According to a recent press release, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) organised The 1st International Forum on Marine Robotics.
The forum saw both international and local experts share insights on how to advance marine robotic technology and its applications in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA).
This is one of the major events initiated by PolyU to foster closer collaborations and explore innovative technologies with top-notch universities and institutes around the world through forming strategic research and development alliances.
In his welcome remarks, the Vice President (Research Development) of PolyU stated that the university was pleased to work with robotics experts from different places to collaborate in the research, development, and deployment of marine robotics so that innovative and ground-breaking applications of robotic systems to explore oceans in a new way can continue.
Four renowned experts spoke the Forum, all leading pundits in different areas of science and scientific research. The forum speakers came from different top-calibre universities around the world.
The experts shared themes that covered bio-mechatronic sensory motor control, autonomous underwater vehicles, marine robotics for deep-sea exploration and operation. The professionals exchanged valuable views and experiences on marine robotics technologies.
The Associate Professor of PolyU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and a seasoned researcher on bio-inspired dynamics, control and robotics, highlighted that technologies related to underwater exploration and manipulation as well as new bio-inspired underwater robots would be two important areas to be explored in marine robotics.
These key marine robotic technologies are important to ocean exploration and exploitation. They also contribute enormously in environmental and pollution study, critical underwater infrastructure inspection, natural resource exploration, and sensing and mapping of ocean for specific tasks and missions.
The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at PolyU stated that PolyU is committed to conducting impactful research and promoting knowledge transfer. While it is situated in a coastal city like Hong Kong, the university can leverage its geographical advantage as researchers conduct research on ocean exploration.
By capitalising on the university’s solid network with leading researchers in the world, researchers strive to pioneer in developing marine robotic technologies and deliver global results.
PolyU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ICL and SIA in March 2019, respectively. The two MoUs reinforce the partnership between PolyU and the top research institutions of related areas and firmly declare the intentions of advancing joint research, particularly in the areas of innovative robotics technologies in relation to ocean exploration as well as ocean exploitation for scientific research and civilian applications.
Committed to supporting the HKSAR Government’s InnoHK initiative in developing Hong Kong as the hub for global research collaborations, PolyU has submitted a proposal to the HKSAR Government under the AIR@InnoHK research cluster initiative for setting up an international joint research centre with top-notch research institutes on marine robotics.
PolyU also plans to launch a series of events on this emerging research area, targeting to explore and promote high impact maritime robotic applications in various industries, bringing extensive benefits to the society.
InnoHK
InnoHK is a major initiative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to develop Hong Kong as the hub for global research collaboration. This involves the establishment of world-class research clusters at the Hong Kong Science Park with research laboratories set up by world renowned institutions and / or commercial entities to conduct collaborative researches.
AIR@InnoHK will focus on the development of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics technologies, as applied to areas like financial services, smart city and advanced manufacturing. Research focuses may cover big data analytics, machine learning, cognitive systems, intelligent agents, classification for diagnosis, medical robotics, mobile robots and assistive / service / construction robots etc.
The aim is to converge top-notch researchers from all over the world to conduct world-class and impactful collaborative researches.
