Visual methods for advanced automation of underwater manipulation. This project will increase the autonomy of underwater robotic systems engaged in intervention and inspection tasks. Such activities are essential for the operation of subsea robotic systems used in offshore industries, scientific exploration and defence. Our approach will improve perception and situational awareness through the principled fusion of multiple navigation and camera sensors. We will use this improved scene understand ....Visual methods for advanced automation of underwater manipulation. This project will increase the autonomy of underwater robotic systems engaged in intervention and inspection tasks. Such activities are essential for the operation of subsea robotic systems used in offshore industries, scientific exploration and defence. Our approach will improve perception and situational awareness through the principled fusion of multiple navigation and camera sensors. We will use this improved scene understanding to effectively plan the motion of vehicles and manipulators through larger and more complex workspaces, enabling semi-supervised and autonomous task execution. Our project will demonstrate these capabilities in real-world deployments relevant to industry and marine science.Read moreRead less
Next-Generation Intelligent Robotic Mobility Aid for Vision Impaired People. More than 253 million people worldwide are blind or have low vision, with over 575,000 in Australia. This research aims to develop the world's first functional robotic guide with advanced robotic sensing, navigation, control, machine learning-based decision making and user interfaces. The project will generate novel theoretical breakthroughs, produce feasible prototypes, train young researchers, innovate industry capabi ....Next-Generation Intelligent Robotic Mobility Aid for Vision Impaired People. More than 253 million people worldwide are blind or have low vision, with over 575,000 in Australia. This research aims to develop the world's first functional robotic guide with advanced robotic sensing, navigation, control, machine learning-based decision making and user interfaces. The project will generate novel theoretical breakthroughs, produce feasible prototypes, train young researchers, innovate industry capabilities and provide new research that will transform the lives of visually impaired people. The project is expected to further benefit the service and mobility aid industry, researchers and wider community in substantial social, economic and diverse terms. The mobility aid has potential for commercialisationRead moreRead less
Intelligent Robotics for Pharmaceutical Formulation Development. This project aims to transform the labour and time-intensive process of drug formulation development by optimising the process workflow, through collaboration between biochemists and the proposed intelligent and scalable robotic system. This project expects to enable the robot to leverage the expert knowledge of the biochemists while automating rote tasks. The expected outcome of this project is an intelligent robot that can collab ....Intelligent Robotics for Pharmaceutical Formulation Development. This project aims to transform the labour and time-intensive process of drug formulation development by optimising the process workflow, through collaboration between biochemists and the proposed intelligent and scalable robotic system. This project expects to enable the robot to leverage the expert knowledge of the biochemists while automating rote tasks. The expected outcome of this project is an intelligent robot that can collaborate with human coworkers to accelerate drug formulation. This should provide significant benefits by lowering drug costs and the development time of new drugs. Read moreRead less
Disassembly Automation of End-of-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries. This project aims to develop an automated disassembly solution for End-of-Life (EOL) Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries, which is flexible and modular to handle the uncertainties associated with model changes, condition of the EOL battery packs as well as the projected volume growth. The outcome of this project will lead to a better separation of EV battery components and materials. This will allow recycling of EOL EV batteries with ....Disassembly Automation of End-of-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries. This project aims to develop an automated disassembly solution for End-of-Life (EOL) Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries, which is flexible and modular to handle the uncertainties associated with model changes, condition of the EOL battery packs as well as the projected volume growth. The outcome of this project will lead to a better separation of EV battery components and materials. This will allow recycling of EOL EV batteries with a higher material recovery efficiency and a lower cost due to the significantly reduced labor cost; hence substantially reduce the environmental footprint associated with EOL treatment of these batteries.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
Self-supervised feature learning for rapid processing of marine imagery. Fast and reliable quantitative estimates of marine environmental health are needed for scientific studies, design and management of protected areas, and regulatory compliance of industrial activity in the ocean. Australia is collecting seafloor images at increasing rates but expert annotations are not keeping up, meaning that typical machine learning approaches struggle. This project will develop self-supervised techniques ....Self-supervised feature learning for rapid processing of marine imagery. Fast and reliable quantitative estimates of marine environmental health are needed for scientific studies, design and management of protected areas, and regulatory compliance of industrial activity in the ocean. Australia is collecting seafloor images at increasing rates but expert annotations are not keeping up, meaning that typical machine learning approaches struggle. This project will develop self-supervised techniques that use large amounts of unlabeled data to enhance performance. Our design takes advantage of additional information available for marine imagery such as geolocation and remote sensing context. We will explore how these representations can guide additional sampling and improve performance in classification tasks.Read moreRead less
