
PhD (The University of Melbourne)
I am a distinguished professor of robotic vision at QUT and director of the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision. I wrote the textbook Robotics, Vision & Control, authored the MATLAB toolboxes for Robotics and Machine Vision, and created the online educational resource: QUT Robot Academy. Area of research: Robotics I am interested in how robots can use the sense of vision to accomplish a broad range of tasks. These might range from recognizing places or text in the world to dynamic tasks. An example of a visual dynamic task is something like hand-eye coordination, and for a robot it might be visual control of flying or driving or manipulation of objects. Why vision? Nature has invented the eye ten different times so it must be an effective sensor for doing a diverse range of tasks. Vision sensors and computing power are getting cheaper and cheaper. Now is the time to be doing vision for robotics! Some specific topics of interest include:
- The use of visual information for controlling robot motion, a technique known as visual servoing.
- Very wide field-of-view cameras based on fisheye lens and lens/mirror (catadioptric) optical systems.
- Optical flow, how images from a moving robot can be used to infer the world’s 3D structure and the robot’s motion
- Computer architectures for implementing computer vision algorithms in real time
- Stereo vision, using information from one or more cameras to create the 3D world structure.
- The combination with robotics to create mobile sensing systems
- Vision processing within networks of cameras.
Achievements/recognition
- fellow of the IEEE
- fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
- senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK)
- member of IEEE R&A Society AdCom (at large 2008-2010; 2011-2013; at large 2016-18 )
- editor-in-chief of the IEEE Robotics & Automation magazine (2009-2013)
- officer of the International Federation of Robotics Research
- founding and associate editor of the Journal of Field Robotics
- founding multi-media editor and editorial board member of the International Journal of Robotics Research
- member of the editorial advisory board of the Springer Tracts on Advanced Robotics series
- recipient of the Qantas/Rolls-Royce and Australian Engineering Excellence awards.
I received my Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering Science degrees, both in Electrical Engineering, and a PhD in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, all from the University of Melbourne. Prior to QUT I was a senior principal research scientist at CSIRO where I founded the Autonomous Systems laboratory, a 50-person team undertaking research in mining, ground, aerial and underwater robotics, as well as sensor networks. Subsequently I led a major cross-organizational “capability platform” in wireless sensor networks.
Select keynote talks
- Commonwealth Science Conference, Royal Society, Singapore, June 2017
- Canadian Robotic Vision Conference (CRV17), Edmonton, May 2017.
- MATLAB Expo, San Jose, Nov 2016
- Royal Society, London, Nov 2015
- Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, annual conference, Nov 2015;
- International Forum on Engineering Science and Technol- ogy Development Strategy: Intelligent Systems – Cities, Information, and Robots, Shenzen, China, April 2015
- IROS, Chicago, 2014.
- Int. Conf. Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA), China, August 2010.
- Public lecture on robotics at the 30th Oporto International Film Festival (FantasPorto), March 2010.
- 2nd International Symposium on Information and Robot Technology (ISIRT), Tokyo, March 2008.
- Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applications, Canberra, December 2008.
- TTI/Vanguard NextGens Technologies, Santa Monica, December 2007.
- Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR2007), Rome September 2007.
Selected list of awarded grants
Australian Research Council
- Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision, CE140100016. Partner universities: ANU, U. Adelaide, Monash, Oxford, Imperial College, INRIA, ETHZ, Georgia Tech, NICTA. $19.0M (2014-20).
- Discovery Grant, Robot Navigation using Text, Maps and the Web, DP140103216: Prof Gordon Wyeth, Prof Peter Corke, Dr Ben Upcroft, A/Prof Richi Nayak. $336k (2011-13).
- Linkage Grant, LP110200375: Robotics for zero-tillage agriculture, Prof Peter Corke, Dr Ben Upcroft, Prof Gordon Wyeth, A/Prof Salah Sukkarieh (U. Sydney), $539k, (2011-14).
- Discovery Grant, DP110103006: Lifelong robotic navigation using visual perception, Prof Peter Corke, Prof Gordon Wyeth, Dr Ben Upcroft, Dr Michael Bosse (CSIRO), Dr Paul Newman (Oxford), $445k (2011-13).
- Discovery Grant, Image-based teleoperation of semi-autonomous robotic vehicles. Co-investigator with Dr Robert Mahony (ANU), $432k (2008-10).
