Offroad Robotics research is the result of research projects carried out in partnership with industry partners and often supported by government funding agencies. Many of our projects are also collaborative, involving other academics at Queen's—at Smith Engineering, at Ingenuity Labs, and beyond—as well as from other academic institutions in Canada and around the world. The links on this page showcase a few select projects.
CREATE ADVENTOR
Offroad Robotics is part of the NSERC CREATE program, called ADVENTOR: Advanced Engineering and Training in Next-Generation Mobile Robotics for Human Spaces. This program combines technical training with integrated socio-ethical design thinking, human-centred approaches, professional skills, and hands-on experiences to solve complex robotics challenges.
Aquatic Robotics
Offroad Robotics researchers have been working on a growing number of projects to develop USV-based technologies that support the challenges facing Canada’s aquatic resources and related industries.
NSERC Canadian Robotics Network (NCRN)
Offroad Robotics is part of the NSERC Canadian Robotics Network (NCRN) is an NSERC Strategic Network aimed at brining together robotics researchers, companies, and students from across the country towards increased collaboration and with goal of supporting growth in the robotics domain.
CREATE TrustCAV
Building Trust in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (TrustCAV) is a program funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to attract, retain, and train Canada’s future leaders in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV), as well as address the technological and societal challenges associated with CAV.
AI4Rail
This project was a collaboration between Ingenuity Labs researchers in robotics and civil engineering with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) on the design of a mobile robot to quickly and accurately install fibre optic sensors (FOS) on rail to detect thermal and other indicators of track condition.
FragX
The FragX project is about the development of techniques for automatically estimating the size characteristics of piles of fragmented rock, such as those obtained after blasting rock in mining and construction operations, through only proprioceptive measurements (i.e., not vision or LiDAR) onboard an excavator while digging.
Robotic Excavation
Our research in robotic excavation focused on automated loading of fragmented rock for underground load-haul-dump (LHD) machines, although we have also conducted experiments using small surface wheel loaders. We designed a learning-based admittance control scheme that adapts to changing pile conditions and can automatically track a desired bucket payload.
AxisMapper: Robotic Geotechnical
In this project (2012-2016), funded in part by the NCFRN, we developed a new approach to mapping joint sets in rock formations called axis mapping that provides a quick and easy way for geotechnical engineers or geologists to automatically generate rich and complete stereonets.
NSERC Canadian Field Robotics Network (NCFRN)
The NCFRN brought together academic, government, and industrial researchers to develop the science and technologies that will eventually allow teams of heterogeneous robots (on land, in the air, on the surface of or under water) to work collaborate in outdoor environments, and to communicate critical information to humans who operate or use them.
uGPS: Underground Positioning System
This research project (2008-2016) aimed to develop a robust and practical solution for underground vehicle positioning. There were two phases of uGPS (underground positioning system) research, funded by NSERC and with industry partners MDA and Barrick Gold.
CREATE Technologies & Techniques for Earth & Space Exploration
Offroad Robotics (then called the Mining Systems Laboratory) was part of the NSERC CREATE project Technologies and Techniques for Earth and Space Exploration (2011-2017), led by the Centre for Planetary and Space Exploration (CPSX) and Western University.