An introduction and brief history of autonomous vehicles and their mapping and positioning systems

Speaker: Dr Michael Milford

Video of the talk here

Autonomous vehicles were heralded as a transformative technology and have received substantial investment and attention from the largest global technology and automotive companies. However, despite attracting much of the top technical talent, this technology has so far failed to become a deployed reality beyond niche applications and pilot trials. In this talk I'll provide an overview of the history of autonomous vehicle development, their key components including mapping and positioning systems, and touch on some of the key technical, societal and economic challenges they face.

Bio: I conduct interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and am a multi-award winning educational entrepreneur. My research models the neural mechanisms in the brain underlying tasks like navigation and perception to develop new technologies in challenging application domains such as all-weather, anytime positioning for autonomous vehicles. Amongst a range of ongoing projects, from 2022 - 2027 I will be leading a large research team as part of an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, attempting to combine bio-inspired and computer science-based approaches to provide a ubiquitous alternative to GPS that does not rely on satellites. I am also passionate about engaging and educating all sectors of society around new opportunities and impacts from technology including robotics, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. I currently hold the positions of Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Joint Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics, QUT Professor, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and am a former Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.