Robotics expert Professor Stefan Williams has been awarded almost $420,000 to improve the functionality of underwater robots, used in offshore industries, such as oil and gas, as well as in scientific exploration and defence.
Each of these projects will bring together the expertise of academics, industry partners, and community organisations to tackle important issues and advance knowledge in their respective fields.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) offered her congratulations to the recipients, saying, “We are thrilled to see the diverse range of projects that have been awarded funding through the ARC Linkage program.”
“The University of Sydney is dedicated to advancing knowledge and making a positive impact on society, and these projects show the innovative thinking and hard work our academics and industry partners are applying to help our world change for the better. I look forward to following their progress.”
, from the and the , was among the funding recipients. His team will partner with and , as well as academic partners, on a project worth $419,886 to improve the functionality of underwater robots.
In particular, Professor Williams and his team hope to improve robotic intervention and inspection tasks, which are essential in offshore industries, such as oil and gas, as well as in scientific exploration and defence.
“Our approach will improve perception and situational awareness through the fusion of multiple navigation and camera sensors,” Professor Williams said.
“We will use this improved scene understanding to effectively plan the motion of vehicles and manipulators through larger and more complex workspaces, enabling semi-supervised and autonomous task execution. Our project will demonstrate these capabilities in real-world deployments relevant to industry and marine science.”
Other successful projects and their lead academics are as follows:
- , from the , will collaborate with the Jewish and Holocaust museums around Australia to access the long-term impact of Holocaust education programs, with total funding of $566,499.
- , from the , will work with renewable energy companies and to create the tools and know-how to optimise the design and development of solar farms. Sun Cable is currently developing the world’s largest solar farm in the Northern Territory. The project has been awarded $636,676.
- , from the , was awarded $711,551 to work with specialist chemical and animal nutrition company to enhance the affordable and environmentally-viable production of chicken-meat with improved bird welfare and flock health.
- , from the , will work with and on a project worth $928,845 to reduce the impact of crown rust in Australian oat production.
- , from the and , will work on a $467,165 project with pharmaceutical company to create a more environmentally friendly way to produce peptide and protein molecules.
