ROBOTICS (SENEVIRATNE ON INFRASTRUCTURE)
The Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotics Systems (KUCARS) is dedicated to establishing an internationally recognized center of excellence in robotics research. KUCARS was established in 2018, and integrates robotics related research activities in the three campuses of the merged Khalifa University, bringing together 25 KU faculty, to address some of the cutting edge research challenges in robotics. KUCARS research will focus on frontier robotics application themes such as infrastructure inspection, extreme environments, industrial applications, and healthcare applications. KUCARS has state of the art laboratory facilities and actively collaborates with leading international robotics labs and industrial partners. The infrastructure inspection theme focuses on autonomous and persistent surveillance of civil and industrial infrastructure using easy to deploy unmanned vehicles. The recent growth in low cost unmanned systems provides opportunities for new and cost-effective unmanned solutions for infrastructure inspection. This also allows for continuous and frequent coverage of the target space. The extreme environment theme investigates robot-based emergency response systems for extreme environments; the particular focus is on a group of UAVs and UGVs deployed for firefighting and search and rescue operations for scenarios similar to high rise building fires. The industrial applications theme investigates research problems related to deployment of robots in challenging industrial scenarios. There are a number of industrial applications where the use of robots is highly sought but not yet achieved with current state of the art systems, such as in construction automation (buildings or civil infrastructures) and manufacturing of large-size structures like aircraft and ships.
