Student topics

Touch, or awareness of contact, is one of the key challenges in robotics, particularly in the soft and highly deformable environment of the human body. This project will explore the development and use of interferometric filters to quantify contact pressures through spectral changes in reflected light. Thus a quantitative 'image' of force may be created to both characterise and guide robot-tissue interactions.

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Research centre(s)

Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Raman scattering has been used as a powerful 'fingerprinting' technique for more than 80 years, and is widely used by security and law enforcement for detecting hazardous threats. To better safeguard the community, QUT has developed a unique eye -safe laser Raman sensing system for detecting threats, that works at distance from a target (> 10 m) and operates in real time. Increasingly however, threats are being concealed in order to avoid detection. This project will investigate what range of …

Study level

Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Chemistry and Physics

Optical limiting uses a medium’s nonlinear response to allow light at low intensities to be transmitted, but restricts transmission at high intensities so as to safeguard sensitive detectors including the eye. A popular nonlinear process used in optical limiters is two photon absorption where two high intensity light photons are simultaneously absorbed thereby reducing the light transmission through the medium. Unfortunately, in gold nanoparticle optical limiters a second nonlinear process can arise – saturated absorption which leads to an increase …

Study level

Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Chemistry and Physics

Research centre(s)

Centre for Materials Science

The sudden rupture of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques and subsequent thrombosis formations are responsible for most acute vascular syndromes, such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Many victims who are apparently healthy die suddenly with no prior symptoms.Such deaths could be prevented through surgery or alternative medical therapy, if vulnerable plaques were identified earlier in their natural progression.While intravascular methods have been developed to visualize various features of vulnerable plaques, there is no single technique that can accurately predict plaque rupture in …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Research centre(s)

Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Accurately mapping large-scale infrastructure assets (power poles, bridges, buildings, whole suburbs and cities) is still exceptionally challenging for robots.The problem becomes even harder when we ask robots to map structures with intricate geometry or when the appearance or the structure of the environment changes over time, for example due to corrosion or construction activity.The problem difficulty is increased even more when sensor data from a range of different sensors (e.g. lidars and cameras, but also more specialised hardware such as …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics

Research centre(s)

Centre for Robotics

Microfluidic devices are increasingly relied upon to address the complexity of in-vitro disease models that are intended to mimic and provide insight into in-vivo processes and reactions to novel therapies and in turn, can become powerful companion diagnostic devices essential for predicting and individual patient’s reaction to a particular treatment. However, as these microfluidic devices become more and more prominent and necessary for addressing the drug screening and disease modeling needs of the industry, we have observed a lack in …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Research centre(s)

Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Everything that moves is defined and limited by its ability to navigate the world in which it exists. Knowing where you are located in the world is a key navigational capability for people, animals, and both autonomous and human-operated platforms ranging from self-driving cars to aircraft.But accurate and trustworthy positional knowledge has widespread potential implications beyond navigation: it can, for example, allow life-and-death decisions in defence and in tracking the spread of global pandemics. Both the potential of and problems …

Study level

Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics

Research centre(s)

Centre for Robotics

Design relies on prototyping methods to help envisage future design concepts and elicit feedback from potential users. A key challenge the design of human-robot interaction (HRI) with collaborative robots is the current lack of prototyping tools, techniques, and materials. Without good prototyping tools, it is difficult to move beyond existing solutions and develop new ways of interacting with robots that make them more accessible and easier for people to use.This project will develop a robot collaboration prototyping toolkit that combines …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Design

Research centre(s)

Design Lab

Complex manufacturing environments characterised by high value and high product mix manufacturing processes pose challenges to Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Allowing people to see what robots are ‘thinking’ will allow workers to efficiently collaborate with co-located robotic partners. A tighter integration of work routines requires improved approaches to support awareness in human-robotic co-working spaces. There is a need for solutions that also let people see what the robot is intending to do so that they can also efficiently adjust their actions …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Design

Research centre(s)

Design Lab

Technological advancements such as information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, internet-of-things, robotics, and the increasing popularity of the smart city and smart living movements during the last couple of decades have created and intensified a boom of the smart home industry. At present, digital technology applications uptake in homes has become common and increasingly changed people’s lifestyles. Smart home technology provides a suite of independently and remotely controlled software and hardware connected to a network to deliver smart living. Smart …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Architecture and Built Environment

The construction industry plays a vital role in the global economy and there is a growing interest in utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its productivity and efficiency. Despite the industry's significant contribution to the economy, it has faced challenges such as large cost overruns, extended schedules, and quality concerns. Nevertheless, AI is making significant strides to remove these issues by revolutionising various aspects of the construction industry. This is evident from enhancing project planning and design to improving construction …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Architecture and Built Environment

Professor Belinda Bennett is interested in talking to students who wish to undertake research on legal issues related to technology, innovation and health, regulation of innovative health technologies, legal issues related to genomics, the use of artificial intelligence in health care, and the use of robotics in health care.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Law

Research centre(s)

Australian Centre for Health Law Research