Shaping the future in a Deakin lab

THE way we interact with machines, and how they do so with us, is on a path to being very different by the middle of the century.

Imagine wearing a patch printed from a 3D printer that has sensing systems to pick up on how you are feeling and monitor brain activity and which can then exchange messages with other smart devices.

That’s no stretch of the imagination for Geelong futurologist and robotics guru Saeid Nahavandi. In fact, he says the seeds of the technology are already here.

Prof Nahavandi says in 20 or 30 years such epidermal patches, similar to a tattoo, will be part of new world of collaboration between humans and machines.

“You put on epidermal patches, and then you can talk to machines by thinking, and then your machine can talk to my machine by thinking,” Prof Nahavandi says. Did you catch that? Just by thinking, you can communicate with machines though a transceiver in the patch, and it can engage with other machines on your behalf. And perhaps feed you information in return … just in response to your thoughts!

Sound spooky? Perhaps. But that’s because you’re not seeing the upside.

It’s about taking human endeavour to a higher plane with the aid of technology.

In Prof Nahavandi’s view, the future of technology, including artificial intelligence, will be as an enabler for people to achieve greater feats and accomplishments by working in harmony.

The director of Deakin University’s Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI) is already working on projects that interpret body signals using EEG scans and functional near-infrared spectroscopy to better inform the machines about the people in front of them.

“We are good at signal processing, we are good at integration, we are good at bringing the whole system together, and I am doing it right now,” Prof Nahavandi says.

A current “human-machine interface” project involves developing a wearable item that takes readings of brain activity and other biofeed inputs to measure the wearer’s level of comfort or threat with the machine or robot they are interacting with.

And then, wait for it, the robot adjusts itself to meet the individual’s needs.

The application can take many forms but the institute is already working with an industry partner involved in autonomous vehicles on an eye tracking project that can tell how a person is reacting, where they are looking and whether they are paying attention. “You want the vehicle to have some sort of feel for you,” Prof Nahavandi says.

“Imagine if that’s incorporated into the way vehicles behave in terms of its ride and handling and so on ... this is something we are starting to do right now,” he says.

Prof Nahavandi is respected worldwide for his groundbreaking research and he has worked with a raft of major international companies such as Boeing, Bosch, Ford and Lockheed Martin.

In July, he will be a plenary speaker at the International Conference on Computer Science and Cloud Computing in Italy where he will contend that the next industrial revolution (Industry 5.0) will see the integration of human intelligence and creativity with future smart systems.

His involvement with Deakin University started in 1998 after a career in the UK and in New Zealand working in academia and with industry on intelligent manufacturing philosophies.

He says that after working with major car manufacturers, he gave a keynote speech in 2000 warning that the days of the automotive industry in Australia were numbered if things did not change.

“If automotive companies had been listening in the early 2000s that we needed to do something differently, we would not be where we are now,” Prof Nahavandi says.

He bought Deakin’s first industrial robot in 1999 and by 2006 he was exploring interaction between humans and machines through his pioneering work and evolving brainchild Universal Motion Simulator (UMS).

Using sophisticated software, this next generation training simulator can spin and twist on continually rotating axes and is haptically enabled to replicate the forces felt at the controls. It creates highlevel G-forces and records biofeed signals to measure human performance.

It has been hailed as the world’s first haptically-enabled motion simulating platform that can cover a very broad spectrum of motions, making it the universal platform for motion research.

“We took that vision and system to the military and they could see the benefit,” Prof Nahavandi says. “They were convinced this was disruptive-type technology.”

As a result of the defence industry interest, Prof Nahavandi and Deakin licensed some of the IP to a start-up company, Universal Motion Simulation, which was recently awarded a $32 million contract to deliver six armoured vehicle training simulators.

But research continues on other applications for the motion simulator and IISRI has developed world-leading capacity and facilities.