CURRENT PROJECTS

Optimal State Convergence Controllers with Graph Communication for Tele-operation(2023-2028)

summary: State convergence (SC) theory provides a systematic way to design controllers for tele-operation systems. However, the dependency of the SC scheme on model parameters poses a challenge for practical applications. The seamless integration of SC and the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) theories has partially alleviated such a model dependency. But the dependency of this integrated SC¬ADRC approach on environmental parameters is another obstruction to fully realize the robust operation of SC controllers as well as its variants such as composite state convergence (CSC) controllers. This research proposal aims to develop novel strategies to robustify the SC and CSC controllers against environmental parameters while adhering to the design procedure of SC theory. This will also pave the way to enable the operation of these controllers in both the free as well as contact motions, which are previously valid in the contact motion only. The proposed research will be carried out in the following phases: In the first phase, an adaptive algorithm will be developed to identify the environment parameters based on a computationally efficient neuro¬fuzzy networks. A family of switching SC-ADRC and CSC ADRC bilateral controllers will then be parameterized with the added information of the identified environment parameters. In the second phase, graph theory will be employed to establish communication among several SC/CSC-equipped master and slave nodes with force reflection ability. It will then be shown that it is indeed possible to synchronize the master and slave nodes in an arbitrary configuration following the lines of enhanced SC theory developed in the first phase. In the third phase, fractional order theory will be employed to further improve the robustness of the proposed bilateral and multilateral SC controllers. The entire problem will be posed as an optimization problem to find the fractional powers for the proposed controllers. In the final phase, the proposed control algorithms will be tested on mu

Development of a smart wearable device using sensor fusion for human motion tracking(2023)

This research focuses on developing an innovative solution to address the lack of affordable, efficient, and personalized sports training resources for non-professional athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and hobbyists. The identified issue significantly impacts the customers’ ability to enhance their sports performance, mental, and physical health. To address this, the project aims to design and develop an intelligent ring coupled with a smartphone application that captures detailed user data and generates customized training advice to improve performance and overall health. The proposed solution’s novelty lies in its ability to provide sport-specific guidance based on real-time sensor data and personalized AI analysis. As the wearable device collects user metrics during physical activities, the data will be processed by our AI-driven application to provide personalized feedback and training advice. This research’s methodology involves iterative prototype development, comprehensive user testing, and feedback incorporation to ensure the product meets the target users’ needs. Given the growing interest in health and fitness and the burgeoning wearable technology market, this solution has substantial potential to revolutionize personal sports training, making it more accessible, effective, and personalized.

Interdisciplinary Marine Engineering Research and Industrial Training

The proposed industrial stream NSERC CREATE Interdisciplinary Marine Engineering Research and Industrial Training (iMerit) program aims to train graduate students through cutting edge research and industrial internships to advance novel autonomous under water vehicle, marine electronics, ocean big data analysis, remote sensing modalities for marine applications. The proposed training program will be spread among the leading Atlantic universities. The research internships will be carried out at the premises of participating industrial partners, including General Dynamics Canada, Ultra Electronics Maritimes Systems, DRDC Atlantic, Dynagen, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Lloyd’s Register, Kraken Robotic System, GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc, MarineNav, Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, Marine Institute, Metocean, Eigen Innovations Inc from Atlantic, ASL Environmental Sciences Inc. and RBR Ltd. from British Columbia. In addition, our international collaborators from Shandong University, China and the University of Rochester, USA have agreed to host our students and to conduct experiments in their advanced underwater facilities and fiber optic sensing labs. The onsite sea time and sea safety training will enhance iMerit HQP standing as highly desirable potential employees. Further, the iMerit program will enable its graduates to gain multidisciplinary technical skills ranging from engineering mathematics and physics to computer programming, management and entrepreneurship. The iMerit HQP professional development will be enriched through their active participation in a multitude of national and international technical workshops and conferences, as well as in the iMerit annual summer school. Overall, the program is expected to significantly contribute to near and long-term economic development of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Atlantic provinces as a whole. The long-term goal of the program is to retain the proposed structure for training and collaborative research, establish a Centre of Excellence in Ocean Technology.

