Community Self-determination in the Era of Automated Home Delivery Systems. Urban environments in Australia and internationally are on the cusp of major disruption resulting from impending proliferation of home delivery services using autonomous vehicles in the form of trucks, shuttles, bots, and drones. As witnessed in the case of ride-share services, socio-technical changes can permeate society before effective regulation is introduced unless swift anticipatory action is taken. The aim of this ....Community Self-determination in the Era of Automated Home Delivery Systems. Urban environments in Australia and internationally are on the cusp of major disruption resulting from impending proliferation of home delivery services using autonomous vehicles in the form of trucks, shuttles, bots, and drones. As witnessed in the case of ride-share services, socio-technical changes can permeate society before effective regulation is introduced unless swift anticipatory action is taken. The aim of this project is to deliver the critical information inputs required to empower and protect communities in a future characterised by the widespread use of automated product deliveries. Outputs will include modelled scenarios and negotiated policy recommendations that reflect meaningful community consultation.Read moreRead less
A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Exp ....A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Expected outcomes include the discovery of an acceptable, transparent and ethical explanation system that helps humans to understand the AVs decision making. This field will continue to rise in prominence and produce much-needed work to improve the widespread adoption of AVs.Read moreRead less
Next-generation Navigation by Mega-constellations LEO Satellites. This research will explore a novel positioning approach using new mega-constellations low-earth-orbit satellite communications signals to address a severe limitation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). It will facilitate improved positioning for services that rely on satellite positioning in challenging environments where GNSS signal visibility is limited, and where accurate positioning is needed. Expected outcomes are ....Next-generation Navigation by Mega-constellations LEO Satellites. This research will explore a novel positioning approach using new mega-constellations low-earth-orbit satellite communications signals to address a severe limitation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). It will facilitate improved positioning for services that rely on satellite positioning in challenging environments where GNSS signal visibility is limited, and where accurate positioning is needed. Expected outcomes are generating new knowledge in using satellite internet signals for navigation, advancing our satellite positioning capability essential for vital applications such as transport, mining and defence, and developing technologies to increase Australia’s satellite innovation capacity with global scalability.Read moreRead less
Going wild: Neural processing in freely moving animals. This project aims to use new techniques in wireless neural recording to reveal how small neural networks process visual information to make fast, accurate decisions. The project is designed to generate new knowledge about biological solutions to contextual information processing and how tiny, simple biological neural systems control critical animal behaviours such as predator avoidance. Expected outcomes will be new biological insights with ....Going wild: Neural processing in freely moving animals. This project aims to use new techniques in wireless neural recording to reveal how small neural networks process visual information to make fast, accurate decisions. The project is designed to generate new knowledge about biological solutions to contextual information processing and how tiny, simple biological neural systems control critical animal behaviours such as predator avoidance. Expected outcomes will be new biological insights with which to develop novel bio-inspired decision-making processing systems as required in small, autonomous robots. The anticipated benefits of this project will be advances in fundamental neuroscience and animal behaviour and is expected to provide significant value to a fast-developing industrial sector.Read moreRead less
Action selection in insects: how a microbrain knows what to do. Identifying what to do demands integrating sensory information with our current physiological state and memory of past experience to select the best possible action. This is the action selection problem. Our project aims to discover how tiny insect brains solve this fundamental problem. The project combines neural recordings from animals exploring virtual reality, behavioural analyses and computational modelling. The expected outco ....Action selection in insects: how a microbrain knows what to do. Identifying what to do demands integrating sensory information with our current physiological state and memory of past experience to select the best possible action. This is the action selection problem. Our project aims to discover how tiny insect brains solve this fundamental problem. The project combines neural recordings from animals exploring virtual reality, behavioural analyses and computational modelling. The expected outcome is a new understanding of the brain as an effective behavioural control system. This will benefit systems and comparative neuroscience. Our findings may also inspire solutions for robotic systems that must operate autonomously in remote and challenging environments such as disaster relief or exploration.Read moreRead less
