Insect-inspired flapping wing robots: autonomous flight control systems. This project aims to design a novel control scheme for insect-inspired, flapping-wing, micro aerial vehicles. This type of micro aerial vehicle has complex, periodic, time-varying and inherently unstable dynamics, which are practically challenging to model and implement in hardware. This project will design energy-based automatic stabilization and task-dependent control, and develop the insect-inspired platform for testing ....Insect-inspired flapping wing robots: autonomous flight control systems. This project aims to design a novel control scheme for insect-inspired, flapping-wing, micro aerial vehicles. This type of micro aerial vehicle has complex, periodic, time-varying and inherently unstable dynamics, which are practically challenging to model and implement in hardware. This project will design energy-based automatic stabilization and task-dependent control, and develop the insect-inspired platform for testing nonlinear control strategies. The expected outcomes will include new system and control theories, concepts, principles and technologies in controller design that can provide reliable flight control for bio-inspired, flapping-wing systems.Read moreRead less
Signalling pathways for sexual differentiation of apicomplexan parasites. This project aims to study the sexual development of apicomplexan parasites, which cause major diseases in humans, livestock and wildlife, including malaria. Only sexually differentiated cells can survive in the mosquito vector and hence this development is essential for the parasite's life-cycle. This project will employ a new approach that separates female from male parasites, thus enabling new information to be gleaned ....Signalling pathways for sexual differentiation of apicomplexan parasites. This project aims to study the sexual development of apicomplexan parasites, which cause major diseases in humans, livestock and wildlife, including malaria. Only sexually differentiated cells can survive in the mosquito vector and hence this development is essential for the parasite's life-cycle. This project will employ a new approach that separates female from male parasites, thus enabling new information to be gleaned about the development of these parasites. The expected outcomes are an understanding of the mechanisms of sexual differentiation and a functional characterisation of novel sex-specific molecules. This will provide significant benefits, such as pivotal prerequisites for new approaches to parasite intervention.Read moreRead less
Fast Precision Robust Control of Resonant Flexible Systems. The project aims to produce new control system design tools to enable fast precision control of advanced engineering systems encorporating flexible structures. This should enable improved speed and accuracy in control systems for precision instruments such as atomic force microscopes along with improving control system performance in areas of precision engineering such as semiconductor manufacturing, robotics and microelectromechanical ....Fast Precision Robust Control of Resonant Flexible Systems. The project aims to produce new control system design tools to enable fast precision control of advanced engineering systems encorporating flexible structures. This should enable improved speed and accuracy in control systems for precision instruments such as atomic force microscopes along with improving control system performance in areas of precision engineering such as semiconductor manufacturing, robotics and microelectromechanical systems. The outcomes are expected to be new control system synthesis and modelling tools enabling fast and highly accurate control of industrial systems using nonlinear and switching elements and achieving high levels of robustness. This will benefit Australian precision manufacturing industries.Read moreRead less
Nonlinear Quantum Control Engineering. This project will develop tractable methods for the design of robust, nonlinear, coherent feedback control systems building on the approach of quantum risk sensitive control and extending classical nonlinear control methods. It will also develop methods to design robust and nonlinear filters and coherent observers for nonlinear and finite level quantum systems and apply these results to the design of robust measurement based quantum controllers. In addition ....Nonlinear Quantum Control Engineering. This project will develop tractable methods for the design of robust, nonlinear, coherent feedback control systems building on the approach of quantum risk sensitive control and extending classical nonlinear control methods. It will also develop methods to design robust and nonlinear filters and coherent observers for nonlinear and finite level quantum systems and apply these results to the design of robust measurement based quantum controllers. In addition, the project will apply coherent and measurement based robust control methods to achieve useful emergent behaviours in nonlinear quantum networks. Such emergent behaviours may involve the robust reduction of decoherence effects and the robust solution of quantum computational problems. Read moreRead less
YhcB, a crucial player in the control of bacterial cell envelope biogenesis. All life depends on a cell envelope to enclose the chemical reactions that make life possible. But how do cell envelopes grow? How each component of the cell envelope is incorporated into the envelope at the right amount and in the right time to prevent cell death, has been a longstanding question in bacteriology. Using a unique combination of high through put genetic screens and biochemical approaches, this project wil ....YhcB, a crucial player in the control of bacterial cell envelope biogenesis. All life depends on a cell envelope to enclose the chemical reactions that make life possible. But how do cell envelopes grow? How each component of the cell envelope is incorporated into the envelope at the right amount and in the right time to prevent cell death, has been a longstanding question in bacteriology. Using a unique combination of high through put genetic screens and biochemical approaches, this project will characterise a key regulator of cell envelope growth in Gram-negative bacteria. Knowledge arising from this research will provide insight into a fundamental process in bacteria, will develop new technology to probe protein interactions, and will provide novel avenues to solve infection in plants, humans and animals.Read moreRead less
