July 2026 - Visiting_residents - Australian Centre for Robotics

[Everybody at ACFR] Mechanical Engineering Building (J07) – Crane Lift and J03 Laneway closure extended
by Annette Karydis 16 Jul '26

16 Jul '26

________________________________ [cid:image001.png@01DC84AB.E0DCC0F0] Mechanical Engineering Building (J07) – Windows and Louvres and Roof Projects Crane Lift - Saturday 18 July, 7am to 3pm What you need to know * Crane lift operations will take place on Saturday 18 July 2026 * Work is scheduled from 7:00am to 3:00pm * Important: The mechanical HVAC system at J07 will be disconnected the day before, on Friday 17 July from 7:00am onwards – please refer to separate correspondence regarding the replacement program timeline Impacts Roads and access: * One lane of Blackwattle Creek Lane will remain open to vehicles. Traffic control will be in place. Expect occasional slowing of traffic during crane operations. * Pedestrian access from Shepherd Street will remain available with traffic control in place to assist pedestrians * An exclusion zone (see diagram below) will be established around the lifting area. Parking: * Parking lots along Blackwattle Creek Lane (J07 and J11) will be unavailable * ACFR parking lot behind J11 will be inaccessible Noise Impacts: * Intermittent beeping sounds from the crane can be expected throughout the work period * Occasional noise from power tools during removal and installation works is expected Building-Specific Impacts: J07 (Mechanical Engineering Building): * Air conditioning will be offline from Friday 17 July, 7:00am onwards – no heating or cooling will be available * Dock access will be unavailable during crane lift operations on Saturday 18 July J03 MyLab Hub and J04: * Dock access to J03 MyLab Hub and J04 will be unavailable during the crane lift period on Saturday 18 July J09 (Seymour Centre): * Vehicular access from Shepherd Street to Maze Crescent Roundabout and J09 dock via Blackwattle Creek Lane will remain open throughout the works How you can help: * Avoid entering exclusion zones marked around the lifting area * Follow signage and instructions from traffic controllers and site personnel * Plan for alternative parking arrangements for Saturday 18 July * Please inform your teams about the scheduled work and any changes to access, parking, and building conditions Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we complete this essential building improvement project. Please direct any questions about this work to Ozkan Eren, Project Director, Central Operations Services, at ozkan.eren(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:ozkan.eren@sydney.edu.au>. Traffic Management Plan:[cid:image002.png@01DD1544.3ED70020] J03 Laneway closure extended Dates: Thursday 16 July – Saturday 25 July 2026 (extended from original end date of 18 July) Work Hours: 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday, 7:00AM-3:00PM Saturday The closure extension is required to safely complete upper scaffold works above the J03 laneway, including structural beam installation and scaffold erection linking the J07 and J13 buildings. Impacts · J03 laneway will be inaccessible during full closure periods · MyLab loading dock access will be affected · Alternative access routes must be used when the laneway is closed or deemed unsafe · Deliveries and staff access will be managed by site supervisors and traffic controllers, where safe and practical. Please direct any questions about this work to Robbie Calder-Potts, Project Manager, Central Operations Services, at robbie.calder-potts(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:robbie.calder-potts@sydney.edu.au>. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Lab Tours - Friday 17 July
by Annette Karydis 16 Jul '26

16 Jul '26

Hi All The J19 Research lab will be hosting two lab tours for delegates from the RSS Conference tomorrow. If you are not involved, can I ask you to keep clear of coffee area and the open research spaces on Level 1 in the lab from 11-12pm and 3.30-4.30pm. Can everyone also please ensure anything sensitive is put away. If you have any issues or concerns, please let me know. Thanks all for your understanding. Kind Regards Annette Annette Karydis | Operations Manager The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 8146 | +61 419 207 097 annette.karydis(a)sydney.edu.au. <mailto:annette.karydis@sydney.edu.au.%20> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Visitors around 4pm today
by Viorela Ila 16 Jul '26

16 Jul '26

Hi everyone, I’ll be bringing three visitors from RSS to ACFR today around 4:00 pm for a brief visit. If possible, could you please hide any confidential work before then. Thank you! Viorela Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Highschool student lab tour - Monday, July 13, 4-5pm
by Thien Hoang Nguyen 09 Jul '26

