I am a Lecturer in the Artificial Intelligence Discipline in the School of Computing Technologies, in the STEM College at RMIT University.
I have a passion for Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Robotics. My research interests include online learning (learning on-board autonomous robot in real-time as they operates) including online deep reinforcement learning, Human-Robot Interaction (methods for improving the relationship and trust between humans and robots intended to work with humans), Explainable AI in Autonomous Robotics leveraging Augmented Reality, and Qualitative Modelling and Reasoning (symbolic representations of robot numeric dynamics, and application of these models for determining robot dynamics). Applications of my research include food waste prevention in macadamia nut harvesting, augmented reality for explaining autonomous robot decision in RoboCup soccer, online learning of UAV control, real-time prediction of CFD in aviation, and fatigue crack growth modelling in aircraft.
At RMIT I am:
- The Lab manager for the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Lab
- A member of CIAIRI - The Centre for Industrial Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation
- A member of RUASRT - RMIT Uncrewed Ariel Systems Research Team
I am currently:
- A member of the Executive Committee for the RoboCup Soccer Standard Platform League
- A program committee member for IJCAI
- A program committee member for the RoboCup Symposium
News
| 30 Sep 2024 | I appeared on the "Curly Questions" panel at the upcoming 2024 Adobe Educators Conference in Melbourne, as an expoert in AI and Education within Computer Science. |
| 19 Sep 2024 | My Autonomous Robotics project on reducing losses in Macadamia Farming in Australia with the Husarion Panther platform has been published in a media article with Husarion. |
| 15 Sep 2024 | It was my great honour to present the RMIT Engineering Excellence Awards at the RoboCup Junior Victoria State Final for 2024. Congratulations to all winners. |
| 14 Sep 2024 | Our paper with Ord, Wiley and Marino: "Fixed-Wing UAV System for Aerial Tethered Delivery of Small to Medium Packages" was accepted to the 21st Australian International Aerospace Congress (AIAC21) which will coincide with the 2025 Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre & Avalon Airshow. |
| 09 Sep 2024 | Our paper with Steimer, Martinez, Wood, Mohamed and Wiley: "Online Deep Reinforcement Learning of Servo Control for a Small-Scale Bio-Inspired Wing" has been accepted to the Australian Joint Conference on AI 2024. This is work of Steimer's 2023/2024 Master's thesis. |
| 04 Sep 2024 | I have completed my First Aid Training course. |
| 29 Aug 2024 | I presented to RMIT's Generative AI community a talk "AI Marking - My Experiences with Sage Grader" on our use of AI assisted grading in COSC2803 (Programming Studio 1) with SageGrade (now Sagiee) for marking of short-text answers at scale of over 750 students. |
| 27 Aug 2024 | As part of my outreach in STEM, I visited Sacred Heart Girls' College in Melbourne to talk about AI and Robotics. It was nice to speak to so many keen young students, and hopefully help inspire future careers in STEM. |
| 22 Aug 2024 | Recordings for my ESSAI 2024 course are now available. I've linked to the recordings on my ESSAI and Media pages. |
| 12 Aug 2024 | I am teaching two courses in Semester 2 2024, my regular course COSC2803 (Programming Studio 1), and one module in COSC2804 (Programming Studio 2). |
| 26 Jul 2024 | It was my great pleasure to deliver a 5-day course ESSAI 2024 (European Summer School on AI), 'Practical AI for Autonomous Robots', for the second consecutive year, held this time at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. |
| 23 Jul 2024 | I have been appointed as an Executive Member of the RoboCup Soccer SPL. |
| 22 Jul 2024 | My student, Murray Owens, presented our paper "Lightweight Real-Time Gesture Recognition for Dynamic Soccer Referee Signals" at the RoboCup 2024 Symposium. |
| 21 Jul 2024 | RedbackBots win 3rd place in the Challenge Shield! |
| 21 Jul 2024 | I, along with our RedbackBots RoboCup Soccer SPL team, featured on AIHub's final RoboCup'24 daily digest for our AR visualisation system. |
| 14 Jul 2024 | RedbackBots have arrived at RoboCup 2024 Eindhoven and are gearing up for our games. All RoboCup Soccer SPL games are live-streamed on the Soccer SPL Youtube Channel. |
| 30 Jun 2024 | Our paper, Ord, Wiley and Marino: "Modernising Delivery: A Low-Energy Tethered Package System using Fixed-Wing Drones" has been accpeted to the 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). |
| 18 Apr 2024 | I was a spotlight educator for RMIT in 2024, as one of RMIT's leading experts in AI and Learning in Robotics. |
Research Interests
I have two primary research interests. Firstly, in using autonomous robots as a platform for efficient machine learning. Secondly in investigating explainable artificial intelligence with applications in human-robot interaction.