Robust Data-Driven Control for Safety-Critical Systems. This project aims to develop new approaches to controlling robotic and cyber-physical systems in safety-critical applications. This project expects to generate new knowledge in how to harness the power of machine learning for robot control, while guaranteeing safety and stability at all times. The outcomes of this project will be new algorithms and a deeper understanding of the interplay of data, learning, and models, as well as experimenta ....Robust Data-Driven Control for Safety-Critical Systems. This project aims to develop new approaches to controlling robotic and cyber-physical systems in safety-critical applications. This project expects to generate new knowledge in how to harness the power of machine learning for robot control, while guaranteeing safety and stability at all times. The outcomes of this project will be new algorithms and a deeper understanding of the interplay of data, learning, and models, as well as experimental validation on a surgical robot and a bipedal walking robot. This project will provide significant benefits by dramatically increasing the range of applications in which the power of machine learning can be safely applied to advance the capabilities and uptake of robotics.Read moreRead less
Wolbachia endosymbionts: novel strain dynamics in Australian Drosophila. This project aims to understand Wolbachia infections across Australian Drosophila flies. Wolbachia bacteria that live inside the cells of insects and other invertebrates are widely seen as a promising tool for pest and disease control. This project will assess the population distribution, host phenotypic effects, population dynamics and evolutionary context of multiple Wolbachia infections across Australian Drosophila flies ....Wolbachia endosymbionts: novel strain dynamics in Australian Drosophila. This project aims to understand Wolbachia infections across Australian Drosophila flies. Wolbachia bacteria that live inside the cells of insects and other invertebrates are widely seen as a promising tool for pest and disease control. This project will assess the population distribution, host phenotypic effects, population dynamics and evolutionary context of multiple Wolbachia infections across Australian Drosophila flies. The outcome will include new and novel strains for applied projects, new information on the fate of Wolbachia infections, and new insights into the factors that dictate the fate of Wolbachia infections across populations.Read moreRead less
Distributed Estimation, Control and Optimisation for Networked Systems. This project aims to study large scale networked systems in major infrastructures including power networks, transportation networks, internet of things, and other cyber-physical systems. This project is expected to develop new methodology and algorithms for distributed estimation, control and optimisation of these systems. Distributed solutions are essential because traditional techniques which were designed for small system ....Distributed Estimation, Control and Optimisation for Networked Systems. This project aims to study large scale networked systems in major infrastructures including power networks, transportation networks, internet of things, and other cyber-physical systems. This project is expected to develop new methodology and algorithms for distributed estimation, control and optimisation of these systems. Distributed solutions are essential because traditional techniques which were designed for small systems are not suitable for efficient operations of large scale systems. Application examples include distributed state estimation for power networks, control of multi-agent systems and optimal scheduling of transportation networks. The outcomes of this project are vital to the understanding and management of these systems. Read moreRead less
Human-Robot Co-Evolution: Achieving the full potential of future workplaces. Physical human-robot systems are widely used to amplify the capability of human labourers and improve ergonomics in the workplace. This project aims to develop robot controllers that shape the co-evolution of these systems. Through physical human-robot interaction studies it will generate new knowledge of how humans adapt to working with robots, which will then be incorporated into the robot controller design. Expected ....Human-Robot Co-Evolution: Achieving the full potential of future workplaces. Physical human-robot systems are widely used to amplify the capability of human labourers and improve ergonomics in the workplace. This project aims to develop robot controllers that shape the co-evolution of these systems. Through physical human-robot interaction studies it will generate new knowledge of how humans adapt to working with robots, which will then be incorporated into the robot controller design. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of human adaptation and a systematic approach to shaping human-robot interaction over time. This should provide significant benefits across different skill and labour-intensive industries in Australia, such as improved worker productivity and safer human-robot collaboration.Read moreRead less
New guardians of the mucosa: Molecular characterisation of M cell biology. We aim to completely define the cellular and molecular biology of gut and lung M cells for the first time. We will elucidate how they develop, are regulated and function at a molecular level, and how M cells maintain normal gut and lung tissues and induce immune responses to protect against microbial challenges. In the future, the new insights will be essential pre-requisites for the development of mucosal-based intervent ....New guardians of the mucosa: Molecular characterisation of M cell biology. We aim to completely define the cellular and molecular biology of gut and lung M cells for the first time. We will elucidate how they develop, are regulated and function at a molecular level, and how M cells maintain normal gut and lung tissues and induce immune responses to protect against microbial challenges. In the future, the new insights will be essential pre-requisites for the development of mucosal-based interventions and vaccines that protect the gut and lung from infectious and inflammatory issues. The harnessing of effective immune responses to control such challenges, are of enormous fundamental and long-standing biological interest, and are amongst the most important areas of current scientific research.Read moreRead less