She is the only Arizona researcher to receive this award this year, which is a three-year, $450,000 grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afghah\u2019s\nproject is to developing an algorithm to enable an unmanned aerial vehicle\u2014a\nUAV or drone\u2014to monitor disaster-impacted areas. The fully autonomous system\nshould be able to monitor the area, send pictures, develop a task list and a\ntask allocation mechanism to assign work to other UAVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you\nhave UAVs, there\u2019s a shorter response time to get a first estimation of the\nsituation,\u201d Afghah said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same case in flooding or in finding\nsurvivors after a disaster. Having these UAVs is going to make it easier and\nfaster for us to figure out what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afghah\u2019s\nresearch has particular significance to northern Arizona. One planned use is\nmonitoring wildfires in remote or difficult-to-access areas. The UAVs and their\nsmart systems will be able to beat fire trucks to these fires and assess how\nbig the fire is, where it is burning the fastest and what areas in danger. By\nthe time firefighters arrive, they will have better information on the smartest\nway to fight the flames. That\u2019s better for everyone, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\nenvisions the algorithm connecting several UAVs that are smaller, nimbler and less\nexpensive than one large UAV. Each would be equipped with different tools; some\nwould have cameras; others would have lasers. They would work together to\ngather an entire picture, with the algorithm dictating tasks to each UAV without\na human on the ground making decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\nlikely also are other applications as well, she said\u2014other technologies that\ncould be on UAVs to respond to different disasters. At some point, she\u2019s\nhopeful UAVs will be able to take on some of the heavy lifting or other\nphysical tasks. But right now, her focus is creating the algorithm that will\nenable UAVs to work together and make those smart and cooperative decisions to\nhelp monitor and observe disaster zones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Air Force\u2019s Young Investigator Award\nis only given to a small fraction of the nation’s early-career researchers and\nis a clear recognition of Dr. Afghah’s excellent work,\u201d said SICCS director Ben\nRuddell<\/strong>. \u201cIt also signals to NAU’s partners and prospective students that\nNAU\u2019s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems is a nationally\nprominent center for research of intelligent and autonomous systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afghah\u2019s\nresearch focus is on autonomous decision-making\u2014creating smart machines that\ncan gather data and make decisions based on that data. She has done work in the\nbiomedical field, working on heart monitoring devices designs to detect\ndifferent signals, diagnose a condition and react accordingly with medication\nor another course of action in the same way as a cardiologist would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"NAU](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/NAU_primary-281_3514-1-e1536853679171.png\")
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Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"