09 Jul '26

Hi all, Next Monday, 13 July, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, a group of Vietnamese high school students and 2 teachers (around 30 people in total) will be visiting J19 for a lab tour. If anyone who will be presenting to the RSS lab tour on that same afternoon is keen to show their robot or project to the students, please feel free to let me know. Otherwise, please hide or showcase your work as appropriate. Thank you! Best regards, Thien Nguyen | Vonwiller Research Associate in Robotics and AI for Precision Agriculture Australian Centre for Robotics | Faculty of Engineering | The University of Sydney _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] J18 - Level 2 - Shattered Glass near the lift
by Annette Karydis 09 Jul '26

09 Jul '26

Hi All, It has just come to my attention that there is some shattered glass near the lift doors in J18 on level 2. For your safety, please avoid using the lift on level 2 until the area has been cleaned and made safe. [cid:image001.png@01DD0F77.674F5480] Many thanks for your understanding. Kind Regards Annette Annette Karydis | Operations Manager The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 8146 | +61 419 207 097 annette.karydis(a)sydney.edu.au. <mailto:annette.karydis@sydney.edu.au.%20> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Today: ACFR Seminar Series: Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan & Christian Hughes; Manipulating Uncertainty: Towards Reliable In-the-wild Dexterity with Less Data & Generalising Ergodic Coverage for Real-World Robotics
by Australian Centre For Robotics Administration 09 Jul '26

09 Jul '26

Hi everyone, A kind reminder to today's seminar that will take place in J04. Further information is as below: Faculty of Engineering ACFR Seminar Series [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260705/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260705/90/62/a1/a0/e806283be685b4d0…] Yale Robotics Talks: 1) Manipulating Uncertainty: Towards Reliable In-the-wild Dexterity with Less Data 2) Generalizing Ergodic Coverage for Real-World Robotics Presented by Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan & Christian Hughes Date: Thursday, 9 July 2026, at 1:00 pm AEST Venue: ACFR seminar area, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/jPY5C81V0PTzqXkBDhgckfyOd8u?domain=t…>) Zoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/2tteC91WPRTMqzOrLFKflfqC5zL?domain=t…> Abstract: Manipulating Uncertainty: Towards Reliable In-the-wild Dexterity with Less Data Robotic manipulation is increasingly expected to achieve reliable operation in uncertain environments such as kitchens, warehouses, and homes, yet performance in these settings remains highly sensitive to latent physical uncertainties that are often difficult to know in advance. This challenge is especially prominent in contact-rich tasks, where uncertainty in friction, mass, geometry, inertia, or compliance can amplify large differences in how objects move, slip, stick, or deform during interaction. Modern robot learning has made significant progress by using large-scale data to reduce and adapt to uncertainty during training, but such methods often require far more data than necessary when they cannot deliberately target contact interactions that reveal the physical uncertainties that are most crucial for reliable manipulation performance. In this talk, I argue that the central challenge in manipulation is not merely the presence of physical uncertainty, but rather the lack of principled methods for deciding which uncertainties must be reduced, represented, or accounted for to achieve reliable dexterity. My work asks whether robots can become more deliberate about uncertainty by learning what is worth knowing, what can be ignored for the task at hand, and what must be accounted for during control. I will present data-efficient methods for uncertainty-aware manipulation learning and control, showing how robots can actively exploit contact dynamics to achieve strong learning performance from only a small number of informative interactions. Finally, I will discuss how explicit reasoning over task-relevant physical uncertainty enables robots to solve manipulation tasks reliably without requiring a fully precise model of the world. Generalizing Ergodic Coverage for Real-World Robotics As robotic exploration extends into new domains, robots are entrusted with missions under increasingly strict time and energy constraints, where success depends on prioritizing search according to each region's importance. However, in settings like search-and-rescue, where success is critical, prioritized exploration must come with a formal guarantee that no region is left unexplored. Ergodic exploration offers a solution to this problem by guaranteeing full coverage with time spent in proportion to each region's value, but existing methods are limited to static, well-defined domains. In this talk, I show how to extend these guarantees to domains of arbitrary geometry, at any scale, over unbounded time-horizons, and in environments that evolve as the robot explores, so that provable, importance-aware coverage becomes practical in the missions where it matters most. Bio: Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Yale University, and a member of the Computational Methods for Curious Robotics Lab, advised by Professor Ian Abraham. His research interests include contact-rich manipulation, data-efficient robot learning, and optimal control. Prior to Yale, Hrishi completed his Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University. Christian Hughes Christian Hughes is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Yale University in the Computational methods for Curious Robots Lab (CoCuRo Lab). Before joining the CoCoRo Lab, he earned his B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, with concentrations in astronautics and in dynamics and control systems. Christian's research designs structured formulations of optimization problems that come with provable guarantees on the solution, with much of his recent work focused on exploration and coverage. His research is motivated by the belief that trustworthy robots must offer guarantees, because a system that usually works is not enough when mission success is critical. Christian's recent work focuses on extending these guarantees to complex, real-world domains where robots actually operate. [Register for Event >]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/avDRC0YKPviMBkyYqFRh9f9AK6x?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260705/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/yNGpCjZ1N7i3mYOZKF4sKfmWHOi?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/oEcVCk81N9trBkwo8sxt5fGT_rM?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ANvSClx1NjiAE1M60FmuGfz-MKm?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/7KIDCmO5gluAlpMkBFPCBfRCnj6?domain=t…> Copyright (c) 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Cricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 Disclaimer<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/LWI8Cnx1jniKDXWrAs5FmfJ-oOn?domain=t…> | Privacy statement<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/pS6eCoV1kpfBYDw6jc8HWfpe-fd?domain=t…> | Best regards, Sabrina Sabrina Asri | Senior Admin Officer The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 7126 | sabrina.asri(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:sabrina.asri@sydney.edu.au> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] RSS - 13-17 July - ACFR Lab Tours
by Annette Karydis 08 Jul '26

