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18 October 2007
Research Grant edition
The Australian Research Council has announced
the winners of its 2007 Linkage Grants and Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2008. Below are those
projects which will contribute to the national research priority of
Safeguarding Australia. It is important to note that the funding figures
may underestimate the actual project budgets as they do not include
the projects' industry contributions.
Linkage grants
- Forensic and detection
- Molecular Fingerprinting: Forensic Spectroscopy of Trace Gases
- Spectroscopy of complex and biological micro‑objects for biosensing applications
- A new nano‑sensor technology for the detection and identification of residual vapours of explosives, drugs and chemicals in the air
- The Effectiveness of Forensic Science in the Criminal Justice System
- Infrastructure and related areas
- Development of a Multi Threat Risk Assessment Model for Critical Infrastructure Using Scripted Agent Computer Technology
- Diagnostics and Prognostics of Turbine Engine Bearings
- Development of an Integrated Platform for Performance‑Based Safety Assessment
- Air Traffic Controller Competencies and Selection
- Monitoring and Maintaining the Structural Health of Bridges Using Vibration Characteristics
- Optimum location of FACTS devices with advanced control scheme for improving the security of complex power grid
- Information, Communications, Electronics Technology and Video
- Model Checking Knowledge and Probability in Pursuit‑Evasion Games
- Development of an advanced semiconductor characterisation capability for infrared focal plane array applications
Discovery Projects
- Infrastructure and related areas
- Stochastic Modelling of Structural Facade Damage and Occupant Safety Risks Due to Explosive Blast Loading
- The production and contestation of airport territory
- Terrorism, Pandemic Influenza, and Global Warming: Future Conceptualisations and Societal Resilience
- Utilising the benefits of high performance steels (HPS) and infill materials for critical infrastructure protection (CIP) against extreme loads
- Closed Circuit Television Surveillance, Security Networks and Australian Public Space
- Intelligent Self‑Organizing Transport
- Extreme weather and population health in Australia: risk assessment, prediction of health impacts and disease burden, and adaptive strategy exploration
- Large Scale Complex Multiagent Systems: Control Methodologies and Information Architectures
- Information, Communications, Electronics Technology and Video
- Algorithmics for Interactive 2.5D Graph Drawing
- Secure and Practical Anonymous Electronic Payment and Applications
- Optimal Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks.
- Visual tracking of multiple objects: A stochastic geometrical approach
- Feature‑Level Fusion with Incomplete Data for Automatic Person Identification
- Robust speaker recognition with reduced utterance duration and intersession variability
- Resonant Nanostructures for Adaptive Optoelectronics
- Integration of Spatiotemporal Video Data for Realtime Smart Proactive Surveillance
- Voice over Internet Protocol: Privacy and Electronic Evidence Implications
- A high performance and environment‑friendly piezoelectric detector platform for biosensor applications
- Image‑based teleoperation of semi‑autonomous robotic vehicles
- Quantum repeater technologies for continuous variable
Molecular Fingerprinting: Forensic Spectroscopy of Trace Gases
2008: $ 85,000
2009: $ 25,000
2010: $ 45,000
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Australian Federal Police
Administering Organisation The University of New South Wales
Researchers Dr CC Harb; Dr EH Huntington; Dr GN Milford; Dr SB O'Byrne; Prof BJ Orr; Dr T Spence
Project Summary
Safeguarding Australia from terrorism, crime and invasive diseases is essential to securing our national infrastructure. This project will develop national capabilities in anticipating and responding to critical threats to society. The scientific instrumentation developed from this effort will enhance Australia's potential aid for early detection of explosive and chemical weaponry and also in the analysis of crime scenes. This research will significantly improve our abilities to maintain the operational advantage of Australia's security agencies through superior capabilities in threat detection.
