |
Insect Level Intelligence is Sufficient to Move Furniture | Bimal Prakash Sharma (Queensland University of Technology), Frederic Maire (Queensland University of Technology) | digest |
Session 9: Sensing and Control
Chair: Mark Whitty
Contactless Position Sensing and Control of Pneumatic Cylinders using a Hall Effect Sensor Array | Tim Hojnik (CSIRO), Paul Flick (CSIRO), Jonathan Roberts (Queensland University of Technology) | digest |
Optimal Sensing Geometry for Pseudorange and Bearing-Elevation Observations | Jonghyuk Kim (The Australian National University), Weikun Chen (The Australian National University) | paper |
Design and Control of CRAM: A Highly Articulated Cable-driven Remote Access Manipulator for Confined Space Inspection | Wilhelm Johan Marais (The University of Sydney), Ali Haydar Goktogan (The University of Sydney) | paper |
Robust Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Task Allocation for Low-Intelligence Agents | Nick Sullivan (The University of Adelaide), Steven Grainger (The University of Adelaide), Ben Cazzolato (The University of Adelaide) | paper |
A Survey on Inverse Dynamics Solvers for Cable-Driven Parallel Robots | Yin Pok Chan (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Jonathan Eden (The University of Melbourne), Darwin La (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Denny Oetomo (The University of Melbourne) | paper |
Session 10: A National Roadmap for Robotics and Computer Vision in Australia
Organizer: Dr Sue Keay, COO, Australian Centre for Robotic Vision
Abstract:
Robotic Vision, the application of computer vision to robotics, enables robotic technologies to add value to industries that require automation in complex physical environments. The development of robotic vision technologies will lead to the creation of new companies, new jobs and will address a range of issues of national importance including a aging population, servicing remote communities, and dealing with labour shortages.
A Robotics and Computer Vision Roadmap for Australia is needed to demonstrate existing capability and future possibilities of these disruptive technologies. Little is known about the robotics and computer vision industries in Australia today and yet they will support the use of robotics across a range of sectors including; manufacturing, services, healthcare, resources, the natural and built environments, and defence.
The Australian Centre for Robotic Vision is developing Australia’s first robotics and computer vision roadmap. The Centre has received in-depth advice on how to construct a nationally recognised roadmap fro Prof. Henrik Christensen, the author of the European and US robotics roadmaps. The 2013 version of the US robotics roadmap gained the attention of congress and President Barack Obama and, eventually, led to concentrated investment in robotics research in the US. Our goals for Australia are similar but also include computer vision and will tackle
the question of defining Australia’s capability in the space as well as future research directions.
We have an ambitious timeline to complete the roadmap for it to be launched in May 2018 in Brisbane, Australia, during the International Conference for Robotics and Automation (ICRA2018), the first time the
conference has been held in the southern hemisphere and a time when the spotlight will be on Australia’s robotics and computer vision communities. We are keen to represent diverse views in the roadmap and invite people to attend the workshop to contribute their ideas.
Venue
ACRA 2017 is hosted at University of Technology Sydney,Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology building (Building 11)
Building 11. Level 00. Room 405 (Ground Floor – entrance from Wattle Street)

Accommodation
- Metro Aspire Hotel (~500 meters from UTS)
Location: 383-389 Bulwara Rd, Ultimo NSW 2007
Website: https://metrohotels.com.au/hotels/metro-aspire-hotel-sydney/
Phone: (02) 9211-1499
Booking: the attendees can book through website using the promo code: UTS123 – 15% discount from best available rate.
Rates: ~220 for single or double rooms. - Novotel Sydney Central (~500 meters from UTS)Location: 79 Thomas St, Sydney NSW 2000
Website: https://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-8781-novotel-sydney-central/index.shtml
Phone: (02) 9281-6888
Booking: book through hotel to receive 10% off our best available rate at time of call 30 days out from arrival, after this any booking that come through from November 11th 2017 the rate on offer will revert to our best available rate.
Rates: ~230 for single or double rooms with Breakfast included. - Vibe Hotel Sydney (~1km from UTS)Location: 111 Goulburn St Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia
Website: https://www.tfehotels.com/en/hotels/vibe-hotels/sydney/
Booking: book through TFE Hotels to receive 25% off best available rate
Rates: ~145 for single or twin room. - Adina Apartment Hotel Sydney Darling Harbour(~2km from UTS)Location: 55 Shelly Street, Darling harbour, Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia
Website: https://www.tfehotels.com/en/hotels/adina-apartment-hotels/sydney-darling-harbour
Booking: book through TFE Hotels to receive 25% off best available rate
Rates: ~165 for premier queen room.
Parking
The closest parking is InterPark Australia which is underneath Building 11, entry via Thomas Street. Parking is at flat rate of $27/day.
Getting to ACRA from SYD Airport
- Public transport: From any of the Sydney Airport terminals to Central Station, thereafter a 15min walk to UTS
- Uber: About 30-40 min and will cost about $30
Submission
Paper Submission:
(September 22, 2017 at 11:59 pm AEST)
Please submit a paper via https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/acra/
Paper Format:
ACRA papers are six to ten pages in length. This includes the body text, references, figures and acknowledgements. Papers that do not follow the guidelines may be rejected without review.
