Announcing our new Group Leader: Dr Nicolas Hudson

After leading the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group for two and half years, Fred Pauling is now stepping down to focus on the development and commercialisation of CSIRO’s next-generation Wildcat, our 3D localisation and mapping technology. 

Under Fred’s leadership the group increased its focus on larger projects such as the DARPA SubT Challenge, further developing robotics technology platforms such as Wildcat, and accelerating the translation of research to industry. 

Replacing Fred is Dr Nicolas Hudson, a Senior Principal Research Scientist who previously held the Technical Leader role for the Group, since joining CSIRO in early 2018.  

“Nick brings deep technical expertise, significant robotics industry experience and excellent leadership qualities to the role. I have great confidence that he will continue to grow the impact of the group and take it in exciting new directions that will benefit Australia and the world.” – Fred Pauling 

Before CSIRO, Nicolas led the [Google] X Robotics perception team, with a focus on applying machine learning to mobile manipulators. During his time at Google, he also worked for Boston Dynamics on whole body humanoid manipulation.  

Prior to Google, Nicolas was at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he led/contributed to several US Department of Defence projects in mobile manipulation, including JPL’s winning DARPA ARM team, the DARPA Robotics Challenge, and technology development tasks for Mars Sample Return. This work culminated in Nicolas being awarded NASA’s Early Career Achievement Medal for contributions to robotic manipulation autonomy. 

“I am looking forward to contributing to the strategy for robotics in CSIRO and Australia, building relationships with industry locally, and bridging my background overseas into opportunities in Australia.” – Nicolas Hudson.   

Here is our big thanks to Fred for all his work and achievements over the past few years. We look forward to having Nick as our new Group Leader! 

 

---