Spectroscopy of complex and biological micro‑objects for biosensing applications
2008: $ 78,648
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Genera Biosystems Pty Ltd
Administering Organisation Swinburne University of Technology
Researchers Prof M Gu; Dr D Morrish; Mr K Poetter
Project Summary
The optically based test for specific DNA binding resulting from the conclusion of this project is of great potential benefit to all Australians as DNA is the building block of all living organisms. The technique developed and resulting biosensor will provide an invaluable tool for the determination and analysis of specific DNA reactions. The general technique developed for the genetic targeting of specific DNA reactions makes the detection of diseases and toxins like Chlamydia and anthrax, for example cheap, quick and accurate, keeping Australian's healthy, and strengthening national security.
A new nano‑sensor technology for the detection and identification of residual vapours of explosives, drugs and chemicals in the air
2008: $ 50,000
2009: $ 50,000
2010: $ 75,000
2011: $ 105,000
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Forensic Services, Australian Federal Police, National Institute of Forensic Science
Administering Organisation Queensland University of Technology
Researchers Dr DK Gramotnev; A/Prof PM Fredericks; Dr AV Rode; Dr V Otieno‑Alego; Dr KP Kirkbride
Project Summary
Fighting terrorism and crime is one of the most important and difficult tasks that requires substantial human and technological resources. This project will help to address this enormous problem by developing a new optical sensor technology for the detection and identification of traces of chemicals, explosives, drugs and biological agents. It will develop a laboratory prototype of this sensor that is expected to have superior sensitivity and operational capabilities. Thus it will noticeably contribute to practical law enforcement, air quality and environmental monitoring, counter‑terrorism, air safety, border security and customs service. It will also lead to further development of nano‑optics and nanotechnology in Australia.
The Effectiveness of Forensic Science in the Criminal Justice System
2008: $ 129,284
2009: $ 142,426
2010: $ 135,159
2011: $ 159,100
2012: $ 103,360
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Victoria Police, National Institute of Forensic Science, Australian Federal Police
Administering Organisation University of Tasmania
Researchers A/Prof RD Julian; Prof RD White; Prof CP Roux; Dr HA Sibly; Mr A Ross; Mr P Woodman; Mr RJ Hayes; Mr T Purton; Dr J Robertson; Ms KA Davey; Prof P Margot
Project Summary
Policing plays a major role in combating crime in the community, reassuring and assisting persons affected by crime so that they can continue, or return, to enjoying their lives. Forensic science is increasingly relied upon by law enforcement to solve crime, and by the judicial system to prosecute offenders. However, the value and impact of forensic science has yet to be established. Through a comprehensive examination of forensic science usage in the criminal justice system in Victoria and ACT, this research will develop an evidence‑based best‑practice model for using forensic science efficiently and effectively. This will benefit the Australian community through the achievement of better and more cost effective criminal justice outcomes.
Project Summary
The project will develop a distributed risk network capable of real time assessment of multiple threats to critical infrastructure, which will guide decision making on the appropriate response as the nature of the threat changes.
This will assist all stakeholders and allow an integrated response across industry and government agencies. The developed technology will find ready application in other areas where integration of science and technology is required to solve complex problems. For example, risk network technology has application to natural hazards, waste disposal and financial markets while the scripted agent has application to communication technologies and sensor networks.
Diagnostics and Prognostics of Turbine Engine Bearings
2008: $ 90,000
2009: $ 90,000
2010: $ 90,000
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Rolls‑Royce plc
Administering Organisation The University of New South Wales
Researchers Prof RB Randall; Dr N Feng; Prof MJ Hoffman; Dr D Ashmore; Prof SD Garvey
Project Summary
Rolls Royce are a leading supplier of engines world‑wide, but in particular (with respect to this application) to airlines operating in and from Australia, including Qantas, as well as to the Australian armed forces. The methods to be developed will give greater security to the flying public, and to the Defence Forces, allowing them to carry out their role more reliably. Collaboration with Rolls Royce will add prestige to this Australian developed technology, and increase the likelihood of it (and related technology) being used in the Joint Strike Fighter.
