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Dr Navinda Kottege

/Navinda Court-Tay-Gay /

Research Director

https://people.csiro.au/k/n/navinda-kottege

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Biography

Navinda is the Research Director of CSIRO's Cyber-Physical Systems Research Program (Robotics, AI and Computer Vision) of ~200 people (~100 staff, ~100 affiliates) based in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart. Navinda also co-leads the 'Productive Industries with Human-Robot Teaming' Program of Research (PoR) which is also known as the 'Physical AI' PoR. Apart from research management as a senior leader, he has extensive hands on experience in field robotics, autonomous systems and AI. Navinda was the Principal Investigator for team CSIRO Data61 that won the US$1M second place prize at the DARPA Subterranean Challenge finals in September 2021.

Navinda initiated and led legged robot research within CSIRO since 2011, an activity that grew into a world-class R&D capability within the organisation. Before stepping into the Research Director role, he led the 100 person Robotics and Autonomous Systems group (now split into the Robotic Perception and Autonomy group and the Robotic Design and Interaction group) and also conducted research in legged robot navigation, perception and control with multi-legged robots with a focus on navigation in complex unstructured environments.

Navinda joined the CSIRO as a Postdoctoral Fellow soon after receiving his PhD in Engineering from The Australian National University in 2009. For his PhD, he conducted research in underwater robotics as a team member of the Serafina project which developed swarming technology for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

He is a senior member of the IEEE, and was the Chair of the IEEE Queensland joint chapter for Control Systems/Robotics and Automation Societies during 2020-2021. He is also a member of the ACM, and an Adjunct Professor at the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland.

Current Roles

  • Research Director
    Cyber-Physical Systems Research Program

  • Senior Principal Research Scientist - Physical AI
    Cyber-Physical Systems Research Program

Academic Qualifications

  • 2009

    PhD in Engineering
    The Australian National University

  • 2004

    Bachelor of Information Technology
    University of Colombo School of Computing

  • 2003

    Bachelor of Science (Engineering Physics)
    University of Colombo

Professional Experiences

  • 2021-2022

    Group Leader - Robotics and Autonomous Systems
    CSIRO

  • 2018-2021

    Team Leader - Dynamic Platforms
    CSIRO

  • 2020-2024

    Principal Research Scientist - Robotics
    CSIRO

  • 2016-2020

    Senior Research Scientist - Robotics
    CSIRO

  • 2012-2016

    Research Scientist - Robotics
    CSIRO

  • 2009-2012

    Postdoctoral Fellow - Enbedded Sensor Systems
    CSIRO

Achievements and Awards

  • 2022-2022

    CSIRO Chair's Medal
    CSIRO

  • 2022-2022

    Queensland iAward
    Australian Information Industry association

Community and Corporate Citizenship

  • 2020-2023

    Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

  • 2020-2021

    Chair, IEEE Queensland joint chapter for Control Systems/Robotics and Automation Societies

  • 2018-2018

    Local Arrangements Co-Chair, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

  • 2014-now

    Senior Member, IEEE

  • 2013-2014

    TPC member, ACM International Conference on Underwater Networks and Systems (WUWNet)

  • 2009-now

    Member, ACM

  • 2008-now

    Member, IEEE Robotics & Automation Society

  • 2005-now

    Member, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society

  • 2011-2013

    PC member, Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks & Information Processing conference (ISSNIP)

  • 2010-2010

    PC member, International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotics Systems (DARS)

  • 2005-2014

    Member, IEEE

We have publications by Dr Navinda Kottege