Manipulation in Nature

Grasping/manipulating in rainforest, farmland or shrubland environments pose a new challenge for existing techniques. This project will investigate how they manipulate where there may be tree branches, foliage, or other natural obstacles in the way. This project would explore existing and emerging techniques such as optimisation, neural radiance fields (NeRFs), deep learning and reinforcement learning and equipment, including depth cameras, LiDAR, event cameras, and light field cameras.

  • Does the manipulator have to re-arrange the environment to manipulate the point of interest?
  • Or does it simply force its way through (push through leaves, for example)?
  • How does the manipulator move (or manipulate) to get a better perspective of the target to manipulate the target?

Chief Investigators