Development of an Integrated Platform for Performance‑Based Safety Assessment
2008: $ 78,648
2009: $ 78,648
2010: $ 78,648
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Dynamics Energy Technologies Pty Ltd, Arch & Fire Professional (International) Limited
Administering Organisation RMIT University
Researchers Prof JY Tu; Dr C Cheung; Dr S Lo; Prof RK Yuen; Dr GH Yeoh
Project Summary
Building fires are the cause of major fatalities and injuries amongst all types of accidental fires in Australia. With significant advancement in numerical simulation technique, computer models are becoming acceptable tools for fire safety designs. Nonetheless, these methods still suffer from large amount of manual inputs and lengthy computational times. This research project will address the prevalent deficiency in many of these computer models and develop a novel and innovative design methodology. The success of this project will revolutionize the computational tools for the industry realizing a convenient, robust and time‑saving integrated platform catering for increasing future market demand.
Air Traffic Controller Competencies and Selection
2008: $ 100,000
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Airservices Australia
Administering Organisation Swinburne University of Technology
Researchers Prof JD Langan‑Fox
Project Summary
This project targets a National Priority area Safeguarding Australia, Priority Goal: Critical Infrastructure. The partner organization Airservices Australia is a key player in the effective operation of the Australian aviation industry which is a critical and strategic component of the national transport infrastructure. Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) provide the nation with aviation services that require them to perform all tasks without error. The project will help develop the standards of excellence of Australian ATCs, contribute to internationalizing Australian human factors literature, develop the knowledge and skills of the Airservices staff and research team, and assist RAF and civil ATC collaboration.
Monitoring and Maintaining the Structural Health of Bridges Using Vibration Characteristics
2008: $ 73,000
2009: $ 73,000
2010: $ 73,000
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Brisbane City Council, Queensland Main Roads Department
Administering Organisation Queensland University of Technology
Researchers Prof DP Thambiratnam; A/Prof AC Tan; Dr TH Chan
Project Summary
Bridges form an important part of our physical infrastructure system and in Queensland alone there are nearly 3000 bridges with an annual maintenance cost in excess of 20 million dollars and a replacement value in excess of 2 billion dollars. It is necessary to ensure that these bridges function safely and efficiently at all times. Bridge failure will cause disruption to normal lives and expensive repairs. Towards this end, this project will develop an innovative structural health monitoring system to monitor and maintain the structural health of our bridges. The project outcomes will have immediate applications in Australia and overseas with economic and social benefits to the community.
Optimum location of FACTS devices with advanced control scheme for improving the security of complex power grid
2008: $ 51,254
2009: $ 51,254
2010: $ 51,254
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Powerlink Queensland
Administering Organisation The University of Queensland
Researchers Prof TK Saha; Dr R Majumder; A/Prof ZY Dong
Project Summary
Prevention of blackouts is one of the highest priorities of the electricity industry. One of the fundamental reasons for the recent blackouts in long transmission network is inter‑area oscillations. Queensland's long transmission network is a vital part of the Australian electricity grid and is vulnerable to inter‑area oscillations. There is a need for a comprehensive approach to investigate the effect of inter‑area oscillation that contributes to blackouts. Focussing the Queensland network, this project will provide a complete assessment tool for the optimum location of FACTS devices with modern and advanced control schemes in improving the security of complex interconnected power‑grid.
Model Checking Knowledge and Probability in Pursuit‑Evasion Games
2008: $ 130,000
2009: $ 125,000
2010: $ 120,000
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s)
Defence R&D Canada ‑ Valcartier (DRDC Valcartier)
Administering Organisation The University of New South Wales
Researcher A/Prof R van der Meyden
Project Summary
The research will produce software enabling modellers to better understand their models in applications including planning under uncertainty, information flow security and systems fault diagnosis. The application studied in this project is military search and rescue mission planning, resulting in greater confidence in mission success. The research is also relevant to emergency response and collision avoidance. The project will support retention of Australian intellectual property with potential for future commercialisation. It will foster linkages between Australian researchers and an international defence alliance partner. Outcomes will be available to Australian Defence through existing Defence research sharing arrangements.
