Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/T010983/1
Rapid deployment of multi-functional modular sensing systems in the soil
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor C O'Sullivan, Imperial College London, Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor D Dini, Imperial College London, Mechanical Engineering
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor A Holmes, Imperial College London, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr T Reddyhoff, Imperial College London, Mechanical Engineering
- Grant held at:
- Imperial College London, Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Geotechnics
- In-situ Ground Testing
- Site Investigation
- Soil & Rock: Fundamentals
- Soil & Rock: Mechanics
- Ground Engineering
- Soil Behaviour
- Soil Mechanics
- Soil Properties
- Bio-inspired Robotics
- Robotics & Autonomy
- Sensor-Guided Robots
- Lubricants & Lubrication
- Wear/Tribology
- Friction
- Eng. Dynamics & Tribology
- Failure of Materials
- Abstract:
- Overview: Understanding the state of soil and key soil parameters (stress level, stiffness, permeability, strength) is essential to inform effective and efficient decisions about how humans should interact with soil deposits. Challenges associated with obtaining undisturbed samples mean that probes that can measure these properties in-situ are incredibly useful. Informed by recent prototyping work at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the team will develop a self-propelled Burrowing Robot with an Integrated Sensor System (BRISS). The BRISS design will build upon the strength of the well-established cone penetration in-situ test and exploit recent developments in robotics, bio-inspired engineering, numerical modeling and machine learning. The research objectives identified as necessary to achieve this goal are to: (i) Design, build and deploy a robotized sensor delivery system in the soil, and model the borrowing process; (ii) Sense mechanical and physical signals during the burrowing process and adapt the soil exploration using machine-learning; (iii) Interpret the recorded signals with innovative particulate mechanics, tribology, large deformation continuum mechanics models and feature selection algorithms. An inter-disciplinary team of scholars from the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and Imperial College London (ICL) will collaborate to achieve these objectives. The team will co-advise a cohort of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. They will actively engage with each other via video conferencing, workshops and mutual visits.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/T010983/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Completion
- Scheme:
- Directed (RP) - NR1
- Grant Status:
- Active
- Programme:
- Signals in the Soil
This grant award has a total value of £887,621
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff | DI - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £57,331 | £355,658 | £33,800 | £99,094 | £290,916 | £41,828 | £8,996 |
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