Dr. Andrew Vardy
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Dr. Andrew Vardy
Dr. Andrew Vardy wants to learn about how robots can navigate in unstructured environments, just like animals do. What is it about an animal that makes them capable of functioning in different surroundings and can we apply that to robots? Dr. Vardy hopes to find out. He joined Memorial University in 2005 as an alumnus, having completed an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1999. After which, he travelled to England to complete a master's degree in evolutionary and adaptive systems at the University of Sussex. Just recently Dr. Vardy obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Born in St. John's, Dr. Vardy's primary research topic is visual robot navigation. Robots operating in unstructured environments can exploit visual information to find familiar places and develop representations of new places. He said, the problem of navigation in unstructured environments has already been solved in the natural world. Many animals have working methods for navigation. He is very interested understanding the general problems of perception and action that need to be solved by both navigating animals and robots which, he says, will help illuminate the mechanisms used by animals, while simultaneously providing solutions for robots.
Dr. Vardy said that since returning to Newfoundland he has been very busy socially as he reconnects with old friends and family. "Like most Newfoundlanders living away, I have always had the goal of returning to Newfoundland eventually.
Fortunately, the opportunity to return came up for me at a time when I was just completing my PhD thesis. I knew that Memorial was a good university and a good place to establish my research career."