Elliot Duff
Principal Research Scientist
Contact
Tel: 61 7 3327 4632
Fax: 61 7 3327 4455
Themes
- Minerals Down Under
- Sustainable Agriculture
Projects
- Mine Automation Science
- Realtime Perception
Science Area
- Robotics
Biography
Elliot Duff is a principal research scientist with CSIRO’s ICT Centre Autonomous Systems Lab based in Brisbane. His formal training is in computational physics and metallurgical engineering, but over his career he has been involved in many aspects of autonomous systems development, including: image processing, visualization, navigation and embedded systems design. Since 1999 his main focus has been in the area of field robotics and in particular the development of control and sensing systems that allow machines to operate autonomously outdoors in hostile and unstructured environments. This work has included the automation of large mining excavators, underground ore haulage vehicles and explosive loading machines. He currently leads the Mine Automation Project within the MDU Flagship with interests in communications and localization infrastructure to support the development of remote mining, and the Realtime Perception Project with interests in mobile mapping in GPS denied areas.
Academic Qualifications
| 1994 | PhD. University of Queensland, Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering. |
| 1985 | BSc. Hons, Adelaide University, Major in Physics and Mathematical Physics. |
| 1984 | BSc. Adelaide University, Major in Physics, Mathematics and Computing. |
Recent Professional Experience
| 2009-2011 | Team Leader, ICTC, "Mining Robotics" |
| 2009-2011 | Project Leader, ICTC, CAT5, "Realtime Perception" |
| 2009-2011 | Project Leader, ICTC, MDU, "Mine Automation Science" |
| 2009-2010 | Project Leader, ICTC, SAF, "Vegetation Monitoring" |
| 2008-2009 | Project Leader, ICTC, MDU, "Remote Mining" |
| 2008-2009 | Project Leader, ICTC, RioTinto "Hydraulic Excavator Operator Assist" |
| 2007-2008 | Activity Leader, ICTC, RioTinto "Telerobotic Rockbreaker" |
| 2007-2008 | Activity Leader, ICTC, RioTinto "Mine Communications for Surface Automation" |
| 2006-2008 | Project Leader, ICTC, MDU, Mine TeleRobotics |
| 2005-2006 | Researcher, ICTC, ORICA, "Automated Delivery System" |
| 2005-2006 | Project Leader, ICTC, ACARP "Excavator Guidance" |
| 2004-2005 | Project Leader, CMIT, ACARP “Swing Loader Traffic Control” |
| 2003-2004 | Project Leader, CMIT, ACARP “Sensor and Network Technology Scoping Study” |
| 2002-2003 | Project Leader, CMIT, DAS, "LHD System Specification" |
| 2000-2003 | Project Leader, CMIT, Transcale "Trayscan Technology Transfer" |
| 2000-2004 | Researcher, CMST, DAS, "LHD Technology Transfer" |
| 2002-2003 | Project Leader, CMST, "Mobile Adaptive Video Compression" |
| 2000-2001 | Researcher, CMST, Scale, "LMS Evaluation" |
| 2000-2001 | Researcher, CMST, Orica, "Automation of Charging" |
| 1998-2000 | Researcher, CMST, AMIRA, "LHD Automation" |
| 1994-1998 | Researcher, DMT, ACARP, "Wear Debis Analysis" |
Achievements & Awards
| 2009 | ICTC Learning Culture Award |
| 2008 | ICTC Performance Award for Rockbreaker Project |
| 2008 | Finalist IEEE-IFR Invention and Entreneurship in Robotics and Automation Award |
| 2007 | ICTC Service from Science Award |
| 2006 | ICTC OH&S Award |
| 2003 | CEM One-CSIRO Award to the Mining Automation Group |
| 2002 | CMIT Customer satisfaction award for Automation Team |
| 1999 | CMST One-off reward for outstanding achievements to the "Load Haul Dump" Team |
| 1989 | CSIRO Industrial PhD Scholarship |
