Autonomous Systems
Traditional methods of remotely controlling systems via manual operation become inadequate as the complexity of systems and the required tasks increase, particularly in changing and challenging environments. In recent times, we have seen an exponential increase in the demand for technologies that operate with minimal human intervention.
These emerging technologies, with varying degrees of autonomy, leverage on the ability to accurately and swiftly capture detailed information about their environment and act upon this information. These systems are also designed to perform well under considerable uncertainty in the environment for extended periods of time and to handle safely system failures without external intervention. Autonomy is underpinned by several supporting technologies and the development of autonomous systems requires highly interdisciplinary research carried out in collaboration with industry.
Current Projects:
- Growing Autonomous System Mission Management Applications (GAMMA), a £4.4M project on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Autonomous Systems funded by the Regional Growth Fund, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UK. The project is in collaboration with North West Aerospace Alliance, BAe Systems, National Nuclear Laboratory and the Universities of Liverpool, Salford, Lanchaster and Central Lancaster with the University of Manchester's share in this project being £1.5M.
- Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) in Electrical Systems hosting the Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems Defence Technology Centre (SEAS DTC)’s Integrated Electrical Power Networks Evaluation Facility (IEPNEF), a 100kVA experimental platform for UAV electrical systems tests.
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Computational and Dynamical Analysis (CICADA), a £2m EPSRC funded centre of excellence to explore new mathematical and computational methods for analysing hybrid and asynchronous systems and for developing associated adaptive control methods.
Research Areas
Vehicles and Platforms
• air vehicles optimised for payloads between 1g and 5Kg
• ground and underwater vehicles
• specialised aero-actuators for flight control
• advanced materials and structures
Autonomy and Control Algorithms
• advanced automation and filtering algorithms
• safety and fault tolerance
• guidance, navigation, command and control
• intelligent systems (e.g. sense and avoid, sense and follow)
Power Optimisation
• energy storage and management for vehicle platforms
• jet engine and electrical load emulation
Sensing Technologies
• object detection and recognition
• hyper/multi-spectral imaging and signal processing
Business Enterprise Solutions
• Innovative business models emphasising the role of service solutions
• Anticipation of possible futures as a source of competitive advantage
• Strategy in disruptive innovation or challenging changing environments
Application Domains
• Autonomous underwater vehicle measurements sub-sea / sub-Antarctic ice-shelves
• Autonomous aerial vehicle measurements at very high altitudes
• Autonomous vehicles for different infrastructure inspections
Research Facilities
• Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC)
• Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems Defence Technology Centre (SEAS DTC)’s Intelligent Electrical Power Networks Evaluation Facility (IEPNEF)
• Autopilot hardware-in-the-Loop testing
• Embedded Electronics
• Image Processing and Analysis
• Data Intensive Computing
• 3D Virtual Environment Simulation
Staff Members
| Dr A Lanzon (Theme Leader) | |
| Name | Research Areas |
|---|---|
| Dr B Crowther | |
| Professor A Forsyth | |
| Professor D Broomhead | |
| Professor S Smith | |
| Professor B Lennox | |
| Dr A Stancu | |
| Dr A Filippone | |
| Dr M Turner | |
| Dr P Green | |
| Dr G Lane-Serff |
