Title: Robotics and Autonomous Systems for Harsh Environments: Research Needs, Challenges, Trends and Opportunities
Dr Erfu Yang
Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Group
Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management
University of Strathclyde, GlasgowG11XJ, UK
报告时间：2019年7月1日下午16:00
报告地点：校本部东区机自大楼702B会议室
Abstract:Robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) are playing an increasingly important role in hash/extreme environments where humans in operations are dangerous or humans just physically cannot reach. As such, RASswill often be deployed into harsh environments for various reasons.To date, a diverse range of robotic technologies have been developed for different harsh environment applications such as search and rescue, planetary exploration and deep sea operations. However, we are still far away from an era where robots possess sufficient level of intelligent and autonomous skills to perform tasks fully autonomously in these environments. Noting that many of these technologies are transferable across applications, the motivation behind this research is to bring together key robotic technologies from differing fields to inspire new ideas for more generalised solutions from existing application-specific technologies.
In this talk, I will first provide some background information about the emerging shift towards the development and deployment of more autonomous robots, and then I will discuss the needs and challenges with deployment of these systems in harsh environments. This will lead on to an overview of key technologies within major representative areas of harsh environments, namely oil and gas, underwater & deep sea, space exploration and search and rescue applications. Finally, I will discuss the research trends, directions and opportunities that have emerged in the area of robotics and autonomous systems towards harsh environments.
Biography:
Dr Erfu Yang is a Lecturer in Robots and Autonomous Systems within the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow ,UK. His main research interests include robotics, autonomous systems, computer vision, image/signal processing, mechatronics, data analytics, manufacturing automation, multi-objective optimizations, and applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence including multi-agent reinforcement learning, fuzzy logic, neural networks, bio-inspired algorithms, and cognitive computation, etc. He has over 110 publications in these areas, including more than 60 journal papers and 9 book chapters. He has been awarded over 17 research grants as PI (principal investigator) or CI (co-investigator). He is the Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, committee member of the Chinese Automation and Computing Society in the UK (CACSUK), and the IET SCOTLAND Manufacturing Technical Network. Dr Yang has been a Scientific/Technical Programme Committee member or organizer for a series of international conferences and workshops. He has also served for many international journals and conferences as a scientific reviewer. He was a Literature Surveyor for the leading International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing (published by Wiley). He is now an associate editor for the Cognitive Computation journal published by Springer. He was also the guest editor of the International Journal of Automation and Computing for its Special Issue on Emergent Control and Computing Techniques for Industrial Applications.