Development of an advanced semiconductor characterisation capability for infrared focal plane array applications
2008: $ 194,178
2009: $ 177,350
Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Raytheon Vision Systems, Raytheon Australia
Administering Organisation The University of Western Australia
Researchers Dr CA Musca; Prof L Faraone; Dr EP Smith; Dr D Lofgreen; Mr G Nancarrow
Project Summary
Australian access to world leading technology in state‑of‑the‑art infrared detectors is key to future advanced systems for defence surveillance and sensing, mineral exploration, biomedical instrumentation, precision agriculture, environmental monitoring and homeland security. This project will ensure that Australia contributes to an integral component required in the development of these technologies allowing early access to future systems. It will also enable Austarlia to play a leading role in setting the research directions for infrared materials that will place Australian research at the forefront in this area.
Discovery Projects
Project Summary
The cost of providing blast protective measures to built infrastructure is immense and providing protective measures to potentially hundreds or thousands of existing buildings is immense and beyond the resources of government and society. The risk‑based decision‑making framework proposed herein allows damage and casualty risks to be quantified and compared in a rational and consistent manner, thus ensuring that risk mitigation is maximised given expenditure of limited resources. Clearly, maximising risk mitigation across a range of high risk buildings will minimise building damage, loss of life, business disruption and other economic and social impacts in the event of a severe bomb blast.
The production and contestation of airport territory
2008: $ 80,000
2009: $ 80,000
2010: $ 25,118
Administering Organisation University of Western Sydney
Researchers A/Prof D McNeill
Project Summary
The restructuring of Australian airports has become a major issue of public interest in recent years, given their status as 'critical infrastructures' (a National Research Priority). The project places the Australian experience in comparative context. It will provide an informed contribution to a range of groups affected by airport restructuring, from private enterprise, through to Commonwealth, State and local councils, and community groups who seek to respond to the challenges of airport expansion. It will provide a strong empirical and theoretical framework that will further the understanding of the impact of airports on urban governance and theory worldwide.
Terrorism, Pandemic Influenza, and Global Warming: Future Conceptualisations and Societal Resilience
2008: $ 220,000
2009: $ 225,000
2010: $ 163,415
Administering Organisation University of Western Sydney
Researchers Em/Prof B Raphael; Ms J Dunsmore
Project Summary
Understanding the potential and actual impact of mass adversity on individual and societal resilience and conceptualisation of the future will help improve the preparedness, response, and recovery by emergency workers, individuals, and society to these events. Guiding likely individual and social behaviours at an appropriate time will help to avoid or mitigate negative social, economic, and health impacts. Studying Bali survivors will lead to an understanding of how their experiences and recoveries have impacted their behaviours and perception of the future, and will identify the most effective professional and community responses to future threat.
Utilising the benefits of high performance steels (HPS) and infill materials for critical infrastructure protection (CIP) against extreme loads
2008: $ 140,00
2009: $ 136,000
2010: $ 95,000
Administering Organisation University of Western Sydney
Researchers Prof B Uy; Dr A Remennikov; A/Prof JR Liew
Project Summary
This project will provide an improved understanding of the behaviour of structural elements subjected to impact and blast loads. The structural engineering community will benefit from the state of the art knowledge whilst the general community will benefit from the increased safety of critical infrastructure which will provide greater security against physical and financial losses. This project extends on work conducted by the first Chief and Partner Investigator in a completed ARC Discovery Project. It is also directly related to research being carried out by the Second Chief Investigator as part of the ARC, Research Network for a Secure Australia.
