Ph.D. Thesis Proposal Abstract
Proposal full text (.pdf)
Presentation slides (.pdf)
Sonar, laser and stereo are common sensors used for safeguarding,
mapping and navigation in robotic applications. However, vacuum, dust,
fog, rain, snow and light conditions found in construction, mining,
agricultural and planetary-exploration environments compromise the
effectiveness of these sensors. Sonar can not operate in vacuum
conditions, low visibility and scanning mechanisms limit laser’s
reliability, and stereo is dependent on scene texture and
illumination.
Radar can offer remarkable advantages as a robotic perception mode
because it is not as vulnerable to the aforementioned conditions. Also,
radar can be electronically-steered. However, radar has shortcomings
such as a large footprint, sidelobes, specularity effects and limited
range resolution, all of which result in poor perception models. Some of
these problems worsen with the introduction of motion-free scanning,
which is important for high reliability and size reduction. Radar’s
shortcomings provide the context for the proposed research.
I plan to develop an interpreter for building high-resolution and
high-fidelity perception models from motion-free scanning radar sensing.
Quality maps will make radar an effective tool for numerous robotic
applications.(from my thesis proposal)
