Leveraging 3D computer vision for camera-based precise geo-localisation. This project aims to develop advanced 3D computer vision and image processing technology that can turn regular cameras into high-precision location-sensing devices. Spatial Location is a fundamental type of information of our physical world. Determining the precise location of people, vehicle, and mobile devices is essential for many critical applications. Outcomes of the project will enable a wide range of novel applicatio ....Leveraging 3D computer vision for camera-based precise geo-localisation. This project aims to develop advanced 3D computer vision and image processing technology that can turn regular cameras into high-precision location-sensing devices. Spatial Location is a fundamental type of information of our physical world. Determining the precise location of people, vehicle, and mobile devices is essential for many critical applications. Outcomes of the project will enable a wide range of novel applications of significant social, environmental and economic value, such as Location-Aware Service, Environment Monitoring, Augmented Reality, Autonomous Vehicle, and Rapid Emergency Response. The project will enhance Australia's international competitive advantage in forefront of ICT research and technology innovation.Read moreRead less
Developing key vision technology for automation of aquaculture factory. This project aims to investigate structural, coloured textural, and hyperspectral analysis approaches to achieve automated lobster molt-cycle staging and classification to the level required for commercial production. High labour cost, water contamination, and disease transmission are major barriers in Australian bay lobster aquaculture inhibiting its large scale production. Automation of the production process and reducing ....Developing key vision technology for automation of aquaculture factory. This project aims to investigate structural, coloured textural, and hyperspectral analysis approaches to achieve automated lobster molt-cycle staging and classification to the level required for commercial production. High labour cost, water contamination, and disease transmission are major barriers in Australian bay lobster aquaculture inhibiting its large scale production. Automation of the production process and reducing the human contact with animals are of high priority in the development of this Australian-led emerging industry. The project aims to develop technology to bring this world- first aquaculture factory to large scale production, and create new export opportunities for lobsters and production systems.Read moreRead less
Combining new synthetic biology tools to boost crop CO2 capture and growth. A solution for improving crop yield is to enhance the carbon dioxide fixation properties of the enzyme Rubisco whose inefficient activity often limits plant growth. This project makes use of new synthetic biology capabilities to artificially evolve Rubisco in the laboratory and select for new versions with improved performance. These beneficial changes will be introduced into crop Rubisco using targeted gene editing appr ....Combining new synthetic biology tools to boost crop CO2 capture and growth. A solution for improving crop yield is to enhance the carbon dioxide fixation properties of the enzyme Rubisco whose inefficient activity often limits plant growth. This project makes use of new synthetic biology capabilities to artificially evolve Rubisco in the laboratory and select for new versions with improved performance. These beneficial changes will be introduced into crop Rubisco using targeted gene editing approaches and the improvements in photosynthesis, growth and yield evaluated. This information will aid complimentary biotechnological efforts seeking to supercharge photosynthesis and help deliver the second Green Revolution needed to meet the improvement required in future agriculture productivity and resource use.Read moreRead less
Clarence River Green Prawn Market Diversification Assistance Measures
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$165,000.00
Summary
The Clarence River Region is known for its high-quality prawn markets. The region was kept profitable during COVID restrictions due to a significant portion of the fisher directing its product to the highly profitable bait market. This diversification away from the consumer market has ensured stability for the region. Many fishing businesses pivoted their strategies to meet this new buyer to the region. The loss of the uncooked prawn market in the Clarence region will therefore destabilize t ....The Clarence River Region is known for its high-quality prawn markets. The region was kept profitable during COVID restrictions due to a significant portion of the fisher directing its product to the highly profitable bait market. This diversification away from the consumer market has ensured stability for the region. Many fishing businesses pivoted their strategies to meet this new buyer to the region. The loss of the uncooked prawn market in the Clarence region will therefore destabilize the industry. The restriction of uncooked prawn trade therefore must be addressed through market research, diversification and activation. However, there is immediate need for alternative markets so an intense focused market activation and access is the key. PFA has identified key market persons that can create links between industry and high-end chefs to: 1. Identify alternative market uses that fall within the quarantine requirements 2. Start immediate market trials and activation 3. Review online presence and build industry skills to improve online presence for sales • It is intended that this will lead into immediate supply agreements to these alternative markets that will in turn remove burden on the existing cooked prawn market