Closed Circuit Television Surveillance, Security Networks and Australian Public Space
2008: $ 30,000
2009: $ 30,000
Administering Organisation Monash University
Researcher Dr DJ Wilson
Project Summary
This project will make a significant contribution to our understandings of how visual surveillance systems impact upon the way public spaces are experienced and utilised. By examining the social impacts of surveillance this study will facilitate the development of security measures that facilitate greater inclusiveness and community cooperation. It will also assist the development of security measures cognizant of local variation and potential social consequences.
Intelligent Self‑Organizing Transport
2008: $ 55,000
2009: $ 55,000
2010: $ 55,000
Administering Organisation The University of Melbourne
Researcher Dr S Winter
Project Summary
The project aims to develop smart transport solutions for Australia's sprawling mega‑cities with their complex challenges to provide mobility and equitable access, and with their susceptibility to failure in cases of disasters. In particular, the project will develop software establishing intelligent and self‑organizing transport management in urban environments. The project has potential to increase the mobility of citizens, even in low‑density suburbs, by reducing the desire for individual car traffic at the same time. Since a self‑organizing transport management works ad‑hoc, it can be deployed also in devastated areas, e.g., after disasters.
Extreme weather and population health in Australia: risk assessment, prediction of health impacts and disease burden, and adaptive strategy exploration
2008: $ 70,000
2009: $ 56,899
2010: $ 62,586
Administering Organisation The University of Adelaide
Researchers Dr P Bi; A/Prof P Ryan; Prof P Weinstein; A/Prof DL Pisaniello; Prof KA Parton; Mr JR Moss; A/Prof AJ Braunack‑Mayer
Project Summary
This is the first systematic assessment of the effect of heatwaves on daily mortality/hospitalisations/emergency department visits/ambulance callouts, and the burden of disease due to climate change in major Australian cities. It will explore relevant health specific adaptation strategies. The results will help relevant government agencies with policy‑making, such as public service and resource allocation, infrastructure establishment, disaster prevention and response, including establishing the national heatwaves response system. They will help relevant industry for their adaptation to climate change, i.e. aged care industries. The results will also benefit local communities with their attention and behaviour changes for climate change.
Large Scale Complex Multiagent Systems: Control Methodologies and Information Architectures
2008: $ 235,000
2009: $ 214,000
2010: $ 212,000
Administering Organisation The Australian National University
Researchers Prof BD Anderson; Mr C Yu; Dr G Mao
Project Summary
Future military operations are likely to involve increasing use of unmanned vehicles, airborne, underwater or on land. In some cases there will be very large formations. This research will develop methodologies which allow formations of unmanned vehicles to be configured. Much of the same methodology is applicable to the construction and operation of large scale sensor networks, identified by some commentators as one of the most important technologies of the 21st century. They comprise large numbers of low cost networked sensors and will increasingly find application in security, agricultural and environmental monitoring.
Information, Communications, Electronics Technology and Video
Algorithmics for Interactive 2.5D Graph Drawing
2008: $ 70,000
2009: $ 65,000
2010: $ 60,000
2011: $ 60,000
2012: $ 49,322
Administering Organisation The University of Sydney
Researchers Dr S Hong
Project Summary
Technological advances have provided a data deluge over the past few years, and consequently have led to many large and complex network models in many domains. This includes terrorist networks and biological networks, software engineering structures, and webgraphs. Visualisation is an effective tool in helping humans to understand such networks. This project aims to provide a new direction in network visualisation, using 2.5 dimensions. The algorithms developed in the project will help security analysts to detect abnormal behaviours such as money laundering, help biologists understand protein‑protein interaction networks, and help engineers to understand large software systems.
Secure and Practical Anonymous Electronic Payment and Applications
2008: $ 80,000
2009: $ 80,000
2010: $ 75,000
Administering Organisation University of Wollongong
Researchers A/Prof W Susilo; A/Prof Y Mu; Dr J Baek
Project Summary
The expected results of this project will be frontier technologies that are essential in applications and services whose acceptance and take‑up will depend on users' assurance about their security in the cyber world. The project will contribute to the economic and social advancement of Australia by allowing effective usage of advanced IT technologies. This development will also maintain Australia's leading position in the telecommunication and IT industries, which is well recognised by increasing levels of government. The resulting application will place Australia as the first country able to design and implement a provably secure and practical e‑payment system.
