Dr Gerardo Aragon Camarasa
- Senior Lecturer (Computing Science)
telephone:
01413305323
email:
Gerardo.AragonCamarasa@glasgow.ac.uk
M131, Computing Science, Sir Alwyn William Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Biography
I am a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow. 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.
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). 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 grant reviewer for EPSRC, EU-Horizon2020, 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, and Github.
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFmRd8uBcPteKccatfzubH4UYVTQUDIM
- 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
Robotic teleoperation demystified: Examining non-expeet user experiences in Scotland and Japan, Royal Society of Edinburgh; 2024. Principal Investigator in partnership with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
Industrial PhD Fellowship, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851; 2024. PhD student Paul McHard, in partnership with Hal Robotics.
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
- 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 - McHard, Paul
Autonomous Robotic Detection and Correction of Surface Defects in Manufacturing - Ru, Yingdong
Dexterous robotic grasping and manipulation for deformable objects - Summerell, Oliver
A Deep Learning Solution to optimise the control of Tidal Stream Conversion Devices with considerations of the marine environment - Young, Rory
Reinforcement learning for unknown stochastic environments with sparse and dynamic rewards - Zheng, Kaiwen
Estimation of Depressed Mood Based on Recognition of Micro-expressions with Facial Action Units - Zhuang, Lipeng
Manipulation of deformable objects based on a behavior-based reinforcement learning appraoch
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
Ali AlQallaf (PhD, graduated in 2023) - Artificial self-awareness for robots (Thesis)
Piotr Ozimek (PhD, graduated in 2023) - On the study of deep learning active vision systems (Thesis)
Li Duan (PhD, graduated in 2023) - Robotic perception and manipulation of garments (Thesis)
Ozan Bahadir (PhD, graduated in 2023) - Investigating deep-learning-based solutions for flexible and robust hand-eye calibration in robotics (Thesis)
Teaching
Current:
- 2017 - present – Robotics Foundations (H) COMPSCI4076
- 2022 - present – Professional Software Development (H) COMPSCI4015
Past:
- 2016 - 2021– Internet Technology (MSc level)
- 2016 - 2019 – Guest Lecturer in Software Engineering M3
- Supervisor for undergraduate, MSc and MSci projects
Research datasets
Additional information
Administration duties
2021 - present – 4th year class head
2018 - 2021 – Early Career Researcher Computing Science representative in the College of Science and Engineering
2018 - 2021 – School of Computing Science Research Committee
2017 - 2021 – Internationalisation lead for the School of Computing Science
2017 - 2020 – International Mobility and Student Exchange coordinator
2016 - 2019 – Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) committee member
Outreach and Science dissemination
2024 - General Chair for the 2024 British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC 2024)
2023 – Programme chair for the 2023 British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC 2023)
11/2022 SRPe Annual Conference 2022
2020 – Technology chair for the 2020 European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2020)
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.