08 Jul '26

Hi All, We will be hosting several J19 Lab Tours as part of the Robotics and Science Systems (RSS) Conference being held next week. Proposed tours are as follows:. Monday 13 July - Career Path Session 2.30pm -3.30pm (approximately 40 students booked) Friday 17 July - (delegates, academic visitors, students) 11.00am-12.00pm (40 booked) 3.30pm-4.30pm (to be confirmed) During these times, we ask that work on level 1 be paused and that any sensitive materials or equipment to be put away. I will shortly be compiling a roster for staff and students who are available to assist with and participate in these tours, and to showcase some of the excellent research being undertaken within the groups. Any questions, please let me know. Kind Regards Annette Annette Karydis | Operations Manager The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 8146 | +61 419 207 097 annette.karydis(a)sydney.edu.au. <mailto:annette.karydis@sydney.edu.au.%20> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Project Partners Representative Visit to J19 Lab
by Khalid Rafique 06 Jul '26

06 Jul '26

Hi everyone We are expecting two visitors from PBI Narrabri, community representatives, for ISNF Native Grains project. They are expected tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon 2.30PM or Wednesday morning 10AM, depending upon their other commitments. They will be in Ag area but please hide/show your IP. Best regards, Khalid Rafique | CPEng, NER Program Manager Australian Centre for Robotics The University of Sydney Room 403, Building J18 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 8627 9070 | +61 2 9036 0000 (fax) | +61 427 670 296 khalid.rafique(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:khalid.rafique@sydney.edu.au> | sydney.edu.au CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] ACFR Seminar Series: Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan & Christian Hughes; Manipulating Uncertainty: Towards Reliable In-the-wild Dexterity with Less Data & Generalising Ergodic Coverage for Real-World Robotics
by Sabrina Asri 06 Jul '26

