Strategies for mid-air collision avoidance in aircraft: lessons from bird flight. Birds seldom collide with each other and other objects, despite the high speeds at which they fly in complex environments. This project will examine how birds sense and avoid impending collisions, and will use these results to design novel strategies for the detection and avoidance of aircraft mid-air collisions.
Adapting Automation Transparency to Allow Accurate Use by Humans . The project will conduct the human factors research urgently required to discover how best to make automation in high-risk work settings more transparent and usable by humans. In safety-critical work contexts such as defence and aviation, automated decision aids improve human decision-making. Unfortunately however, catastrophic accidents have occurred because human operators have either not followed correct automated advice, or f ....Adapting Automation Transparency to Allow Accurate Use by Humans . The project will conduct the human factors research urgently required to discover how best to make automation in high-risk work settings more transparent and usable by humans. In safety-critical work contexts such as defence and aviation, automated decision aids improve human decision-making. Unfortunately however, catastrophic accidents have occurred because human operators have either not followed correct automated advice, or followed incorrect automated advice. A series of human factors studies using unmanned vehicle control, air traffic control, and submarine track management tasks (including testing experts in field settings) will discover how best to design transparent automation that can be safely and efficiently used by humans.Read moreRead less
Integrated Planning for Uncertainty-Centric Pilot Assistance Systems. This project aims to deliver a novel pilot assistance system to improve the viability, speed and safety of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) and Search and Rescue (SAR) missions. It will advance fundamental algorithms for probabilistic planning in partially observable scenarios to form the core technology of a pilot assistance system that accounts the various types of uncertainty faced by pilots in a typical HEMS/S ....Integrated Planning for Uncertainty-Centric Pilot Assistance Systems. This project aims to deliver a novel pilot assistance system to improve the viability, speed and safety of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) and Search and Rescue (SAR) missions. It will advance fundamental algorithms for probabilistic planning in partially observable scenarios to form the core technology of a pilot assistance system that accounts the various types of uncertainty faced by pilots in a typical HEMS/SAR missions. It will exploit recent advances in Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) to recommend robust, safe, and pilot-aware mission and manoeuvring strategies to make HEMS/SAR operations safer for helicopter crews, and more effective for those in need of the service.Read moreRead less
Passive Positioning and Tracking of Flying Objects Using Satellite Signals. Along with the deployment of low Earth orbit satellite constellations for global satellite Internet services, such as Starlink, Ku/Ka/V band microwave signals from space will be available anywhere on Earth 24/7. Utilising the microwave signals, this project aims to investigate a high-resolution cost-effective solution to position and track un-cooperative flying objects, and expects to generate new knowledge in the area o ....Passive Positioning and Tracking of Flying Objects Using Satellite Signals. Along with the deployment of low Earth orbit satellite constellations for global satellite Internet services, such as Starlink, Ku/Ka/V band microwave signals from space will be available anywhere on Earth 24/7. Utilising the microwave signals, this project aims to investigate a high-resolution cost-effective solution to position and track un-cooperative flying objects, and expects to generate new knowledge in the area of remote sensing and to make Australia the leader in passive flying objects positioning and tracking. This should provide significant benefits, such as enabling new applications for future drone delivery systems or aerial taxi services, and benefiting the air transport industry, the defence industry, and bird conservation.Read moreRead less