Accelerated Finite-time Learning and Control in Cyber-Physical Systems. Efficient learning and control in cyber-physical systems such as smart grids and robotic systems are very important for achieving economic and social benefits. This project aims to establish a breakthrough accelerated finite-time dynamics theory and technology to assist in delivering efficient learning and control. Expected outcomes include new distributed accelerated finite-time dynamics based learning and control algorithm ....Accelerated Finite-time Learning and Control in Cyber-Physical Systems. Efficient learning and control in cyber-physical systems such as smart grids and robotic systems are very important for achieving economic and social benefits. This project aims to establish a breakthrough accelerated finite-time dynamics theory and technology to assist in delivering efficient learning and control. Expected outcomes include new distributed accelerated finite-time dynamics based learning and control algorithms and tools for optimal operations in cyber-physical systems. This should provide significant benefits including a practical technology for industry applications in smart grids and robotic systems, and training of the next generation engineers in this technology for Australia.Read moreRead less
Autonomous Discovery of Green Inhibitors. The project aims to develop autonomous material design by integrating evolutionary algorithms and robotic experimentation. The project expects to pioneer a new method of materials discovery that could cut discovery times to 20% of traditional methods. Its expected to have significance through its discovery of new classes of corrosion inhibitors that are safe to both humans and the environment. The expected outcomes of this project will be a rapid disc ....Autonomous Discovery of Green Inhibitors. The project aims to develop autonomous material design by integrating evolutionary algorithms and robotic experimentation. The project expects to pioneer a new method of materials discovery that could cut discovery times to 20% of traditional methods. Its expected to have significance through its discovery of new classes of corrosion inhibitors that are safe to both humans and the environment. The expected outcomes of this project will be a rapid discovery methodology that can be used across materials science and new classes of safe corrosion inhibitors. This should provide significant benefits to workplace n safety and the environmental impact of the coatings industry while also increasing the rapid of innovation of new materials.Read moreRead less
Expanding the Foundation of Planetary Science. Our understanding of the Solar System is based on a foundation of meteorite analyses. Knowing their orbital origin provides a critical spatial context, but we have this data for <0.1% of samples. This project aims to address this issue. There are 66 meteorite falls across Australia with orbits determined by the Desert Fireball Network that await recovery - more than the current global dataset. This project expects to generate new knowledge by applyi ....Expanding the Foundation of Planetary Science. Our understanding of the Solar System is based on a foundation of meteorite analyses. Knowing their orbital origin provides a critical spatial context, but we have this data for <0.1% of samples. This project aims to address this issue. There are 66 meteorite falls across Australia with orbits determined by the Desert Fireball Network that await recovery - more than the current global dataset. This project expects to generate new knowledge by applying an innovative search methodology using drones and machine learning. Expected outcomes include dramatically increasing the number of orbital meteorites. This should provide significant benefits. By linking meteorites to their parent asteroids every rock becomes a small sample-return mission.Read moreRead less
Interactions of Human and Machine Intelligence in Modern Economic Systems. Much of modern economic systems are driven by machine-machine and machine-human interactions that happens rapidly at large scale. But such interactions are often opaque and can have negative or catastrophic consequences, such as market plunges with no apparent economic reasons in financial trading, content recommendations that promote extremism, algorithms in gig economy leading to worker exploitation and wasted resources ....Interactions of Human and Machine Intelligence in Modern Economic Systems. Much of modern economic systems are driven by machine-machine and machine-human interactions that happens rapidly at large scale. But such interactions are often opaque and can have negative or catastrophic consequences, such as market plunges with no apparent economic reasons in financial trading, content recommendations that promote extremism, algorithms in gig economy leading to worker exploitation and wasted resources. This project aims for new theoretical results and algorithms at the intersection computational economics, game theory, and dynamical systems, that establish conditions under which the economic systems are stable, propose mechanisms that make the interactions more fair, transparent and aligned with human values.Read moreRead less
Data Driven Polymer Synthesis. This project aims at full digitalization of the synthesis of high-added-value materials via combination of chemistry with data science and by constructing a fully automated robotic synthesis machine. The project expects to provide the data basis for advanced artificial intelligence application and its implementation. If successful, this will enable the prediction and automatic optimization of chemical reactions, providing rapid and more precise development of new m ....Data Driven Polymer Synthesis. This project aims at full digitalization of the synthesis of high-added-value materials via combination of chemistry with data science and by constructing a fully automated robotic synthesis machine. The project expects to provide the data basis for advanced artificial intelligence application and its implementation. If successful, this will enable the prediction and automatic optimization of chemical reactions, providing rapid and more precise development of new materials. This project will provide the benefit of significantly increasing the ability of Australian industry to use novel digital chemistry tools and to create revenue by faster product development, aiding in securing the over 60 000 jobs in this industry in Australia.Read moreRead less