06 Jul '26

Faculty of Engineering ACFR Seminar Series [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260705/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260705/90/62/a1/a0/e806283be685b4d0…] Yale Robotics Talks: 1) Manipulating Uncertainty: Towards Reliable In-the-wild Dexterity with Less Data 2) Generalizing Ergodic Coverage for Real-World Robotics Presented by Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan & Christian Hughes Date: Thursday, 9 July 2026, at 1:00 pm AEST Venue: ACFR seminar area, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/jPY5C81V0PTzqXkBDhgckfyOd8u?domain=t…>) Zoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/2tteC91WPRTMqzOrLFKflfqC5zL?domain=t…> Abstract: Manipulating Uncertainty: Towards Reliable In-the-wild Dexterity with Less Data Robotic manipulation is increasingly expected to achieve reliable operation in uncertain environments such as kitchens, warehouses, and homes, yet performance in these settings remains highly sensitive to latent physical uncertainties that are often difficult to know in advance. This challenge is especially prominent in contact-rich tasks, where uncertainty in friction, mass, geometry, inertia, or compliance can amplify large differences in how objects move, slip, stick, or deform during interaction. Modern robot learning has made significant progress by using large-scale data to reduce and adapt to uncertainty during training, but such methods often require far more data than necessary when they cannot deliberately target contact interactions that reveal the physical uncertainties that are most crucial for reliable manipulation performance. In this talk, I argue that the central challenge in manipulation is not merely the presence of physical uncertainty, but rather the lack of principled methods for deciding which uncertainties must be reduced, represented, or accounted for to achieve reliable dexterity. My work asks whether robots can become more deliberate about uncertainty by learning what is worth knowing, what can be ignored for the task at hand, and what must be accounted for during control. I will present data-efficient methods for uncertainty-aware manipulation learning and control, showing how robots can actively exploit contact dynamics to achieve strong learning performance from only a small number of informative interactions. Finally, I will discuss how explicit reasoning over task-relevant physical uncertainty enables robots to solve manipulation tasks reliably without requiring a fully precise model of the world. Generalizing Ergodic Coverage for Real-World Robotics As robotic exploration extends into new domains, robots are entrusted with missions under increasingly strict time and energy constraints, where success depends on prioritizing search according to each region’s importance. However, in settings like search-and-rescue, where success is critical, prioritized exploration must come with a formal guarantee that no region is left unexplored. Ergodic exploration offers a solution to this problem by guaranteeing full coverage with time spent in proportion to each region’s value, but existing methods are limited to static, well-defined domains. In this talk, I show how to extend these guarantees to domains of arbitrary geometry, at any scale, over unbounded time-horizons, and in environments that evolve as the robot explores, so that provable, importance-aware coverage becomes practical in the missions where it matters most. Bio: Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Yale University, and a member of the Computational Methods for Curious Robotics Lab, advised by Professor Ian Abraham. His research interests include contact-rich manipulation, data-efficient robot learning, and optimal control. Prior to Yale, Hrishi completed his Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University. Christian Hughes Christian Hughes is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Yale University in the Computational methods for Curious Robots Lab (CoCuRo Lab). Before joining the CoCoRo Lab, he earned his B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, with concentrations in astronautics and in dynamics and control systems. Christian’s research designs structured formulations of optimization problems that come with provable guarantees on the solution, with much of his recent work focused on exploration and coverage. His research is motivated by the belief that trustworthy robots must offer guarantees, because a system that usually works is not enough when mission success is critical. Christian’s recent work focuses on extending these guarantees to complex, real-world domains where robots actually operate. [Register for Event >]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/avDRC0YKPviMBkyYqFRh9f9AK6x?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260705/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/yNGpCjZ1N7i3mYOZKF4sKfmWHOi?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/oEcVCk81N9trBkwo8sxt5fGT_rM?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ANvSClx1NjiAE1M60FmuGfz-MKm?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/7KIDCmO5gluAlpMkBFPCBfRCnj6?domain=t…> Copyright © 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. 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[Everybody at ACFR] Looking for a tutor for MTRX1702
by Mitch Bryson 04 Jul '26

04 Jul '26

Hi All, I'm currently looking for another tutor for MTRX1702 in Semester 2, 2026, which teaches C and software development fundamentals for undergraduate mechatronics students: it would involve a weekly 2-hour tutorial and a little bit of marking. If you might be interested or have any questions, please get in touch! Best regards, Mitch Dr. Mitch Bryson | FHEA, Lecturer, Director of Mechatronics The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering Australian Centre for Robotics, The Rose Street Building, J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 mitch.bryson(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:mitch.bryson@sydney.edu.au> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au> _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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