Overview
The Centre for Vision and Robotics Research specialises in two complementary areas: the analysis and understanding of image, video and other sensor data; and sensing and control for autonomous robotic systems.
The Vision Group
The Vision Group led by Professor Andrew Hunter specialises in a number of application areas, including security surveillance, collision detection systems for vehicles, food technology, medical screening and the care of the elderly. Technologies range from statistical vision through to neural vision systems, including invertebrate-inspired systems. This Group is currently working closely with industrial partners on the development of novel hardware neural network systems. Its surveillance systems are under commercial development with partners in the USA, and it is developing similar methods for medical and social applications, including monitoring vulnerable people such as the aged at home, detecting anomalous sleep patterns for sufferers from sleep apnoea, and diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy and other diseases of the retina
The Robotics Group
The Robotics Group led by Dr Tom Duckett specialises in enabling technologies for mobile and interactive robots that live together with people in natural indoor and outdoor environments. Current research is focused around several directions: mapping and navigation by mobile robots, including self-localisation, map learning, and long-term adaptation to dynamic environments; learning control, including machine learning methods for perception-based control of autonomous systems; and in partnership with the Lincoln Social Computing Research Centre, social robotics, including human-robot interaction, recognition and tracking of people, and exploring the links between animal and robot behaviour. An orthogonal research theme, with application in all of these areas, is robot perception, including multi-sensor fusion, estimation and tracking for autonomous robots. The Group has a number of research platforms including an aerial robot, an all-terrain vehicle, various interaction robots and a team of cleaning robots.
Please see the Lincoln Robotics website for further information on our research.
The Centre has a wide range of national and international sponsors, from Research Councils to companies, including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Trade Strategy Board, the US Homeland Security Department, the NHS, the Potato Council, and a number of small and medium size enterprises. The Centre has a large number of research students, with 3 successful doctoral awards in 2007/08.