All papers must conform to ACRA’s paper templates. Detailed instructions for format requirements are contained within the templates. Prospective authors should kindly submit their papers electronically in PDF format.
You may want to take a look at our past best papers for exemplars. For example, the ACRA 2014 best paper: Exploiting Parallax in Panoramic Capture to Construct Light Fields byDonald Dansereau, David Wood, Sebastian Montabone and Stefan Williams.
Paper Templates:
Please use this link to download the following files:
LaTeX: style file: acra.sty, template: acra.tex, bibtex: named.bst
Microsoft Word | Star/OpenOffice: template: acra.rtf or acra.odt.
Presentation Format:
Each presentation is 15 minutes in length (12 minutes for presentation and 3 minutes for Q&A). Acceptance of all work at the conference is based on the quality of the submitted paper. Attendance of a presenter at the conference is required for accepted papers to appear in the proceedings.
Thank you kindly for your interest and submission(s)! 🙂
Registration
Registration open: ACRA 17 Register here
Early bird registration closes 20 November 2017
Registration Type | Early Bird | Full |
Regular (Banquet Included) | $550 | $600 |
Student (Banquet Included) | $380 | $400 |
Extra Banquet Ticket | $150 | $150 |
Student Travel Awards
This year ARAA will award two “Student Travel Awards” worth $500 + free student registration ($350) to participants in ACRA. Undergraduate and postgraduate students are welcome to apply. Application is by sending an email to the ARAA treasurer, with subject line: “Application for ACRA 2017 Student Travel Grant”.
State in the email:
· Your name
· Institution and current study program
· The paper ID that you authored (if applicable)
· Brief description of your research / interest in Robotics
· Please include a letter of support from an academic supervisor.
Applications will be open from the date of notification of paper acceptance until the date of submission of camera-ready papers. Notification of successful travel awards will be made by 20 November 2017.
ACRA 2017
Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2017
Sarath Kodagoda (General Chair), and Teresa Vidal Calleja and Alen Alempijevic (Program Chair)
ISBN: 978-0-9807404-8-6 ISSN: 1448-2053
11-13 December, 2017
Sydney Australia
All full papers submitted to ACRA 2017 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.
Conference Awards
Raymond A. Jarvis Best Paper Award: “Simultaneous Optical Flow and Segmentation (SOFAS) using Dynamic Vision Sensor”, Timo Stoffregen (Monash University), Lindsay Kleeman (Monash University)
Best Student Paper: “Energy-Optimal Kinodynamic Planning for Underwater Gliders in Flow Fields”, James Ju Heon Lee (University of Technology Sydney), Chanyeol Yoo (University of Technology Sydney), Raewyn Hall (DSG), Stuart Anstee (DSG), Robert Fitch (University of Technology Sydney)
11-13 December 2017, University of Technology Sydney
Editors: Sarath Kodagoda, Teresa Vidal Calleja and Alen Alempijevic
University of Technology Sydney
ISBN: 978-0-9807404-8-6 ISSN: 1448-2053
Table of Contents
Organisation
Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2017
Sponsoring Organisations
- IFM
- Festo Didatic
- Tribotix
- Australian Centre for Robotic Vision
- Marathon Robotics
- Swarmfarm
- University of Technology Sydney
General Chair:
Sarath Kodagoda
University of Technology Sydney
Program Chairs:
Teresa Vidal Calleja and Alen Alempijevic
University of Technology Sydney
Programme Committee:
Alen Alempijevic | Gavin Paul | Lionel Ott | Surya Singh |
Ali Bab-Hadiashar | Jaime Valls-Miro | Mahdi Hassan | Susantha Pathirana |
Ardian Jusufi | James Trevelyan | Makoto Kumon | Teresa Vidal Calleja |
Bruce MacDonald | Jay Katupitiya | Marc Carmichael | Thierry Peynot |
Cameron Stewart | John Billingsley | Mark Whitty | Viorella Ila |
Chow Yin Lai | Jonathan Roberts | Matthew Garratt | Wai-Ho Li |
Chris Hollitt | Jonghyuk Kim | Michael Woods | Wen Lik Dennis Lui |
Chris McCarthy | Jose Guivant | Mitch Bryson | Wenjie Lu |
David Stirling | Jose Neira | Nalika Ulapane | Wesley Au |
Denny Oetomo | Kai-Tai Song | Peter Corke | Will Browne |
Dikai Liu | Lakshitha Dantanarayana | Peter Xu | Xuesong Li |
Eduardo Nebot | Liang Zhao | Robert Fitch | |
Fernando Auat Cheein | Lindsay Kleeman | Sarath Kodagoda | |
Gamini Dissanayake | Linh Nguyen | Shoudong Huang |
Contact Us
General Chair:
- General Chair: Sarath Kodagoda
- Program Co-Chairs: Teresa Vidal Calleja and Alen Alempijevic
Mailing Address:
School of Mechanical and Mecahtronic Systems
The University of Technology Sydney
81 Broadway
Broadway, NSW 2007
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