Research
Our research looks at new Information, Communications and Technology (ICT)-enabled Autonomous Systems focusing on sensing, communication, control, and computation technologies, all linked together by artificial intelligence. The activity is broken into 5 research themes that include 7 specific projects, looking at control systems, automated transportation, drone technologies, autonomous-enabled healthcare and heavy-industry applications.
Methodologies and Tools | Mobile Communities | Sustainable Communities | Healthy Communities | Industrial Communities
CIRUS UAV
Although rapid response in disaster scenarios is critical, prevention is the ultimate goal. Ken Whitehead, Scientific Lead at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)’s Centre for Innovation and Research in Unmanned Systems (CIRUS) and PI for ASI’s Theme 3 Sustainable Communities, is heading up crucial research using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to determine infrastructure vulnerability to flooding, something that would save many Albertans from heartbreak and financial loss.
Highly Qualified Personnnel Spotlight
This month we are delighted to bring you a spotlight on not one but two ASI HQP, working together under Dr. Rafiq Ahmad on Theme 5 Autonomous Systems for Industrial Communities. Habiba Imam and Hamdan Al-Musaibeli form a core team looking at autonomous repair.
neuroARM
Ensuring the safest environment possible when it comes to the health of millions of Canadians is a major concern, not least in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Automated or semi-automated technologies offer health professionals exciting new tools that can boost the safety of procedures and treatments and reduce the risks of viral or other contagion spread in medical environments. Development of prescient new ideas and technologies in this field is the focus of ongoing research under the ASI theme Healthy Communities.
Project 1A. Control and Monitoring Tools for Complex and Networked Autonomous Systems
Modern autonomous systems pose significant design challenges for both academia and industry, including event driven operations, aperiodic sampling and updating, nonlinear close-loop systems, and integration of control and safety performance.
Our ground-breaking research develops and applies new control and monitoring tools for autonomous systems, targeting three key areas: event driven control, multi-agent systems, and industrial alarm monitoring. This work will produce high impact research results by offering a new paradigm for networked autonomous systems and providing new tools and methodologies for practicing engineers working with modern cyber and networked industrial facilities. Crucially, it will improve operational efficiency and safety in vital Alberta industrial sectors such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and energy systems.
The benefits of our research work could be applied further to a wide range of Canadian industrial processes in which computer and network technologies are used for control and alarm monitoring purposes, and where high performance and autonomy are the norm.
Project Team
Tongwen Chen (Lead), University of Alberta
Horacio Marquez, University of Alberta
Qing Zhao, University of Alberta
Project 1B: Intelligent Technology Stack for Autonomous Systems
Many industries in Alberta and Canada need to develop new AI-based automation approaches involving a growing number of sensors, big data, and wireless technology.
In the near future, intelligent sensors will assist communities and their support systems: from health care and security to industrial production and mobility; future technologies including autonomous vehicles, medical robots, wearables, and autonomous monitoring systems for smart cities, health, and industrial applications. These require AI, edge analytics and aggregation of many distributed mobile sensors (which may be limited in computation and storage) to function continuously with minimal human intervention. We aim to bridge the gap by developing tools, components (architectures, algorithms and software packages) and methods to support the required capabilities (real-time learning, fault detection, distributed sensing and decision-making) necessary for autonomous systems.
The current research work is developing intelligent methodologies and tools for cost-effective gathering of large volumes of sensory data, their analysis, and fast determination of the most suitable actions. We are developing and testing these with simulated and experimental data by collaborating with industrial partners, for applications to autonomous vehicles, pipeline monitoring, and airborne surveillance.
Project Team
Henry Leung (Lead), University of Calgary
Marek Reformat, University of Alberta
Petr Musilek, University of Alberta
Project 2: Automated Transportation System with Enhanced Vehicle Intelligence and Infrastructure Digitization
Decades-long growth in urban centers, leisure and business travel, and global supply chains mean that transportation is a significant priority world-wide. Concerns around transportation efficiency, economic viability, safety, and environmental impact are all important factors to consider, especially in light of recent social distancing and travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19.
Autonomous transportation systems have the potential to address all of these concerns through their abilities to continuously assess data and respond efficiently and quickly to changing needs and circumstances. The Automated Transportation System research team focus on enhanced intelligent vehicles and the digital infrastructure necessary for an efficient, safe, and responsive automated transportation system.
Our multi-level research looks at these systems from the fundamental, computational level through to the applications required at the network level, and responds to key transportation planning issues. Our team of cross-province researchers are collaborating with industry partners to develop next-generation solutions for concrete, practical applications that address the transportation needs of different communities and sectors in Alberta and across Canada.
Project Team
Tony Qiu (Co-Lead), University of Alberta
Michael Buro (Co-Lead), University of Alberta
Randy Goebel, University of Alberta
Tae Kwon, University of Alberta
Behrouz Far, University of Calgary
Lina Kattan, University of Calgary
Chris Zaal, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Project 3A: Autonomous Systems for Supporting Infrastructure Resilience and Response to Disasters
Climate change is having significant, wide-reaching impact throughout Canada with natural disaster events growing in frequency and scale. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, for instance, was the most expensive disaster in Canadian history with damage estimated at $9B.
