Intelligent and Autonomous Systems
Automation used to be the ultimate innovation in industry, but automated systems still relied on human intervention for configuration and supervision. In addition, it was sometimes difficult to get these systems to work in new contexts. Introducing intelligence into the machines that make up these autonomous systems enables them to maintain performance and the precision of operations they require, because they can detect, plan and act on their own, even in a changing environment.
Applications are wide-ranging: autonomous transportation, computer-aided diagnosis, financial technologies, collaborative robotics, etc. These fields require both high-performance AI algorithms that can adapt to unpredictable situations and systems that can “sense” their environment and act upon it.
State-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure
Acting as a veritable virtually scalable factory model, this infrastructure connects the digital systems of partner educational institutions (ÉTS, UQAM, Polytechnique Montréal, Concordia University, Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke, Cégep de Sherbrooke and John Abbott College) to the supply chain of a dozen Canadian manufacturing companies. This project makes it possible for a company to experimentally validate its various digital transformation strategies in a live environment. The technologies that are designed here incorporate cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, human- machine interfaces and manufacturing through recycling.
Chairs and research units related to intelligent and autonomous systems
Chairs
- Canada Research Chair on Electrical Energy Conversion and Power Electronics
- Canada Research Chair on Next-Generation Internet of Things (Next-Gen IoT) Networks
- Industrial Research Chair on the Integration of Digital Technologies in Construction
- Distech Controls Industrial Chair on Embedded Neural Networks for Connected Building Control
- Matrox Industrial Chair in Computer Vision for Industrial Applications
- Olympus Industrial Chair on Ultrasonics Nondestructive Testing
- Robotiq Industrial Research Chair in Interactive Robotics
- Canada CIFAR Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence
- Siemens Industrial Chair on Industry 4.0 Technology Integration
- Marcelle-Gauvreau Engineering Research Chair on Applications and Services in Edge Computing
Research units
- CoRo – Laboratoire de commande et de robotique
- GREPCI – Power Electronics and Industrial Control Research Group
- IMAGIN LAB – Laboratory of Innovation and Engineering Systems for Automation and Digitalisation
- INIT – Intuitive and Natural Interaction for the Teleoperation of Robots
- LACIME – Communications and Microelectronic Integration Laboratory
- LASI – Computer System Architecture Research Laboratory
- LATIS – Biomedical Information Processing Laboratory
- LCSec – Cybersecurity Laboratory
- LINCS – Cognitive and Semantic Interpretation Engineering Laboratory
- LIVE – Interventional Imaging Laboratory
- LIVIA – Imaging, Vision and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
- NUMÉRIX – Organizational Engineering Research Laboratory for the Digital Enterprise
Industrial robots are very precise and fast, but not intelligent. In practical terms, we don’t modify the robot, we don’t improve it, we analyze it and then add systems and artificial intelligence to it. Everything is done from a computer, and that produces more efficient robots for the market.