Objectives: 1. To identify and trial supplies of Clarence River prawns to alternative market 2. To activate alternative markets to reduce negative impact of trade restriction to the Clarence River region 3. To build skills within local fishers to build online presence Read moreRead less
Nano-reactors: Protein cages as reusable scaffolds for designer enzymes. This project aims to develop robust protein cages derived from the coats of viruses to contain heat-stable P450 enzymes, for use as specialised protein bio-catalysts in chemical industries. A valuable chemical precursor of renewable bio-plastics will be produced from seed oils by enzymes, reducing the use of fossil fuels. This synthetic biology approach combines biotechnology, nanotechnology and protein engineering to estab ....Nano-reactors: Protein cages as reusable scaffolds for designer enzymes. This project aims to develop robust protein cages derived from the coats of viruses to contain heat-stable P450 enzymes, for use as specialised protein bio-catalysts in chemical industries. A valuable chemical precursor of renewable bio-plastics will be produced from seed oils by enzymes, reducing the use of fossil fuels. This synthetic biology approach combines biotechnology, nanotechnology and protein engineering to establish a plant-based platform biotechnology for using enzymes as catalysts to make high-value molecules. The project aims to show how to engineer clean, sustainable chemistry in designer nano-environments. This should make synthetic processes more sustainable and enhance advanced chemical manufacturing in Australia.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology. ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology aims to develop paradigm-shifting quantum technologies to observe biological processes and transform our understanding of life. It seeks to create technologies that go far beyond what is possible today, from portable brain imagers to super-fast single protein sensors, and to use them to unravel key problems including how enzymes catalyse reac ....ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology. ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology aims to develop paradigm-shifting quantum technologies to observe biological processes and transform our understanding of life. It seeks to create technologies that go far beyond what is possible today, from portable brain imagers to super-fast single protein sensors, and to use them to unravel key problems including how enzymes catalyse reactions and how higher brain function emerges from networks of neurons. By building a diverse, multidisciplinary, and industry-engaged ecosystem, the Centre means to develop our future leaders at the interface of quantum science and biology and drive Australian innovation across manufacturing, energy, agriculture, health, and national security.Read moreRead less
Declarative Networks: Towards Robust and Explainable Deep Learning. The aim of this project is to develop declarative machine learning techniques that exploit inherent structure and models of the world. Deep learning has become the dominant approach for machine learning with many products and promises built on this technology. But deep learning is expensive, opaque, brittle and relies solely on human labelled data. This project intends to make deep learning more reliable by establishing theory a ....Declarative Networks: Towards Robust and Explainable Deep Learning. The aim of this project is to develop declarative machine learning techniques that exploit inherent structure and models of the world. Deep learning has become the dominant approach for machine learning with many products and promises built on this technology. But deep learning is expensive, opaque, brittle and relies solely on human labelled data. This project intends to make deep learning more reliable by establishing theory and algorithms that allow physical and mathematical models to be embedded within a deep learning framework, providing performance guarantees and interpretability. This would likely benefit machine learning based products that can understand the world and interact with humans naturally through vision and language.Read moreRead less
Automatic Training Data Search and Model Evaluation by Measuring Domain Gap. We aim to investigate computer vision training data and test data, using automatically generated data sets for facial expression recognition and object re-identification. This project expects to quantify and understand the domain gap, the distribution difference between training and test data sets. Expected outcomes of this project are insights on measuring the domain gap, the ability to estimate model performance witho ....Automatic Training Data Search and Model Evaluation by Measuring Domain Gap. We aim to investigate computer vision training data and test data, using automatically generated data sets for facial expression recognition and object re-identification. This project expects to quantify and understand the domain gap, the distribution difference between training and test data sets. Expected outcomes of this project are insights on measuring the domain gap, the ability to estimate model performance without accessing expensive test labels and improvements to system generalisation. This should provide significant benefits for computer vision applications that currently require expensive labelling, and commercial and economic benefits across sectors such as transportation, security and manufacturing.Read moreRead less
