Author: Monica Chudasama

Development of Advanced Elderly Care Robot in Home Environments

Monica Chudasama

The UK is an ageing society. Currently, more than one-fifth of its population is over 60. The number of people aged 85 will double by 2041 and treble by 2066. Research shows that 82% of 85-year-olds suffer from at least one long-term condition. Robots have the great potential to mitigate the upcoming elderly care challenges. However, existing robots are still far away from delivering satisfactory care services. One of the main reasons lies in the lack of intelligence in understanding human behaviour. In this proposal, we aim to address this challenge by developing advanced human action recognition algorithms to help the robot understand the intention of human subjects and further provide instant assistance in home-based environments. Despite active research and significant progress in the last few decades, human action recognition in home-based environments remains challenging due to the occlusion, viewpoint and biometric variation, various execution rates etc. This project will develop a smart sensing platform which consists of a humanoid robot and several RGBD sensors mounted in different locations to cover the human activity areas. Advanced multi- sensor-based human action recognition algorithms will be developed to recognize human intention in various home-based environments. The system will be able to simultaneously conduct action detection and recognition in a real-time performance so that the robot can provide an instant response.

Improving environmental performance of solid fuel heating system

Monica Chudasama

Grant Awarded: £57,739.88

Funder: Innovate-UK, Defra-Small Business Research Initiative (2023)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary, Neil Brown and Dani Harmanto

This Innovate-UK funded project developed an integrated solution to reduce pollutants resulting from domestic wood burning in indoor space (mainly particulate matter, PM and volatile organic carbons VOCs). The main highlight of our research is that it offers stove makers means of retrofitting current technology with minimal modification requirements. The project’s key objectives were to conduct the feasibility of two improvements to existing wood stoves, respectively for better heat distribution in the combustion chamber and heat recovery from the flue.

Throughout, the approach incorporated seamless co-operation with two UK solid fuel stove makers (sharing real-world experience and features of their products currently circulating in the market). While so doing, the technical design is meant to be adaptable to ensure future evolution of its beta-version to accommodate for lateral developments in sensor-based automation to improve its operability.

The following are the most significant outcomes of this project:

ENabling Hybrid Autonomous Nonconventional system for Clean Environment

Monica Chudasama

Grant awarded: £63,888.05

PI: Abhisheck Tiwary

Funder: RA Eng

This 2-year industry fellowship project, awarded to Dr Abhishek Tiwary at DMU in partnership with JenAct Ltd – Jenton Group, conceptualised and evaluated a nonconventional air warming and cleaning system (EnHANCE), combining features of indoor air handling with pathogen removal and thermal management capabilities. It mainly focused on product development and lab-scale parameterisation, involving technology scoping and alignment of the key operating parameters to achieve the earmarked novel features.  

Key outcomes:

•             A conceptual design and prototype of the EnHANCE unit

•             Performance data for key parameters from model and lab-scale evaluations (warm air circulation, pollution/pathogen reduction efficacy)

•             Techno-economic feasibility on operational costs (electricity demand) and component maintenance

•             A focus group for seeking consumer opinion/feedback and a tangible market exploitation plan

•             Follow-on-funding via a proof-of-concept grant leading to further market exploitation.

Follow on results to academic practice. The project:

•             enabled establishing an ongoing collaborative relationship to extend academic research into real-world application.

•             helped incorporate more industry-facing content and UG/PG dissertation project topics on DMU engineering programmes.

Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering, Industrial Fellowship (2021-23)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development)

Efficacy evaluation of a UVGI treatment unit in mitigating aerosol exposure in lifts and enclosed waiting spaces at a transport hub in Leicester

Monica Chudasama

Grant awarded: £24,988.75

PI: Ahbishek Tiwary

Funder: UKRI

This is a proof-of-concept study towards developing a methodological capacity to assess the efficacy of an innovative air treatment unit (henceforth the EnHANCE system) in enclosed spaces. It is motivated by its potential deployment in public transport microenvironments such as lounge, lifts and stairways to simultaneously control pathogens and improve the air quality. The first part of the project mainly focused on developing a measurement protocol for the EnHANCE system (and systems like it). It involved performance testing of the system through an inlet-outlet monitoring scheme in controlled lab environment under three different ventilation scenarios (closed room, closed room with in-flow through a vent, open room with a cross-flow); two identical portable equipment were used for monitoring air pollutants – particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), total volatile organic carbon (TVOC, including benzene, toluene) and the microenvironment (temperature and humidity).

In the next step, the performance of the system for reduction in virus loading was evaluated in a controlled virology lab. Human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 and mouse norovirus 1 (MNV-1) were used as model enveloped and non-enveloped viruses; aerosolised air samples were collected on the upstream and downstream locations in a control chamber, and their infectivity (TCID50) and viral genomes (qPCR) was measured.

The project demonstrated that the EnHANCE system can offer a robust, continuous intervention for simultaneously reducing both air pollution and pathogen loading, with PM2.5 reduction potential of over 97% and TVOC of up to 95%. Based on the efficacy evaluations, the system is deemed suitable for its deployment in a transport environment to reduce exposure in a constrained space, such as waiting lounge and lifts. We reckon full-scale deployment of the EnHANCE system in such locations would serve two-fold purpose – first, provide a control measure in any future pandemic preparation; second, offer an active health intervention at public transport facilities, specifically alleviating the health risk posed from air pollution and pathogen exposure to vulnerable population, who tend to use these facilities more frequently.

Funder: TRANSITION-BioAirNet Discovery & Innovation grant, co-funded by the UKRI TRANSITION Clean Air Network (ref. NE/V002449/1, led by the University of Birmingham) and BioAirNet (ref. NE/V002171/1, led by Cranfield University) (2023)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary, Andrew Reeves (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development), Maitreyi Shivkumar (School of Pharmacy)

Integrating environmental technology solutions for developing a circular economy for olive mill waste system

Monica Chudasama

Grant awarded: £79,964.00

PI: Abhishek Tiwary

Funder: RA Eng

Adopting a systems approach, this UK-Jordan capacity-building project aims to develop a scalable environmental technology solution for sustainable management of olive mill waste in Jordan. This is a collaboration between DMU and three Jordanian universities –  Al Balqa Applied University, University of Jordan and Jordan University of Science & Technology. The project has three parallel strands –

Strand1: Environmental technology integration and scaling-up

Strand2: Technology optimization and resource/Energy recovery

Strand3: Techno-economic feasibility and knowledge transfer.

Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering, International Science Partnerships Fund (2023-24)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development), Katherine Huddersman (School of Pharmacy)

Improved olive mill waste and wastewater management integrating circular economy for arid regions – Dr Abhishek Tiwary

Monica Chudasama

This was a multi-stakeholder project collaboration, motivated by adoption of a “circular economy-driven systems approach” to delivering a sustainable solution to olive mill waste/wastewater (OMW) management with lower environmental burdens and energy demand, suiting arid regions in Jordan. It involved academics from the School of Engineering and Sustainable Development and School of Pharmacy, DMU and Engineering Department at Al-Balqa Applied University, and industrial researchers, business investors and institutional training providers. The project also saw the inauguration of a 15kW renewable off-grid capacity by the UK deputy ambassador to Jordan, Ms Helen Fazey to fully operate a wastewater treatment plant in Fuheis City near Amman. These activities were supported by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering under the Transforming Systems through Partnership (TSP1306) project.

Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering, Transforming Systems through Partnership fund (2020-22)

Abhishek Tiwary, Rafaella Villa (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development), Katherine Huddersman (School of Pharmacy)