Andrew Davison is Professor of Robot Vision at Imperial College London. His research is on computer vision algorithms for real-time 3D spatial intelligence. He pioneered the use of cameras as the primary sensors for Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM), essential enabling technology for intelligent devices to make automatic maps of their surroundings. Visual SLAM is now a vital part of a wide range of real-world products and systems, from consumer and industrial robotics to headsets for virtual and augmented reality.

His ongoing research focuses on the computational properties of visual scene representations, and especially the interplay between algorithms and the processing and sensing hardware they rely on such that both accuracy and efficiency can be improved. Real-time computer vision can now generate rich, object-aware 3D scene representations which are starting to enable general robotic competences such as manipulation in cluttered environments.

Andrew is Director of the Dyson Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College, co-founder of Slamcore Ltd, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2017).