PAST PROJECTS

SENSOR FUSION WITH BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS IN MOBILE ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

(supported by NSERC) In the proposed research, the fusion aspects of the multisensor robot system will be studied. More specifically, fusion strategies to handle all major problems associated with multisensor robot systems will be developed. Dynamic model of a multisensor robot system, which has the space and orientation constrains imposed by the placement of multiple sensor will be derived. And also, the optimal placement of the sensors required by the desired tasks to each sensor in the system will be achieved.

A VOICE-CONTROLLED WIRELESS MOBILE ROBOTIC SYSTEM

A voice-controlled wireless mobile robotic system capable of recognizing voice commands is designed. A comparison of HTK-developed HMM against a commercially available Microsoft speech recognition engine (SDK 5.1) in terms of accuracy is studied. The experimental evaluation and accuracy tests will show the ability of the VCR software to control a robot with simple human voice commands.

ROBOTIC EYE PROJECT

This project aims to design an assistive device that will help patients with eye-implant to have natural eye movement. Ocular implant is routinely used for patients who lose their eye for various reasons. The artificial eye can be made like a real eye cosmetically. But the problem is that it is static and does not have the natural movement. In current research, we are trying to improving the previous model and solve new issues related to this problem.

WALL CLIMBING ROBOT

The aim of this project is to design a wall-climbing robot to scan external surfaces of gas or oil tanks or pipelines and inspect defects with non-destructive sensors. The robot also needs to be semi-autonomous. The robot should also be capable of carrying multiple sensors, electronic circuits, computational resources, wireless communication devices etc. A wall-climbing robot should not only be light but also have a large payload so that it may reduce excessive adhesion forces and carry instrumentations during navigation. (Supported by Imperial Oil)

USING TELE-ROBOTIC SKULL DRILL FOR NEUROSURGICAL APPLICATIONS

This proposal research aims to build an image-guided telerobotic system for neurosurgery. More specifically, this project is to investigate the remote drilling of a hole in the skull to relieve the pressures associated with head trauma and chronic conditions (Supported by NSERC, NSHRF).

INVESTIGATION OF TRAJECTORY TRACKING CONTROL ALGORITHM FOR MOBILE PLATFORMS

This project aims to use an intuitive way of trajectory tracking control for the autonomous mobile platforms. It is implemented by combining the way point guidance approach and the model reference tracking control where the way points which sit on the reference path is regulated in a close-loop fashion by exploiting the position and orientation errors. The proposed algorithm basically could be decomposed into two separate tasks, which are the geometric tasks and the dynamics assignments tasks. Besides, the velocity could be kept constant or global method which depends on the system of the mobile platforms where some of autonomous vehicles could have fine velocity control.

ROBOTICS LABORATORY FOR BIOMEDICAL, REHABILITATION AND ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

(supported by CFI)

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA:


APPLYING ROBOT ARM TO HELP MENTALLY DEVELOPMENT-DELAYED CHILDREN

The goal of the research is to investigate whether young children who have mental and physical disabilities will be able to use a robot arm to facilitate their learning, exploration and discovery. Robot arms are used to aid children in their interaction skills development. They serve as a contingency controlling system and monitor the child’s performance. The systems are set up in such a way that switch activation will cause the robot arm to perform a predefined movement of interest to the child.

SENSING AND CONTROL OF AN ARTIFICIAL EYE IMPLANT (THESIS RESEARCH TOPIC)

The main objective of the thesis research is to design an assistive device that will help patients with eye-implant to have natural eye movement. Ocular implant is routinely used for patients who lose their eye for various reasons. The artificial eye can be made like a real eye cosmetically. But the problem is that it is static and does not have the natural movement. In our present research, we are designing an ocular assistive system to enable the artificial eye implant to have natural movement. There are two important issues related to this problem: the identification of the natural eye movement and the coordinated control of the movement of the artificial eye implant.