Muscle-based Signals for Responsive Physically-Assistive Robotics. This project aims to develop a physically assistive robot for industrial use that interprets signals from the human user’s muscles during a physical activity and responds with appropriate assistance. This is significant because the robot must accommodate the complexity of movement required in industrial settings and adapt to variabilities in muscle activation signals among users that also change in time. The expected research out ....Muscle-based Signals for Responsive Physically-Assistive Robotics. This project aims to develop a physically assistive robot for industrial use that interprets signals from the human user’s muscles during a physical activity and responds with appropriate assistance. This is significant because the robot must accommodate the complexity of movement required in industrial settings and adapt to variabilities in muscle activation signals among users that also change in time. The expected research outcome is an intuitive, assistive robot worn by the human workforce that enhances their productivity and longevity, improves working conditions, lowers production costs, and increases workforce resilience. The robot’s capabilities will be demonstrated in this project through the challenging activity of sheep shearing.Read moreRead less
Combustion Modelling and Control for Biomass Fuelled Boilers . This Project aims to improve the operation of bio-fuelled boilers in the sugar industry by using novel approaches to modelling and control of the combustion process. In the sugar industry, sugarcane residue is used as biofuel for boilers. The steam from the boilers is used to crystallise sugar and generate electricity, which is used to power machinery and is also exported to the grid. However, due to poor fuel consistency and poor c ....Combustion Modelling and Control for Biomass Fuelled Boilers . This Project aims to improve the operation of bio-fuelled boilers in the sugar industry by using novel approaches to modelling and control of the combustion process. In the sugar industry, sugarcane residue is used as biofuel for boilers. The steam from the boilers is used to crystallise sugar and generate electricity, which is used to power machinery and is also exported to the grid. However, due to poor fuel consistency and poor combustion conditions, critical problems arise that hinder production. Expected outcomes include: improved sugar production, safer operation of boilers, reduced downtime, and better electricity co-generation.
This will provide significant benefits to sugar manufacturing and biofuel energy generation in AustraliaRead moreRead less
High yield adaptive laser nanomanufacturing system for photonic devices. This project aims at developing an entirely new nanofabrication platform combining adaptive beamshaping with highly accurate large area nanopositioner to simultaneously address the throughput and accuracy challenges in nanomanufacturing. The proposed prototype system and fabricated photonic chips have performance far surpassing the state-of-the-art. Through trial in the industrial best laser nanofabrication system, commerci ....High yield adaptive laser nanomanufacturing system for photonic devices. This project aims at developing an entirely new nanofabrication platform combining adaptive beamshaping with highly accurate large area nanopositioner to simultaneously address the throughput and accuracy challenges in nanomanufacturing. The proposed prototype system and fabricated photonic chips have performance far surpassing the state-of-the-art. Through trial in the industrial best laser nanofabrication system, commercial benefits can be fast tracked for Australian industry in the rapidly expanding nanomanufacturing field. The outcomes lead to a platform technology enabling broad impact and benefits to other high-tech applications requiring high precision and throughput, enhancing Australia’s leading position in advanced manufacturing.Read moreRead less
Co-design and dynamic mission optimisation of hypersonic flight vehicles. This project aims to deliver fundamental knowledge by integrating the modelling and control with the design of next generation hypersonic platforms. In an era where Australia's national security reliance on geographic isolation and support from allied forces are being challenged, the research outcomes of this project will play an important role in understanding the capabilities of hypersonic systems. The project will also ....Co-design and dynamic mission optimisation of hypersonic flight vehicles. This project aims to deliver fundamental knowledge by integrating the modelling and control with the design of next generation hypersonic platforms. In an era where Australia's national security reliance on geographic isolation and support from allied forces are being challenged, the research outcomes of this project will play an important role in understanding the capabilities of hypersonic systems. The project will also have significant spillover benefits into other complex system domains, where computational tools can be used to aid in design leading to high embedded-IP products for Australian industry. Furthermore, the proposal encompasses a strong research training aspect, with graduates exposed to leading edge industry and academia.Read moreRead less