Other Highlights
| 2006 | Front page of Australian Mining Journal "Dragline on the Moon" |
| 2004 | Commercialization of Trayscan Technology (License agreement) |
Summary of Science & Technical Output
| Books/Book chapters | 0 |
|---|---|
| Journal | 2 |
| Refereed Conference/Workshop | 22 |
| Technical/Client Reports | 25 |
| Invited Presentations | 20 |
| Patents | 2 |
Grants
| 2009 | RioTinto "Hydraulic Excavator Operator Assist Scoping Study" |
| 2009 | RioTinto "TeleRobotic RockBreaker Report" |
| 2007 | RioTinto "Mine Communication for Automation Report" |
| 2005 | ACARP "Excavator Laser Scanner" |
| 2004 | ACARP "Swing Loader Traffic Control" |
| 2002 | ACARP "Sensor and Network Technologies: Scoping Study" |
| 2002 | ACARP "Monitoring and Prevention of Breaker Coal Loss" with JKTechnoloy |
Student Supervision
| 2009 | Supervision of Mark Gibbons (Intern) |
| 2008 | Supervision of Orly Natan (Intern) and Terence Smith (Vac Student) |
| 2008 | CoSupervision of Tyson Henning and Mark Gibbons (Vac Students) |
| 2007 | CoSupervision of Jeremy Norton (Vacation Student) |
| 2004 | Supervision of Fabrice Chinjoie (Final Year Project) |
| 1999 | Assist with supervision of Pasi Olavi Puoskari (PhD. Thesis) |
Science Citizenship
| 2009 | Keynote Next Generation Mining Technology Seminar, Brisbane. |
| 2008 | Chair Automated Mining Equipment Conference , Brisbane |
| 2003-2007 | Member, Australasian Robotics and Automation Society. |
| 2003-2007 | Reviewer: ICRA, IROS, FSR, IV, ACRA, ISARC, JFR |
| 2005,2006 | Presenter: Sydney Cebit. |
| 2004 | Program Committee Member of ISARC. |
| 1995-2001 | Member, Australian Pattern Recognition Society. |
| 1998 | Present Seminar to UQ Mechanical Engineering Dept |
Top 10 Publications
| Publication details |
|---|
| E. Duff and J. Roberts. "Wall-Following with Constrained Active Contours". In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, July 14–16, 2003 |
| E. Duff, J. Roberts, and P. Corke, "Automation of an Underground Mining Vehicle using Reactive Navigation and Opportunistic Localization". In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Volume: 4, Pages 3775- 3780 vol 3, Las Vegas, US, 2000 |
| E. Duff. "Fluid Flow Aspects of Solidification Modelling: Simulation of Low Pressure Die Casting". Ph.D. thesis, Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Queensland, 1994. |
| E. Duff. "Tracking a vehicle from a rotating platform with a scanning range laser", Proc. Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation, Auckland NZ, December 2006. |
| E. Duff, "DDXVideo: A lightweight video framework for Autonomous Robotics Platforms", Proc. Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation. Sydney 2005 |
| E. Duff. "Segmentation of Wear Particle Image from Used Oil Filtergrams". In Proceedings of Fifth Asian Conference on Computer Vision, Melbourne, Australia, 2002. |
| E. Duff, "Automated Volume Measurement of Haul-Truck Loads". In Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation. Melbourne Australia. 2000 |
| E. Duff et al “System for Relative Vehicle Navigation” US Patent 6694233, PCT File 2000 |
| E. Duff et al "The Development of a TeleRobotic Rockbreaker", Proc Field Service Robotics, 2009, Boston |
| J. Roberts, E. Duff, and P. Corke. "Reactive Navigation and Opportunistic Localization for Autonomous Underground Mining Vehicles". The International Journal of Information Sciences, Volume 145, Issues 1-2, Pages 127-146, August 2002. |
Number of citations
| ISI | 9 |
|---|---|
| Google Scholar | 164 |