Unmanned systems, specifically aerial vehicles, have been used for pre- and post-disaster mapping, but have great potential for further use in disaster onset, response, and recovery. Our project focuses on advancing the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles by developing novel autonomous systems for supporting infrastructure resilience and response to disasters, developing capabilities to improve evacuation response and management, and monitor infrastructure pre- and post-disaster using autonomous systems.
This research is divided into three integrated areas, which cover fundamental improvements to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, their mapping and sensing capability, and strategies for deployment for improved disaster response and recovery.
Project Team
Karim El-Basyouny (Lead), University of Alberta
Bob Koch, University of Alberta
Amy Kim, University of Alberta
Alan Lynch, University of Alberta
Walied Moussa, University of Alberta
Jeff Boisvert, University of Alberta
Ken Whitehead, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Project 3B: Autonomous Road Vehicles Systems for Improving the Emissions Footprint of Urban Passenger Transportation
Vehicles that autonomously route themselves, facilitated by their capability to exchange information with the infrastructure and one another, allow greater flexibility in optimizing urban transportation networks. With an autonomous environment, we are able to shed the limitations of human driver behaviour to better achieve system efficiency while considering important environmental goals of creating healthier, more sustainable cities.
This project will use the flexibility of future autonomous vehicles to reduce urban environmental impact. We aim to improve vehicle-level emissions models using a data-driven approach and build improved macroscopic vehicle emissions models to plan autonomous vehicle network operations that achieve emissions reductions and exposure.
This research is essential for cities currently planning for a future of autonomous vehicle systems and striving for urban sustainability and liveability. In addition, implementing technologies and policies to support sustainability goals is critical as Alberta moves to diversify from its traditional natural resources-based economy.
Project Team
Bob Koch (Lead), University of Alberta
Tony Qiu, University of Alberta
Karim El-Basyouny, University of Alberta
Project 4: Autonomous and Semi-autonomous Systems for Healthcare Delivery
Technologies that incorporate robotics, wearable devices, and intelligent systems have excellent potential to meet emerging healthcare demands, especially as related to social distancing regulations imposed by COVID-19. New intelligent and autonomous system technologies for robot-assisted surgery and therapy will reduce the risk of viral spread and facilitate safe care and medical interventions within the healthcare systems of Alberta and Canada by making interventions more efficient, accurate, accessible, and reliable. Our research addresses this pressing need for innovative technologies by performing research on robotics, telehealth, healthcare technologies and human-machine interaction.
Specifically, our research focuses on haptics and teleoperation control, medical robotics, and image-guided surgery. The research work includes the design and control of robotic and haptic telerobotic systems for telesurgery and telerehabilitation, design and control of robotic wearable systems for injury prevention, and developing machine intelligence-based solutions for medicine. In a truly collaborative effort, we bring together researchers from the three largest Alberta universities working in partnership with a number of Alberta hospitals and clinics in addition to an assortment of Albertan, Canadian, and international industrial partners.
Project Team
Mahdi Tavakoli (Co-lead), University of Alberta
Garnette Sutherland (Co-lead), University of Calgary
Edmond Lou, University of Alberta
Hossein Rouhani, University of Alberta
Bin Zheng, University of Alberta
Matthew Tata, University of Lethbridge
Project 5: Autonomous Systems for Industrial Communities
Repair and maintenance of large-scale, complex equipment in the oil & gas and mining industries significantly escalates costs, delays production, and can jeopardise the health and safety of those workers restoring its infrastructure. However, autonomous repair of equipment in these key Albertan industries can minimize down-time of equipment and provide for reduced cost repair. It also enables safe remediation in extreme environments that are cold, corrosive, high temperature, underground, in mining, or in remote locations. In order to enable these capabilities, our team is working to develop hybrid intelligent welding, thermal spraying, and additive manufacturing enabled by vision-guided robot navigation and manipulation for in situ in-field assessment and repair of remote unmanned equipment without on-site human intervention.
Our research is developing systems for repair and additive manufacturing, methods for vision- and force-guided robot arm control for unstructured field applications, methods for robot motion programming suitable for remote one-off repairs and manufacturing, and the coupling of manufacturing processes, real-time toolpath generation, monitoring and control, and visual robotic navigation. Industry will be able to execute immediate robotic response to leaks or disaster mitigation or avoidance at remote unmanned infrastructures such as well-heads, pumping stations, pipelines, and electric sub-stations and lines.
Project Team
André McDonald (Lead), University of Alberta
Rafiq Ahmad, University of Alberta
James Hogan, University of Alberta
Martin Jägersand, University of Alberta
Alicia Cafferata-Arnett, Red Deer College
