ARCAA is a collaboration between the CSIRO ICT Centre, Autonomous Systems Lab, and the School of Engineering Systems at the Queensland University of Technology. This collaboration was based on the recognition that both groups had interests in automating aerospace vehicles and were separated by only a few kilometres!
The QUT group had interests in aviation and space, having worked with NASA JPL to develop the GNSS payload of Australia’s first satellite in over 30 years – FedSat. The CSIRO group were interested in computer vision and robotics having developed the world’s first vision-based helicopter hovering system. Upon recognition of these complementary interests, what began as a loose agreement to co-supervise PhD students in 2003 has now attracted over $20M of project funding since 2005 – including $6M for a state of the art aerospace automation research facility.
As part of our community engagement we also organised Australia’s first aerial robotics competition in Kingaroy in 2007 which attracted competitors from around the world. It was so successful it is happening again in 2008. (see www.uavoutbackchallenge.com.au).
Another of our professional activities has been to assist Australian industry to formalise the development of policy and regulatory reform in the area of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). This activity has resulted in the formation of UAS Australia (see www.uasaustralia.org for more details).
It has been a hectic few years and with total full-time staff numbers just topping 30 we have become the largest group in Australia with this vision. Oh and that vision again …. well I do a lot of light aircraft flying around Australia in a year and if there is any country in the world, likely to benefit from the provision of robotic aircraft services, it has to be here.
Contact
ra. walker(at)qut.edu.au
Phone: +61 (0) 417 791 311
we are located at:
22-24 Boronia Road. Eagle Farm. QLD 4009
Australia