Robotics Activities at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

#Robotics #NASA #JPL #CSIRO #Automation #DARPA #SUBT
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The IEEE QLD joint chapters Control Systems and Robotics and Automation Societies along with CSIRO's Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group are co-sponsoring an invited talk by Dr. Benjamin Morrell from NASA's Jet Propulsion Labratory.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is famous for flagship space exploration missions such as the Mars rovers, the Cassini mission to Saturn and the Voyager spacecraft journeying beyond the solar system. While these activities take up a large portion of the laboratory, there is also a substantial proportion of the lab devoted to research, and, in particular robotics research. This research has a focus on field validation, testing and deployment to move technology along the pipeline from papers to technology ready to be integrated on future space missions. This talk will give an overview of some of the robotics activities at JPL, both flight and research. More details will then be presented on the work being done as part of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge (https://www.subtchallenge.com/), with a specific focus on the perception components on the challenge.


  Date and Time

  Location

  Hosts

  Registration


  • Date: 23 Sep 2019
  • Time: 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
  • All times are (GMT+10:00) Australia/Queensland
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  • 1 Technology Court
  • Pullenvale, Queensland
  • Australia 4069
  • Building: Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies
  • Room Number: Lecture Theatre
  • Contact Event Host

  • Please contact Dr. Navinda Kottege at navinda.kottege@csiro.au if you need more information.

  • Co-sponsored by The CSIRO Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group
  • Starts 19 September 2019 08:40 AM
  • Ends 23 September 2019 10:30 AM
  • All times are (GMT+10:00) Australia/Queensland
  • No Admission Charge

  Speakers

Dr. Benjamin Morrell Dr. Benjamin Morrell of NASA JPL

Biography:

Benjamin Morrell is a Robotics Technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, working on autonomous navigation technology for robots flying, exploring underground and in space. His main project is currently on team CoSTAR, a collaboration between JPL, MIT and Caltech competing in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. In CoSTAR, he leads the perception sub-team, focusing on global localization, mapping and object localization.

Previously he worked at JPL as a Post-Doctoral researcher after completing an internship there during his PhD which included work on high speed autonomous flight of quadrotors. He completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in the School of Aerospace Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, the same institution where he completed his Bachelor’s of Aeronautical (Space) Engineering in 2013.
Ben’s PhD thesis was focusing on autonomous navigation for aerial and space-based robots, considering localization, mapping, trajectory planning and control.

Ben is a motivated actor in trying to connect Australian students, researchers and entrepreneurs with opportunities, expertise and experience in the US space industry, and has been heavily involved in outreach activities while in Australia (AIAA Sydney Section, and Zero Robotics).