The first event of its kind,聽the聽workshop,聽which began yesterday and continues聽today,聽offers a forum for participants to share ideas, resources and聽technologies, and聽engage in discussions about current and future topics of importance to science and engineering in Canada and India.

Speaking at the workshop are聽Vijay Saraswat, scientific adviser to India's defence minister; William Selvamurthy, chief controller of聽research & development at India's Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO); David Kendall, the general director of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Professor聽Janusz Kozinski, dean of 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science & Engineering.

Right: Janusz Kozinski

Over the course of the event, participants will be聽exploring聽shared synergies, knowledge and advancements in聽areas such as聽space exploration,聽nanosatellite technology,聽space robotics and disease modelling research. They will also be examining how to collaborate on a new project known as the聽Early Warning and Advance Response Network聽(e-WARN). Spearheaded by Kozinski, e-WARN聽is intended to detect, quantify and initiate an effective response to chemical and biological聽threats聽released in public buildings. Researchers from both countries will discuss and plan how to collaborate on the e-WARN project.

Attending the workshop from India聽are representatives from the聽DRDO, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, the University of Calcutta and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Also attending are聽researchers from 91亚色, the University of Saskatchewan, McGill University, Concordia University and Ryerson University, and representatives from the Canadian Space Agency, COM DEV International, Unique Broadband Systems, Microstat Systems Canada, Canadian Light Source, MDA Technologies, Xiphos Technologies and the Canada-India Business Council.

Other topics聽that are part of the workshop聽include advances in聽alternative energy, space science and engineering, advanced materials and instrumentation, and life sciences.

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The clip focuses on recent efforts to teach AQUA to move as easily on sand as it does in the water, and its first attempt at tether-less swimming. Several students attached to the project also appear in the footage. You can watch it on the .

Jenkin is just one of the researchers based in 91亚色鈥檚 state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre. Jenkin leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics, which is based on the building鈥檚 main level, and is a member of the .

The AQUA project is funded in part by the .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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AQUA, an amphibious, otter-like robot, is small and nimble, with flippers rather than propellers, designed for intricate data collection from shipwrecks and reefs.

The robot, a joint project of 91亚色, McGill and Dalhousie universities, can now be controlled wirelessly using a waterproof tablet built at 91亚色. While underwater, divers can program the tablet to display tags onscreen, similar to bar codes read by smartphones. The robot鈥檚 on-board camera then scans these two-dimensional tags to receive and carry out commands.

Cutting the cord on underwater robots has been a long-standing challenge for scientists; water interferes with radio signals, hindering traditional wireless communication via modem. Tethered communication is cumbersome and can create safety issues for divers.

鈥淗aving a robot tethered to a vehicle above water creates a scenario where communication between the diver, robot, and surface operator becomes quite complicated,鈥� says (right), professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Computer Science & Engineering in the Faculty of Science & Engineering and co-author of the forthcoming paper, "Swimming with Robots: Human Robot Communication at Depth".

鈥淚nvestigating a shipwreck, for example, is a very delicate operation and the diver and robot need to be able to react quickly to changes in the environment. An error or a lag in communication could be dangerous,鈥� Jenkin says.

Realizing there was no device on the market that fit the bill, Jenkin and his team at 91亚色鈥檚 Centre for Vision Research, including the paper鈥檚 lead author,聽master in computer science聽student , set to work constructing a prototype. The resulting device, fittingly dubbed AQUATablet, is watertight to a depth of 60 feet. Aluminum housing with a clear acrylic cover protects the tablet computer, which can be controlled by a diver using toggle-switches and on-screen prompts.

鈥淎 diver at 60 feet can actually teleoperate AQUA 30 to 40 feet deeper. Needless to say this is much easier on the diver, physically and much safer,鈥� Jenkin says.

The tablet also allows divers to command the robot much as if they were using a video game joystick; turn the tablet right and AQUA turns right, too. In this mode, the robot is connected to the tablet by a slim length of optical cable, circumventing many of the issues of a robot-to-surface tether. The optical cable also allows AQUA to provide video feedback from its camera to the operator. In a totally wireless mode, the robot acknowledges prompts by flashing its on-board light. Its cameras can be used to build 3-D models of the environment which can then be used to guide the robot to particular tasks.

鈥淭his is a huge improvement on [a robot] having to travel to the surface to communicate with its operators,鈥� Jenkin says.

In the past, divers have used laminated flashcards to visually communicate with robots while underwater. However, these limit the diver to a pre-set sequence of commands.

鈥淚t鈥檚 impossible to anticipate everything you鈥檙e going to want the robot to do once you get underwater. We wanted to develop a system where we could create commands on the fly, in response to the environment,鈥� he says.

Jenkin and Verzijlenberg鈥檚 paper will be presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Taiwan.

Jenkin and Verzijlenberg are two of the researchers based in 91亚色鈥檚 new state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre, which officially opened on Sept. 14. Jenkin leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics, which is based on the building鈥檚 main level. The centre is supported by a grant from the . The AQUA project is funded in part by the . 91亚色's Centre for Vision Research is part of the Faculty of Health.

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