Wednesday 20 November 2019

17:30 - 18:00 Arrival

18:00 - 18:10 Opening remarks, Professor Asa Barber, Dean of the Sch. of Engineering

18:10 - 18:50 Inaugural Lecture, Professor Mohammad Osman Tohki

18:50 - 19:00 Closing Remarks, Professor Asa Barber, Dean of the Sch. of Engineering

19:00 - 20:00 Drinks Reception

Abstract

There has been continued effort over time at development and deployment of systems for creating a better and comfortable living environment, providing assistance and support for the needy, and helping the society and economy. These systems are largely dynamic and are responsive to relevant demands on a timely manner, and so provide an enabling environment. This presentation will explore the following areas in an enabling systems landscape:

•  Noise and structural vibration are known to have adverse effects on humans, and the associated risks are psychological and/or physiological in nature. Attempts to mitigate and minimise the risks comprise passive and/or active control, with varied degrees of sophistication.

•  There is a noticeable size of the population with disability. Similarly, the elderly population is on the rise. Mobility assistance systems for these groups of people comprise robotic systems combined with electrical muscle stimulation.

•  Standardisation is an essential step beyond research and development of a technology, and it enables industry to develop products that can be certified by credible sources and thus be marketed. These have traditionally included safety and performance standards, and an emerging area in this context is ethics of technology, with specific focus on robotics and autonomous systems.

Biography

Professor Tokhi received his BSc in Electrical Engineering from Kabul University, Afghanistan in 1978 and PhD degree from Heriot-Watt University, UK in 1988. He is Chartered Engineer, Fellow of IET, Senior Member of IEEE, Member of International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration and of CLAWAR Association.

He has worked for industry and for various higher education establishments. He is currently Professor of Robotics in the School of Engineering, London South Bank University, UK. He has extensive research experience in robotics and control, and specifically in Active Noise and Vibration Control, Adaptive/intelligent Control, Assistive Robotics, and Computational Intelligence. He has carried out numerous research projects, and has published extensively in these areas.

He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Low-Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control, Editor of book series on Service Robotics (World Scientific), and on Mobile Service Robotics (Elsevier), and member of Editorial Advisory Board of Industrial Robot Journal. He has acted as Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, and member of editorial board of several other international journals.

He is Chair of CLAWAR Association, Chair of BSI AMT10/1 Committee on Robot Ethics, Member of IFAC Technical Committees TC 3.1 (Computers for Control) and TC 3.2 (Computational Intelligence for Control), Convenor of ISO/TC299/WG2 – Service Robot Safety, Member of several working groups of ISO/TC299, the IEC/TC62/SC62A, and of BSI AMT/010 Robotics Committee.