August 29th, 2011

Funded PhD position available at University of Birmingham for 3 years, to start October 2011.

A funded research student position is available at the University of Birmingham, UK for three years in the area of computer vision and robotics.

The research by the candidate will focus on computer vision methods that will enable efficient and scalable learning and inference of objects and object categories in the context of robotic tasks such as object manipulation, grasping, and exploiting affordances. The main emphasis will be on developing and evaluating computational approaches to scalable visual recognition of 3D object classes, building on our previous work on compositional hierarchies.

Prospective applicants should have an exceptionally strong academic record, and a solid knowledge of computer science, and/or mathematics, physics and engineering. They must also have demonstrable interest in computer vision and/or pattern recognition and machine learning, as well as very strong programming skills.

Contact: In the first instance please contact Prof Ales Leonardis: ales.leonardis@fri.uni-lj.si and Dr Jeremy L Wyatt: jlw@cs.bham.ac.uk attaching a CV with your academic record.

February 8th, 2011

Last summer, we ran an evaluation of our Dora mobile robot in a student flat in Mason Hall on the Vale. The results will be presented in a forthcoming ICRA ‘11 paper titled Home Alone: Autonomous Extension and Correction of Spatial Representations. This work was featured in the New Scientist video feature on Dora, but this video didn’t feature much explanation of the workings of the system. To rectify this, and to accompany the above ICRA paper, we produced the following video showing Dora in action and explaining a little more about how the robot works.

January 27th, 2011

We are seeking a Professorial Chair in Robotics, together with an associated lectureship. These complement five appointments (two Chairs and three lectureships) being made in Computational Neuroscience, as part of a multi-disciplinary centre in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics (CN-CR).

Applications are encouraged in a broad range of areas aligned with intelligent robotics and computational vision. These include: cognitive or software architectures for autonomous, intelligent robots, planning for robotics, SLAM, navigation and spatial cognition, technologies for human robot interaction, robot vision, computational or machine vision, evolutionary robotics, bio-inspired and bio-plausible robotics, humanoid robotics, robot learning, robotic manipulation, and automated diagnosis for robot systems.

We are searching for an outstanding individual in any area of intelligent robotics, computational vision, or autonomous systems. In evaluating applications, we will look for a track record of world leading, high impact research, together with an outstanding track record of obtaining external research funding.

To learn more contact: Dr Jeremy Wyatt, School of Computer Science, j.l.wyatt “at” cs.bham.ac.uk in the first instance

To download the details and submit an electronic application online visit: www.hr.bham.ac.uk/jobs . To find the vacancies click on current vacanies and enter the job reference number which is 38191 for the Professor and 43661 for the Lectureship.

October 27th, 2010

The School of Psychology is currently looking to recruit 1 or 2 professorial chairs in computational neuroscience as part of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics, of which the IRLab is a part. The job advert (which will appear in Science on November 5th) can be found here (PDF).

October 27th, 2010

Catherine Harris, a PhD student in the IRLab, and previously an undergraduate in the School of Computer Science recently took part in the Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge Europe (SAUC-E). She writes about her experience below.

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October 11th, 2010

During the summer we took Dora, our self-motivated exploring robot for a week of tests in a student flat in the Vale Village. While doing this, the New Scientist came along to document the experience. You can watch the video embedded below, or read the full article here.

March 15th, 2010

We are now recruiting for two Professorial Chairs to lead the new CNCR centre. The advert and further particulars for the Chair in Robotics , and the Chair in Computational Neuroscience , are available.

November 20th, 2009

The IRLab is pleased to be part of a major new research initiative within the University of Birmingham. The Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive (CNCR) is a new interdisciplinary research centre focusing on research in computational neuroscience and cognitive robotics. It will use techniques such as brain imaging and robot modelling to try to understand more about how the brain works. One of the aims of CNCR is to exploit this new understanding. This will be by using it to develop new rehabilitation techniques for patients with brain injury or dysfunction; to develop new kinds of robot controllers; and to use these both for rehabilitation of patients, and as assistive technologies where rehabilitation is insufficient.

You can read the full press release here or visit the CNCR website.

September 18th, 2008

We are delighted to announce another grant success. Richard Dearden will lead a project on Automated Diagnosis for Fault Detection, Identification and Recovery in Autosub6000. This project will help make autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) more reliable by enabling them to deal with potentially dangerous faults they may have. (more…)

June 2nd, 2008

Zeyn Saigol, a PhD student in the Intelligent Robotics Lab has won an internship to spend the summer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) . (more…)