Optimal Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks
2008: $ 85,000
2009: $ 85,000
2010: $ 80,000
Administering Organisation The University of Melbourne
Researchers Prof DA Thomas; Dr MN Brazil; A/Prof JS Evans
Project Summary
Wireless sensor networks consist of coordinated sensing devices that offer us new ways to understand and interact with the physical world. Australia is a leading player in developing such networks. For a given technology, the key to both optimising the quality of area monitoring and minimising the cost of a sensor network lies in deciding how best to deploy the sensors. We aim to develop powerful new methods to get the best performance from a planned sensor network. This will enhance Australia's research role in this area and directly benefit applications such as national security and environmental monitoring.
Visual tracking of multiple objects: A stochastic geometrical approach
2008: $ 80,000
2009: $ 80,000
2010: $ 75,000
Administering Organisation The University of Melbourne
Researchers A/Prof B Vo; Prof D Suter
Project Summary
Reliable real‑time visual multiple‑object tracking techniques will open up new applications that enhance the quality of life such as driving safety, traffic monitoring, home security, security and surveillance of public facilities. These new applications have huge commercial potentials, and the technology developed from this project will provide the catalyst for vibrant new industries to grow. In addition, the expertise developed from the project will provide a competitive edge for Australian industries in aerospace, oceanography, robotics, remote sensing, and biomedical engineering.
Feature‑Level Fusion with Incomplete Data for Automatic Person Identification
2008: $ 68,000
2009: $ 68,000
2010: $ 60,000
Administering Organisation Griffith University
Researcher Dr Y Gao
Project Summary
This research addresses the current key problems in automated person recognition with incomplete data using multiple traits. The outcomes of this research will not only make a significant contribution to fundamental theory but also result in a wide range of crime and terrorism preventing applications including police database searching, access control, security monitoring and surveillance. They can be used either by police and law enforcement agencies, or at places of airport, government buildings, military facilities and even sensitive areas in offices and factories. It will help reduce crime, enhance the security of the nation to a world‑advanced level, and generate new industry and export opportunities for Australian security industry.
Robust speaker recognition with reduced utterance duration and intersession variability
2008: $ 70,000
2009: $ 65,000
2010: $ 60,000
Administering Organisation Queensland University of Technology
Researcher Prof S Sridharan
Project Summary
The development of robust and accurate speaker recognition systems will enable secure person authentication in over‑the‑phone financial transactions and benefit the community through the elimination of identity fraud incurred by customers and financial institutions. The technology will also assist in safeguarding Australia by enabling the implementation of suspect identification using voice and security measures for combating terrorism by using voice to locate and track terrorists. Our research at QUT Speech Research Lab is at the forefront of development in this field and will provide Australia with a technological advantage in the rapidly evolving global market for speaker recognition technology for person authentication applications.
Resonant Nanostructures for Adaptive Optoelectronics
2008: $ 200,000
2009: $ 195,000
2010: $ 190,000
2011: $ 185,000
2012: $ 170,000
Administering Organisation The University of Western Australia
Researcher Prof L Faraone
Project Summary
The science and technology outcomes of this project will create new, innovative solutions to current and future challenges facing industry, the community, and Australian national and strategic interests. Adaptive, resonant optoelectronics technologies will create new industries and enable, for the first time, advanced, low‑cost, hand‑held, spectroscopic systems for chemical/biological/process sensing for industries as diverse as food processing to pharmaceuticals manufacturing, portable biomedical diagnostics, and precision agriculture. The technologies will enhance Australia's ability to address defence and security needs related to surveillance, chemical/biological threat monitoring, border protection, and target identification.
