Dr Erfu Yang

Senior Lecturer

Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Personal statement

Dr Erfu Yang is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Group within the Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM) at the University of Strathclyde. In 2008, he received his Ph.D. degree in robotics from the University of Essex, Colchester, UK, within the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.  Before joining the DMEM, he was a research fellow in the Cognitive Signal Image and Control Processing Research (COSIPRA) Laboratory at the University of Stirling, UK. Previously, as a research fellow he also worked in the Department of Mechanical and Control Systems Engineering (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) and School of Engineering (University of Edinburgh, UK). His main research interests include robotics, autonomous systems, computer vision, image/signal processing, mechatronics, data analytics, manufacturing automation, multi-objective optimizations, and applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence including multi-agent reinforcement learning, fuzzy logic, neural networks, bio-inspired algorithms, and cognitive computation, etc. He has over 160 publications in these areas, including more than 80 journal papers and 10 book chapters. Dr Yang has been awarded over 15 research grants as PI (principal investigator) or CI (co-investigator). He is the Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, Member of the UK Engineering Professors’ Council,  Senior Member of the IEEE Society of Robotics and Automation, IEEE Control Systems Society,  Publicity Co-Chair of the IEEE UK and Ireland Industry Applications Chapter, Committee Member of the IET SCOTLAND Manufacturing Technical Network. Dr Yang has been a Scientific/Technical Programme Committee member or organizer for a series of international conferences and workshops. He is an associate editor for the Cognitive Computation journal published by Springer.

Publications

Two-stage multi-sensor fusion positioning system with seamless switching for cooperative mobile robot and manipulator system
Yang Manman, Yang Erfu
International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, pp. 1-29 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-023-00276-0
Adaptive extended Kalman filter based fusion approach for high precision UAV positioning in extremely confined environments
Yang Beiya, Yang Erfu, Yu Leijian, Niu Cong
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics Vol 28, pp. 543-554 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2022.3203875
A novel oversampling and feature selection hybrid algorithm for imbalanced data classification
Feng Fang, Li Kuan-Ching, Yang Erfu, Zhou Qingguo, Han Lihong, Hussain Amir, Cai Mingjiang
Multimedia Tools and Applications Vol 82, pp. 3231–3267 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13240-0
Ultrasonic and IMU based high precision UAV localisation for the low cost autonomous inspection in oil and gas pressure vessels
Yang Beiya, Yang Erfu, Yu Leijian, Niu Cong
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, pp. 1-12 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2023.3240874
A smart sensor box to increase the adaptability of automated manufacturing
Loeliger Andrew, Yang Erfu, Bomphray Iain
Advances in Transdisciplinary Engineering Vol 25, pp. 31-36 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.3233/atde220561
Enhancing wisdom manufacturing as industrial metaverse for industry and society 5.0
Yao Xifan, Ma Nanfeng, Zhang Jianming, Wang Kesai, Yang Erfu, Faccio Maurizio
Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-022-02027-7

More publications

Professional activities

Frontiers (Publisher)
Editorial board member
13/3/2023
Sensors (Journal)
Editorial board member
16/11/2022
IEEE (External organisation)
Member
29/6/2022
Clean Growth Fund
Presenter
16/6/2022
Host industry visitor and meeting
Host
8/6/2022
Host industry visitor and meeting
Host
6/6/2022

More professional activities

Projects

Cobot – Human Interaction PhD Case Study
Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Othman, Uqba (Researcher)
16-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2024
Adaptive Path Planning and Visual Navigation of Autonomous Inspection Robots in Challenging Environments
Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Dobie, Gordon (Co-investigator) Jiang, Meiling (Researcher)
This project aims to fundamentally investigate the novel adaptive path planning and visual navigation of robots (such as an industrial robot manipulator, Cobot, UAV etc.) for autonomous inspection by enabling holistic control and interactions of robots in complex, dynamic and changing environments such that safety and interaction of nearby humans/operators/other objects etc. can be maintained while the inspection tasks are taking place. At the same time, the efficiency and flexibility of the inspection process is also achieved when process variations or environmental changes take place.
01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2025
MOEA/D-PPR: Path Planning of Robots in Complex Environments via the Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition
Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Dobie, Gordon (Co-investigator)
31-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2024
Flexible Human-Robot Collaborative Inspection for In-Process Quality Control in Smart Manufacturing
Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Luo, Xichun (Co-investigator) Othman, Uqba (Researcher)
The overall research aim of this project is to fundamentally investigate the novel flexible human-robot collaborative inspection strategies by enabling holistic control and interactions of collaborative robots in complex human-robot collaborative manufacturing environments such that safety and interaction of nearby humans/operators can be maintained while the in-process inspection and quality control are being done. At the same time, the efficiency and flexibility of the manufacturing process is also achieved when process variations or environmental changes occur in advanced manufacturing systems.
To achieve this aim, the proposed project will be focusing on the following three research objectives: 1) A comprehensive review of the state of the art in collaborative robotics and human-robot interactions towards smarter manufacturing in the digital age. 2) Investigation of novel concepts and algorithms for intelligent control, motion planning, and machine learning. 3) Development and testing of prototype sensing, Inspection with machine vision and NDT, path planning, and control system in the complex human-robot collaborative manufacturing environments.
01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2024
Pilot Research for Cobot Solution Development
Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Stasse, Florian (Researcher) Moonnamthodiyil Mohandas, Aravind (Researcher)
A Cobot (Collaborative Robot) pilot research project funded by an internationally leading industry.
16-Jan-2021 - 15-Jan-2022
Autonomous and Interactive Station Rover for Next-Generation Passenger Information System
Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Luo, Xichun (Co-investigator) Corney, Jonathan (Co-investigator) Alcantara de la Cruz, Daniel (Researcher)
KTP project with TrainFX Limited. In total £190,122, funded by the Innovate UK.
01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2023

More projects

Address

Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
James Weir

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