- Discovery Grant, DP0342849: Image-based control of under-actuated dynamic systems, Dr Robert Mahony (Australian National University), Dr Peter Corke (CSIRO), $172.5k (2003-2005).
Other
- Roomwatch hand-hygiene monitoring, AusHSI, $80k (2012-13).
Awards and recognitions
- 2017: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
- 2016: Eureka Prize Finalist (research and innovation in environmental science), COTSBot team.
- 2015: QS-Wharton: Engineering & IT award (gold); Teaching Delivery award (silver).
- 2015: Australian Office for Learning and Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.
- May 2009: Award in Research and Development for virtual fencing technology, Australian Information Industry Association, Queensland division
- 2008: Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences and Mathematics for Springer Handbook of Robotics, Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division, Association of American Publishers, Inc.
- June 2008: Finalist (one of five) for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Invention & Entrepreneurship Award (LHD project team)
- Dec 2007: Fellow of IEEE
- 2006: Australian Engineering Excellence award, Engineers Australia (Starbug project team)
- 2006: Innovation award, Engineers Australia, Queensland Engineering Excellence Awards (Starbug project team)
- 1999: Overseas Travel Fellowship, Australian Centre for Field Robotics
- 1996: Finalist (one of five) for the King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Transactions Paper Award, S. Hutchinson, G. Hager, and P. Corke, “A Tutorial on Visual Servo Control”, IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 12, No. 5, Oct. 1996, pp. 651-670
- 1995: QANTAS Rolls-Royce Engineering Excellence Award (SafeTCam project team)
- 1994: The Honda Award for Best Technology Presentation at ISATA (Aachen).
Career history
- 2010: Professor, QUT
- 2008: Transformational Capability Leader; Sensor Networks, CSIRO
- 2007 – 2008: Research theme leader; Sensor Networks, CSIRO
- 2004 – 2007: Research Director, Autonomous Systems Laboratory, CSIRO ICT Centre
- 2003: Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology
- 1995: Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Science and Technology
- 1990: Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology
- 1989: Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology
- 1984: Experimental Scientist, CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology
- 1982 – 1983: Lecturer in control and computer architecture, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne.
- 1981:Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne. Also held visiting positions at
- 2009,12,13, 15: Mobile Robotics Group at Oxford University.
- 2003: Robotics Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University
- 1999: U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- 1988-1989: the GRASP laboratory at U.Pennsylvania
Erdos number (3)
- Erdos -> Goldberg -> Camtepe -> Corke
- Erdos -> Subbarao -> Vidyasagar -> (Spong|Hutchinson) -> Corke
- Erdos -> Noga Alon -> Erik Demain -> Daniela Rus -> Corke
Web links
- Google Scholar profile
- QUT Robot Academy
- Australian Centre for Robotic Vision
- Peter on Wikipedia
- Visual servoing background
- Random famous roboticists
Projects
- ACRV Picking Benchmark
- Amazon Picking Challenge (2016)
- Deep Learning for Grasping and Manipulation
- Robotic knee arthroscopy
- Semi-automated power pole inspection
Additional information
I spent much of the last 15 years developing field robotic systems and sensor networks. Field robots are robots applied to applications such as mining, agriculture, construction, environmental and infrastructure monitoring. This include robots that fly (also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs) and operate underwater (also known as autonomous underwater vehicles or AUVs). Some projects include:
- Very large robotic systems for excavation in open-pit mines (automated draglines)
- Autonomous trucks for ore haulage in underground hard rock mines
- Small-scale aerial robots, including gas powered helicopters and electric quad-rotors
- Underwater robots for environmental monitoring
In the area of computer vision I have been involved in projects such as:
- Use of very wide angle cameras for robot navigation
- Very high speed stereo vision
- High-speed food sorting
- SafeTCam traffic monitoring system seen on NSW highways.
In the of wireless sensor networks:
- Large scale environmental monitoring
- The combination with robotics to create mobile sensing systems
- Vision processing in sensor networks.
- Embedded operating systems, programming methodologies, in-network processing, large-scale network management, robust routing, and security.
External collaborations
- Australian National University, Canberra
- Mobile Robotics Group, Oxford University
- Distributed Robotics Lab, MIT
- IRISA/INRA, Rennes.