Keywords:
- Artificial Intelligence for Robotics
- Machine Learning
- Online Learning
- Reinforcement Learning
- Qualitative Reasoning
- Cognitive Robotics
- Uncrewed Ariel System/Vehicles
Research Projects:
My research projects include:- Easigrow | Defence structures and materials experimentation collaborative program - Easigrow is a program developed by the DST (Australian Defence Science and Technology) to model fatigue crack growth, specialises in calculating model coefficients that best fit crack growth data. This project extends and improves the capabilities of Easigrow with Machine Learning techniques for more accurate predictions.
- DimSim (Deep Intelligence Machine Simulator) - DimSim research is focused on developing a physically accurate, virtual simulation environment, able to simulate the function and performance of autonomous vehicles and related systems. Our partner is Rheinmetall Defence Australia (RDA).
Teaching
My currently teaching roles are:
- Course Co-ordinator
- COSC2781/COSC2814 - Programming Autonomous Robots
- COSC2803 - Programming Studio 1
- COSC2804 - Programming Studio 2
In 2021, I launching a brand new course in Autonomous Robotics at RMIT, originally in partnership with AWS RoboMaker. The course currently features a fleet of Husarion ROSBot robots as part of the main application platform. The course also features a wide range of application platforms including the Husarion Panther, the Cobot UR5e, the Boston Dynamics Spot, and various UAVs.
In 2021, I also launched Programming Studio 1, which I designed and developed over. This innovative course is part of RMIT's unique Bootcamp2Studio first year teaching model. Programming Studio 1 showcases to students the end-to-end of software development, where they develop a data-driven fully functional website by the end of their first semester. It features concepts across user experience design, database concepts, and web programming.
RoboCup
RoboCup is the premiere annual international competition for autonomous robotics, featuring teams competing from over 40 countries across a wide variety of challenges. I have been involved in RoboCup for over 15 years. More information can be found on my RoboCup page.
Education
PhD (Computer Science)
School of Computer Science and Engineering,
The University of New South Wales
Keywords: Cognitive Robotics, Qualitative Reasoning and Planning, Reinforcement Learning, Hierarchical
Learning
Bachelor of Science (Computer Science), Honours First Class.
School of Computer Science and Engineering,
The University of New South Wales
Majors: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics
Former Roles and Activities
Research Associate
Creative Robotics Lab | Art & Design | UNSW Sydney
School of Computer Science and Engineering | Faculty of Engineering | UNSW Sydney
National Facility for Human Robot Interaction Research | UNSW Sydney
In partnership with Fuji-Xerox Japan
Assistant Lecturer | Tutor
School of Computer Science and Engineering | Faculty of Engineering | UNSW Sydney
Junior Developer Co-Op Scholarship Internships
News Digital Media
NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (now NSW Road and Maritime Services)
Student
School of Computer Science and Engineering | Faculty of Engineering | UNSW Sydney
As a student I was a member of:
- CSERevue - An annual sketch comedy show run by the students of CSE. I directed the show in 2012.
- CSESoc - A society who runs activities relevant to students at CSE.
During my travels I have been fortunate enough to visit many countries and places.
