The annual Robocon competition project allows HKU engineering students from different disciplines to design and fabricate innovative robots with an integration of various advanced technologies, including IoT sensors, AI, computer vision, and mobile computing. Besides, it provides hands-on experiences on product design, prototyping, CNC machining, design and fabrication of electric circuit and PCB, control program development, etc.
Internet of things (IoT) has attracted huge attention because of its potential to connect things together with the cloud. Similarly, the Internet of Health (IoH) aims to enable real-time health evaluation of an individual or a group with advanced medical devices. This feat can be realized by developing tiny wearable biosensors that can be easily deployed on the human body to monitor health signals. This project develops next-generation wearable biosensors to allow digital healthcare. There are two main components. First, we develop skin-attachable biosensors which detect health signals including electrophysiological signals, temperature, and antibodies or glucose in the sweat. Second, we develop miniaturized sensor characterization systems to enable comfort wear for practical applications. The whole set can communicate the data wirelessly with other electronic devices. This will be one of the smallest wearable devices developed so far. Future research is being conducted by our group at the innovation wing now at HKU.
The world is currently in the midst of a second-quantum revolution, which will see the counter intuitive properties of quantum systems such as superposition and entanglement, being applied for commercial technologies such as quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communications. Quantum Computing is mostly taught to undergraduates in a classroom focusing mostly on theoretical and mathematical concepts with minimal laboratory components. This is primarily because research laboratories working in quantum science are too expensive, bulky, and complicated to be used for undergraduate teaching purposes. We wish to bridge that gap by building a compact, user-friendly, interactive setup to introduce quantum physics to a younger non-expert audience. The goal of the project is to create a curriculum for quantum technology, a sustainable education model, with an in-class demonstration kit for quantum science education.
BREED is a student group committed to developing and promoting bio-inspired technology. Our flagship VAYU project – the world’s fastest robotic fish – and our upcoming initiatives such as our robotic dog aim to educate and enhance awareness in the general student body. Using designs perfected by millions of years of natural evolution, we adapt selected features into increasing effectiveness of man-made robots. We aim to establish a hub based in the Innovation Wing where this development can take root in the local community, increasing awareness and interest while promoting scientific innovation: this will be done through outreach projects, educational initiatives, as well as the continuation of various bio-inspired initiatives under BREED.
Internet of Things (IoT) is a system that connects sensors, machines, computing devices, etc. together to collect data without much human involvement. IoT allows a very massive amount of data to be collected, which were not available in the past. The data collected can then be used to enhance operation efficiency and performance of a system. The system then becomes “smart” in the sense that the system can now make decisions that are more optimized and intelligent without much human interaction. A home/building/city becomes smart when IoT is adopted in its maintenance and daily operations. IoT and smart city are still in infancies that there are not many real implementations. A complete IoT application consists of various components including sensors, power electronics, information processing, communication network, data analytics, data visualization, and data security etc. A lot of projects can be developed from these elements to provide experiential learning to our students.
HKU Astar is a student interest group focused on research and development in the combination of Robotics and AI algorithms. It collaborates with HKU RoboMaster in RoboMaster university competition series hosted by DJI, responsible for the mechanical and embedded systems design of some robots and the development of vision, localization, navigation, and decision-making systems applied to the fully automatic sentry robot and the Radar. Starting from next semester, the team will participate individually in other AI-related competitions, such as the Intelligent UAV Championship currently held by DJI. For the UAV Championship, the team will work on the localization, navigation, and motion planning of a drone to make it fly swiftly and smoothly through objective rings, as well as avoid stationary or moving obstacles in a complicated environment.
Robomaster is a national robotics competition for university students, hosted by DJI. The project is about forming a team to design various types of smart robots which can engage in face-to-face, videogame-style battles. The preparation process involves the knowledge in the following disciplines: mechanical and hardware design, control theory application, computer vision and smart algorithm, technical management. The ultimate purpose of the project is to develop the skills, quality and team spirit of engineering students that can be beneficial in their future career.
AI-Driving is an interdisciplinary endeavor in experiential learning, in which students apply technical knowledges in A.I. and robotics. In this project, students will learn knowledge about computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics and implement AI algorithms to work on auto-driving vehicles running in a real miniature environment. The objective of the project is to allow students to gain insights about the development framework for autonomous vehicles, and to attempt problem such as lane following and object recognition. Students will also form a team representing HKU to participate in International competitions such as AI-Driving Olympics held by the DuckieTown Foundation and other contests related to AI-Driving, e.g., AWS DeepRacer.
HKU UAS is a student interest group focusing on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). We aim to gather self-motivated drone lovers to learn and work on drone projects together. Not only to gain a lot of hands-on experience, by joining us, you could improve your mechanical skills and learn and apply electrical and computer science skills.
With the support of Innovation Wing, we plan to join competitions to test our knowledge and skills, also to learn from other teams and gain valuable experience. In 2022, the team build the system based on the rules of AUVSI SUAS 2023.
The AUVSI SUAS Competition is a yearly event, designed to stimulate interest in UAS technologies and careers, and to engage students in a challenging UAS mission.
This project aims to develop the set of technologies to achieve convenient-to-use mobility support for daily use of the elderly. In this project, we are developing a smart elderly walker which is intended to play an active role in an elderly person’s daily life, with three fundamental functionalities that do not exist or not well supported by (smart) walkers in the market: smart walking assistance; falling prevention and support; autonomous mobility.
A set of mechanical, control, sensory, and AI technologies is being developed including:
(1) novel walker mechanical structure with omnidirectional mobility and outrigger mechanisms;
(2) dual-mode actuation and control for walking/standing support and fall prevention/ recovery;
(3) multimodal sensory data collection through soft sensory skin, and data processing on device and in the cloud, for event detection and control such as user front following and fall detection;
(4) sound-source localization for elderly localisation and auto-navigation of walker.