A Human-Robot Visual-Inertial Monitoring System for Discoveries on Safe Human-Autonomy Interactions in Dynamic Environments

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To develop safe and computationally efficient cooperative controls in highly dynamic environments by enhancing our understanding of human interactive cognition and attention, we are requesting funding to purchase a state-of-the-art human-robot monitoring system. The system includes remote and on-board sensing units and a wireless electroencephalogram (EEG). It will enable studies on interactive cognition for human-autonomy shared control (e.g., in assistive robotics and automated driving) using EEG at 1kHz, and will allow detection (within 200m) and augmented perception through fusion of the LiDAR and radar data at 20 Hz at each unit (i.e., Edge Computing). The integrated monitoring system along with our existing infrastructure is unique to our cross-university team and establishes a world-class test facility for research on cooperative perception and human-autonomy interaction in dynamic environments in Canada. The equipment will leverage +$0.75 million CFI- and NSERC-funded facilities (on mobile robotics and neuroscience), will support +18 HQP, and will enable a diverse cross-university research program addressing scientific and applied challenges in three main Themes: 1) Networked Robotics: Enhance robot navigation for perceptually degraded conditions by designing learning-aided distributed estimators inspired by human attention. 2) Human-centered teleoperation: Develop safe teleoperation of mobile robots/vehicles in dynamic environments by studying operator behavior in such complex scenarios, subject to delay and loss of perception, and by forming cooperative controls around the human intent. The recent partnership between TELUS and the University of Alberta for a 5G-enabled living lab will be leveraged. 3) Assistive robotics: Improve personalization and safety by estimating user intent, exploring interactive cognition (a genuine breakthrough for co-designing learning modules and state observers), and developing situation-aware controls in rollators for users with cognitive impairment. The monitoring system will further enable a host of interdisciplinary research activities to expand infrastructure usage as a core facility, through the current and new faculty members and HQP from control engineering, psychology, and computer science disciplines, to sustain future growth of research activities, and to support Canadian robotic and AI industries. The strong integration of the program with social and cognitive sciences and our established EDI policies will provide strong means for unbiased and equitable hiring in those disciplines. The program will offer strong training to HQP through: advanced theoretical/technical and professional development training and standardized internships. This will promote rigorous methodologies, enhanced research culture, and impactful outcomes in the program. A delay in acquiring such crucial equipment will constrain scientific potentials for the current cross-university projects and will reduce HQP training.