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

The post Can you teach a robot to swim and walk? Daily Planet covers the AQUA robot appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The team, led by , a computer science professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science & Engineering, is working together with teams from McGill University and Dalhousie University to build the highly advanced AQUA robot, which resembles an otter and uses flippers to propel itself around underwater. Despite its cute, toy-like appearance, AQUA is intelligent enough to understand visual commands and perform complex under water manoeuvres.

Jenkin's team recently created an underwater control tablet that lets an operator interact with AQUA directly and much more quickly 鈥� a crucial feature when investigating dangerous, unknown environments like shipwrecks. 鈥淲e want to make vehicles that are more intelligent, that understand their world better and can interact with the world better. The underlying goal is to enhance our understanding of how to build intelligent, autonomous systems,鈥� Jenkin said.

Jenkin, a member of the , is one 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. He leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics laboratory, 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 .

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

The post Professor Michael Jenkin's AQUA robot gets four flippers and a clever brain appeared first on Research & Innovation.

This marine robot is called , and its creators believe it will help researchers better explore and collect data in the planets' oceans.

Equipped with an array of sensors and cameras, the robot is designed for use in dangerous places where human divers would be at risk.

AQUA's greatest asset is its ability to interact with a human controller.

Jenkin believes his robot will open new vistas for deep-sea exploration. 鈥淒iving gets more dangerous the deeper you go. It gets more dangerous if you are in an overhead environment. So you can remain a reasonable distance from the robot and in reasonable safety and have the robot and have the robot do the more dangerous thing. And so that allows you to have the robot go into shipwrecks or explore partially collapsed environments instead of putting the operator at risk.鈥�

More details about the are available in the .

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

The post NTD News interviews Professor Michael Jenkin about the AQUA robot project appeared first on Research & Innovation.

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.

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

The post Dream of exploring shipwrecks? Check out Professor Michael Jenkin's wireless controller and underwater robot appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Professor and graduate student of 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Computer Science & Engineering have created an underwater casing for tablet computers so that divers can control underwater robots. Motion sensors detect when the waterproofed computer is tilted, and instruct the robot to move in the same direction [].

鈥淲hat makes what we are doing unique is the idea of deploying the robot and the diver as part of a team to solve various problems,鈥� says Jenkin. 鈥淭he diver operator can remain outside dangerous environments and operate the vehicle, while the vehicle itself extends the diver鈥檚 capabilities.鈥�

The vehicle in question is called Aqua, a small submersible robot that swims using paddle legs and carries cameras and position sensors that relay information back to the screen of the tablet computer via an optical fibre.

The team is now working on signals to help robot and tablet communicate with each other even without the fibre. 鈥淎t the moment in autonomous operation the robot only communicates back to the tablet through flashing lights on the vehicle. We want to look at having the robot perform certain motions 鈥� essentially, have the robot 鈥榙ance鈥�, and use this dance to communicate from the robot to the tablet,鈥� says Jenkin.

Jenkin and Verzijlenberg are just two of the researchers based in 91亚色's state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre, which . Jenkin leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics, which is based on the building's main level. 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

The post VIDEO: Professor Michael Jenkin's AquaPad tablet computer allows divers to communicate at depth with underwater robots appeared first on Research & Innovation.

91亚色 had several different presentations at Discovery 2010. Professors , George Zhu, , Costas Armenakis, , Hugh Chesser and Baoxin Hu from the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering had several displays, including an underwater robot, a nanosatellite, computer vision and a Mars rover.

Professor Regina Lee and her students, also from the Department of Earth & Space Science, showed off their Mars rover and the massive trophy they won for placing first in the 2009 University Rover Challenge in Utah (where the land apparently resembles the surface of Mars 鈥� who knew?). The group also placed second in the 2010 competition this month.

Professor kept crowds happy playing his iPhone app, 鈥溾�� which debuted at . 91亚色鈥檚 digital media display also featured the projects funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (, led by Professor Nell Tenhaff in the Faculty of Fine Arts) and the Ontario Research Fund (the , led by Professor John Tsotsos in the Faculty of Science & Engineering).

Meanwhile, , a partner in the 91亚色-led 3D FLIC project, drew crowds who didn鈥檛 mind sharing 3D glasses to experience their stunning 3D television footage.

, a Regional Innovation Network for biotechnology in 91亚色 Region for which 91亚色 is a founding partner, was also represented by Janet Leclair and Sana Mulji Dutt.

Among the event鈥檚 highlights were the awards ceremonies, including the , innovation awards and many awards for Ontario鈥檚 best researchers, students and companies.聽 Amongst these was the award for . The winning team, lead by Armen Bakirtzian, included a 91亚色 MBA candidate, Ara Hasserjian.

Discovery 2010 provided an excellent introduction and overview for Sarah Fuller who joined 91亚色 May 17 as associate director, research agreements and intellectual property where she

will lead 91亚色鈥檚 technology commercialization group. If your research involves non-academic partners (such as community, government, industry) or if you are required to transfer research funding, information or materials to another institution, Sarah can be reached at extension 20579 or by e-mail at sfuller@yorku.ca.

So what鈥檚 next for now? 91亚色 is actively supporting industrial collaborations for faculty and students. Through expert services, industry liaison and technology commercialization under the Office of the Voce-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色 will help connect your research to industrial partners. Companies can also explore working with 91亚色 researchers and grad students.

For more information, contact David Phipps, director, Research Services and Knowledge Exchange at 416-736-5813 or dphipps@yorku.ca.

By David Phipps, director, Research Services and Knowledge Exchange.

The post Ontario Centre of Excellence's Discovery 2010 was now, not next appeared first on Research & Innovation.