Integration of Spatiotemporal Video Data for Realtime Smart Proactive Surveillance
2008: $ 108,766
2009: $ 103,766
2010: $ 98,766
Administering Organisation The University of Western Australia
Researcher Dr AS Mian
Project Summary
This project will have a great impact on the national security by helping the law enforcement agencies to stop crime before it happens. It will automatically detect and tag criminal activities in surveillance videos. It will detect, authenticate, track and profile individuals in sensitive installations. At airports, it will match faces to electronic images embedded in passports. The system will use existing surveillance infrastructures for locating lost people and will also ensure privacy protection of public. On the commercial side, this project can recognize old customers for better and customized services. It can count the number of people present in each floor of a building for rescue operations and for designing future buildings.
Voice over Internet Protocol: Privacy and Electronic Evidence Implications
2008: $ 25,118
2009: $ 25,118
2010: $ 25,118
Administering Organisation University of South Australia
Researcher Dr J Slay
Project Summary
Consumers currently use the traditional technology of the Public Switched Telephone Network system without fear of eavesdropping. Law Enforcement has a legal right to intercept phone calls under prescribed conditions. This project offers support to policy makers and users in providing strategic advice in the secure transition of telecommunications to next generation networks. It provides a software solution to the threat to user privacy that may also feasibly be used to provide electronic evidence for law enforcement and intelligence agencies who increasingly have to look to means other than traditional telecommunications interception for evidence gathering from VoIP telephony.
A high performance and environment‑friendly piezoelectric detector platform for biosensor applications
2008: $ 150,000
2009: $ 120,000
2010: $ 120,000
Administering Organisation The Australian National University
Researchers Dr Y Liu; Prof C Li
Project Summary
The development of high performance, lead‑free, piezoelectric films and their incorporation into devices is rapidly becoming an urgent task as a result of recent legislation banning the use of lead in electronic components. The successful development of piezoelectric biosensors, as proposed in this project, has numerous potential benefits including the prospect of rapid and cheap biosensor devices as well as an environment‑friendly, sensitive and real time solution for on‑site drug, chemical and biological sensing. Successful development of the latter would provide immediate benefit in the areas of national security, food safety as well as in environmental and health monitoring.
Image‑based teleoperation of semi‑autonomous robotic vehicles
2008: $ 157,000
2009: $ 140,000
2010: $ 135,000
Administering Organisation The Australian National University
Researchers Dr RE Mahony; Dr PI Corke
Project Summary
This project will contribute strongly to Australia's robotic service industry in the development of semi‑autonomous robotic inspection vehicles by; developing core technology in image‑based teleoperation, training experts in the area, promoting the study of this topic within the Australian academia, and developing test facilities and prototype vehicles. Robotic inspection vehicles have the potential to replace direct human presence in difficult, dangerous or simply uncomfortable inspection tasks such as; inspection of industrial pressure vessels, piping and conduits in factories or mines, undersea cabling, inspection of bridges, dams and other large scale civil buildings, amongst many other possibilities.
Quantum repeater technologies for continuous variable
2008: $ 195,000
2009: $ 174,000
2010: $ 179,000
2011: $ 120,000
2012: $ 98,643
Administering Organisation The Australian National University
Researchers Dr T Symul; Prof TC Ralph; Prof BC Sanders; Dr R Schnabel
Project Summary
It is often said that quantum mechanics will revolutionise 21st century technologies in the same way as Maxwell's electromagnetic theory did in the 20th century. Amongst these technologies, quantum information, and more precisely quantum communication techniques are expected to revolutionise telecommunication systems, both in terms of security and capabilities. A near term application of quantum communication, that is already semi‑commercial, is Quantum Key Distribution, a novel cryptographic method whose absolute security is ensured by the laws of physics. The range of transmission of these quantum communication protocols, however, is currently limited, a limitation that this proposal aims at alleviating.
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