Sensing Change: Brain-Inspired Navigation Beyond GPS
Join in MY580 or Zoom
Abstract
Knowing your location is fundamental to navigation – for humans, animals, and autonomous systems alike. But how can robots and other autonomous agents determine their position with confidence and precision in environments where satellite systems are unavailable or unreliable? The central theme of this talk explores Visual Place Recognition (VPR), which is the ability to recognise previously visited locations using only visual data. I will demonstrate how energy-efficient approaches using bio-inspired event-based cameras and spiking neural networks can provide low-power edge devices with location information with superior energy efficiency, adaptability, and data efficiency. Beyond this central theme, I will also touch on my work on underwater perception for reef restoration, and about Pixi, a powerful tool to run many robotics, computer vision, and AI libraries on any operating system (Linux, MacOS, Windows, or even your browser!).
Speaker Bio
Dr Tobias Fischer is a Senior Lecturer (US: Associate Professor) and ARC DECRA Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where he conducts research at the intersection of neuromorphic computing, computer vision, and robotics. He conducts research in robot localisation and underwater perception, blending neuroscience and robotics to push the boundaries of intelligent systems operating under resource constraints. Dr Fischer has attracted over $3 million in competitive funding and leads research within the QUT Centre for Robotics and the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, with previous grants from Intel and Amazon. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London, where his thesis won the UK Best PhD in Robotics Award. He has published more than 50 papers in top venues including Science Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICRA, and IROS. Dr Fischer serves as Associate Editor for leading robotics journals and conferences and co-chairs the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Women in Engineering Committee. His PhD students have gone on to successful careers as Assistant Professor, Research Scientists, and Research Fellows. Website: https://www.tobiasfischer.info