Research interests
- Wireless sensor networks and applications
- Robotics and sensor networks for environmental management
- Aerial robots
- Robotics; control architectures, sensor-based control
- Machine vision; stereo, algorithms, video-rate processing
- Real-time distributed computer applications.
Scientific community service
- Editor-in-chief of the IEEE Robotics & Automation magazine (2009-2013)
- Founding and associate editor of the Journal of Field Robotics
- Founding multi-media editor and editorial board member of the International Journal of Robotics Research
- Member of the editorial advisory board of the Springer Tracts on Advanced Robotics series
- Member of external advisory board for CONET, EU research network on cooperating objects
- Past president of the Australian Robotics and Automation Association
- Region chair, area chair, member of technical committees for major international conferences such as: ICRA, IROS, RSS, Sensys, IPSN.
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Editor-in-chief of IEEE Robotics and Automation magazine 2009-13
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2007
- Details
- Fellow of IEEE
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2006
- Details
- Founding editor and current associate editor
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2004
- Details
- Member of editorial board, special responsibility for multi-media content, since 2000.
- Mahony R, Kumar V, Corke P, (2012) Multirotor aerial vehicles: Modeling, estimation, and control of quadrotor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine p20-32
- Murphy L, Martin S, Corke P, (2012) Creating and using probabilistic costmaps from vehicle experience, Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems p4689-4694
- Murphy L, Morris T, Fabrizi U, Warren M, Milford M, Upcroft B, Bosse MC, Corke P, (2013) Experimental comparison of odometry approaches, Experimental Robotics: The 13th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics [Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Volume 88] p877-890
- Sa I, Corke P, (2012) System identification, estimation and control for a cost effective open-source quadcopter, Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation p2202-2209
- Hu W, Dinh T, Corke P, Jha S, (2012) Outdoor sensornet design and deployment: Experiences from a sugar farm, IEEE Pervasive Computing p82-91
- Corke P, Hu W, Dunbabin MD, (2011) An RPC-based service framework for robot and sensor network integration, Proceedings of the 73rd IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference p1-6
- Corke P, Mahony R, (2011) Sensing and control on the sphere, Robotics Research : The 14th International Symposium ISSR [Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Volume 70] p71-85
- Stramigioli S, Mahony R, Corke P, (2010) A novel approach to haptic tele-operation of aerial robot vehicles, Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation p5302-5308
- Vasilescu I, Kotay K, Rus D, Dunbabin MD, Corke P, (2005) Data collection, storage, and retrieval with an underwater sensor network, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems p154-165
- Djugash J, Singh S, Corke P, (2006) Further results with localization and mapping using range from radio, Field and service robotics: Results of the 5th International Conference [Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Volume 25] p231-242
- Title
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision (ACRV)
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- CE140100016
- Start year
- 2014
- Keywords
- Robotic Vision; Robotics; Computer Vision
- Title
- Human Cues for Robot Navigation
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP140103216
- Start year
- 2014
- Keywords
- Autonomous Robots; Mapping and Navigation; Spatial Cognition
- Title
- Robotics for zero-tillage agriculture
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP110200375
- Start year
- 2012
- Keywords
- Robotics; Broad Acre Agriculture; Zero Tillage; Weed Control
- Title
- Lifelong Robotic Navigation Using Visual Perception
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP110103006
- Start year
- 2011
- Keywords
- Robotics; Computer Vision; Visual Mapping; Visual Navigation
- Continuous Appearance-Based Localisation and Mapping (2014)
- Developing Grounded Representations for Robots through the Principles of Sensorimotor Coordination (2014)
- Development of Gas Sensing Technology for Ground and Airborne Applications Powered by Solar Energy: Methodology and Experimental Results (2014)
- Joint 2D and 3D Cues for Image Segmentation Towards Robotic Applications (2014)
- Shared Autonomy for Close-Quarters Navigation and Control of a VTOL Platform (2014)
- Wide-Baseline Keypoint Detection and Matching with Wide-Angle Images for Vision Based Localisation (2010)
- Design, Modelling and Measurement of Hybrid Powerplant for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) (2013)
- BabelFuse Data Fusion Unit with Precision Wireless Clock Synchronisation (2012)
- Non-Invasive Method for Detecting Changes in Soil Moisture Using Wireless Sensor Network (2012)
- Statistical Modelling of Wind Effects on Signal Propagation for Wireless Sensor Networks (2011)