Dr Gerardo Aragon Camarasa
- Lecturer in Autonomous and Socially Intelligent Robotics (Computing Science)
telephone:
01413305323
email:
Gerardo.AragonCamarasa@glasgow.ac.uk
M131, Computing Science, Sir Alwyn William Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Biography
I am a Lecturer in Autonomous and Socially Intelligent Robotics at the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow since September 2016. I am a member of the Computer Vision and Autonomous Systems group where I work on real-life challenges to further my understanding of robotic perception, manipulation and grasping.
Before joining as Lecturer, I was a research associate at the Cronin group where I worked on the first networked chemical robots and the bespoke "Chemputer". I am currently co-investigator in a EPSRC programme grant with Prof. Lee Cronin aiming to bring modular robotic systems to the chemistry lab for automated molecule discovery. I have also been a co-investigator in a knowledge transfer innovation project with the Shadow Robot Company (iSee - Intelligent Vision for Grasping). Recently, I have been PI in an EPSRC Capital Equipment grant.
I have served as co-chair for the international workshop in dexterous robotic manipulation systems for flexible materials at the European Robotics Forum (ERF-2014), and as technology chair for ECCV 2020. I am a regular reviewer for ICRA, IROS, IJRR, TRO, CVPR, ECCV, etc.; and I have served as an external grant reviewer for the EU-Horizon2020 HORSE, ESMERA and RobMoSys projects.
I am regularly seeking outstanding PhD students to join my research team. Feel free to contact me with your CV, transcripts and your research interests!
Research interests
My research expertise is in the multidisciplinary areas of robotics, machine learning and machine perception. In particular, my research interests are:
- Robotics and AI in Advanced Manufacturing
- Robotic perception and manipulation of deformable objects
- Artificial intelligence for flexible autonomous robotic systems (including chemical robotics and robot behaviour modelling)
My team and I work with dual-arm robots, and we are devising ways to equip them with the capabilities they need to allow them to do useful tasks. We aim to devise computational approaches for robots that can assist in manufacturing processes and everyday household chores. That is, we are currently investigating how to use advanced artificial intelligence to allow robots to learn to recognise objects and understand their body and operating environment. With these capabilities, robots can be programmed to learn to control their actions, respond to events, and work out how to carry out tasks without having every step programmed in advance.
You can find most of our current and past research at YouTube, Medium and Github.
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFmRd8uBcPteKccatfzubH4UYVTQUDIM
- Medium: https://medium.com/cvas-uofg
- Github: https://github.com/cvas-ug
I am regularly seeking outstanding PhD students to join my research team. Feel free to contact me with your CV, transcripts and your research interests!
Grants
ECR Capital Award (UR3 and Shadow Modular Grasper), EPSRC; 2019. Principal Investigator with Dr Laia Vila-Nadal
Chemobots: Digital-Chemical-Robotics to Convert Code to Molecules and Complex Systems, EPSRC – EP/S019472/1; 02/2019 – 31/2024. Co-Investigator with Prof Lee Cronin (PI) and et. al
iSee - Intelligent Vision for Grasping, InnovateUK/EPSRC – EP/R005605/1 with Shadow Robotics Ltd; 01/2017 – 03/2018. Co-Investigator with Dr J. Paul Siebert (PI) & Dr John Williamson (Co-I)
Clifford Algebra applications into modern crystallography, UNAM-PAPIIT IN106115, Mexico; 02/2015 – 02/2017. Co-Investigator with Dr José Luis Aragón-Vera (PI)
Automated Tuber Quality Assessment by Computer Vision, EPSRC - Impact Acceleration Account; 02/2015 – 07/2016. Co-Investigator with Dr J. Paul Siebert (PI)
An investigation into Automatic Tuber Assessment, University of Glasgow - First Step Award (FSA236); 08/2014 – 10/2014. Co-Investigator with Dr J. Paul Siebert (PI)
A proof-of-concept demonstration of a Cognitive Vision System, Glasgow Knowledge Exchange board; 04/2013 – 09/2013. Co-Investigator with Dr J. Paul Siebert (PI)
Supervision
Current:
Ali AlQallaf (final year PhD) – Self-Awareness in Robotics
Piotr Ozimek (final year PhD, 2nd supervisor) –Applying a Biologically Inspired Software Retina to Convolutional Neural Networks
Li Duan (3rd year PhD) – Continuous Perception and Manipulation of Deformable Objects
Nikos Pitsillos (2nd year PhD, graduation: 2023) – Robotic Introspection for Behaviour-based Reinforcement Learning
Ozan Bahadir (2nd year PhD) – Hand-Eye Robotic Calibration for Flexible Manufacturing
Lewis Boyd and Vanja Popovic (2nd year PhD, jointly supervised with the National Manufacturing in Scotland)
George Killick (1st year PhD, 2nd supervisor)
Alumni:
Ameya Pore (MSc in Research, 2018 - 2019): Behaviour-based Reinforcement Learning
Julio Caballero Mora (Visiting researcher, Universidad Veracruzana, 2018 - 2019): Robot manipulation for pick and place tasks
iSee project (2017 - 2018): Dr Aamir Khan, Piotr Ozimek, Daniel Callander
- Audonnet, Florent Philippe Jean
Shared Autonomy Using Virtual Reality as a Building Block Towards Autonomous Robots - Ge, Xuri
The structured representations of images and text - GOKSU, OZGU
B18 Using Deep Reinforcement Learning in order to Improve the Effectiveness of Training for Unseen Domains - Long, Zijun
Real time Knowledge Extraction from Multi-modal Data Streams via Deep Neural Network Ensembles - Pitsillos, Nikos
An Introspection Approachto Self-Awareness in Robotics
Teaching
- 2016 - present – Internet Technology (MSc level)
- 2017 - present – Robotics Foundations (Honours level)
- 2016 - 2019 – Guest Lecturer in Software Engineering M3
- Supervisor for undergraduate, MSc and MSci students
Research datasets
Additional information
Administration duties
Since 2017 – Internationalisation lead for the School of Computing Science
Since 2018 – Early Career Researcher Computing Science representative in the College of Science and Engineering
Since 2018 – School of Computing Science Research Committee
2017 - 2020 – International Mobility and Student Exchange coordinator
2016 - 2019 – Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) committee member
Outreach and Science dissemination
11/2019 SRPe Annual Conference 2019
07/2017 Glasgow Science Festival ’17
09/2015 Article at The Conversation
07/2015 BBC ’Reporting Scotland’
05/2015 STV Glasgow’s ‘Riverside Show’, A 3-minute feature on the show.