Partially Observable MDPs, Monte Carlo Methods, and Sustainable Fisheries. Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) provide a general mathematical framework for sequential decision making under uncertainty. However, solving POMDPs effectively under realistic assumptions remains a challenging problem. This project aims to develop new efficient Monte Carlo algorithms to significantly advance the application of POMDPs to real-world decision problems involving complex action spaces an ....Partially Observable MDPs, Monte Carlo Methods, and Sustainable Fisheries. Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) provide a general mathematical framework for sequential decision making under uncertainty. However, solving POMDPs effectively under realistic assumptions remains a challenging problem. This project aims to develop new efficient Monte Carlo algorithms to significantly advance the application of POMDPs to real-world decision problems involving complex action spaces and system dynamics. Both theoretical and algorithmic approaches will be applied to sustainable fishery management --- an important problem for Australia and an ideal context for POMDPs. The project will advance research in artificial intelligence, dynamical systems, and fishery operations, and benefit the national economy.Read moreRead less
Improving Southern Rock Lobster On-vessel Handling Practices, Data Collection And Industry Tools For Lobster Quality Assessment
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$538,604.00
Summary
The export of Southern Rock Lobster (SRL) from Southern Australia to international markets is one of Australia's most valuable fisheries. There are increasing trends in post-harvest mortality of SRL confirmed by the recent Fisheries Research and Development Corporation project (FRDC 2016-235). This is costing the industry millions due to stock losses, decreased consumer confidence in product quality and reputational damage to the SRL market brand. The causes of this increased post-harvest mortal ....The export of Southern Rock Lobster (SRL) from Southern Australia to international markets is one of Australia's most valuable fisheries. There are increasing trends in post-harvest mortality of SRL confirmed by the recent Fisheries Research and Development Corporation project (FRDC 2016-235). This is costing the industry millions due to stock losses, decreased consumer confidence in product quality and reputational damage to the SRL market brand. The causes of this increased post-harvest mortality are inconsistent across the industry sector with a range of factors implicated including environmental stressors, novel health conditions, and sub-optimal post-harvest practices. Results from (FRDC2016-235) indicate a need to optimise live lobster management processes across the entire post-harvest chain of custody in-order to minimize lobster mortality and enhance the economics of the SRL fishing and processing industry sectors.
The FRDC SRL live holding project (2016-235) conducted an analysis of the processing industry sector practices and provided guidance for best practices. These recommendations have been welcomed by the industry and further consultation has identified a critical need to extend this approach to the fishing component of the industry.
This project will address these key industry priorities and conduct an analysis of on-vessel live lobster handling and holding practices, quantify the impact of systems and practices on lobster quality and provide recommendations on improving on-vessel post-harvest practices. The current FRDC traceability project (FRDC 2016-177) is trialing a range of traceability technologies that this proposed new project will extend and enhance on-vessels to strengthen the capture, monitoring, and analysis of post-harvest data on lobster welfare, quality, and handling practices.
This project will also extend the development of practical and easy to use tools for the evaluation of lobster health including the handheld lactate meter and refractive index. Building evidenced-based approaches to measuring health and stress will provide all industry sectors with improved measurement of quality, animal welfare, and sustainability at all points in the supply chain.
Objectives: 1. Investigate the impacts of on-vessel handling and maintenance practices on live SRL post-harvest performance 2. Develop practical tools for the improved management of SRL industry live lobster operations (ie hand-held lactate meter and refractive index including thresholds for poor lobster performance) 3. Extend findings to the SRL industry (best practice guides and workshops) and incorporation of results into the SRL Clean green program. Read moreRead less