Research Chairs

Director/Incumbent/Co-director

Sousso Kelouwani and Yves Dubé

Field(s) of research

Natural Sciences and Engineering

Objectives and outcomes

The Noovelia Research Chair for Intelligent Navigation of Autonomous Industrial Vehicles aims to develop software and hardware tools for the autonomous and energy-efficient guidance of AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) within factories, while training highly qualified personnel in the field of intelligent transportation. The collaboration between UQTR and its industrial partner (Noovelia) will promote synergy in favor of the development of a new generation of intelligent AGVs capable of communicating with other production equipment, locating themselves, and moving safely and efficiently, all autonomously. This mission will be accomplished by achieving the following objectives:

Objective 1: Develop flexible software and hardware architecture that can be adapted to multiple mobile platforms designed for transporting objects within factories.

Objective 2: Develop a software system based on the architecture of Objective 1 that enables: (i) integration into a factory's production infrastructure, (ii) the construction of scalable mapping based on lidar, sonar, and any other location technology dedicated to the navigation environment; (iii) path planning in line with operational constraints; (iv) autonomous localization and safe movement according to planned trajectories; and (v) AGV fleet management.

Objective 3: Develop an energy management system for AGVs that strikes a good balance between operational constraints, energy efficiency, and battery life preservation.

Director/Incumbent/Co-director

Kodjo Agbossou

Field(s) of research

Natural Sciences and Engineering

Objectives and outcomes

Smart grids offer the potential to improve energy efficiency, service quality, and customer satisfaction through the convergence of communications, information, electronics, and power conversion technologies. Transactional management methods are now emerging as a promising alternative for grid management.

In this context, this project, in partnership with Hydro-Québec's LTE, which focuses on “transactional management of residential power and energy demand,” is divided into three parts:

• Theme I: Dynamic determination of the composition and operating environment of the extended domestic network. This involves, among other things, developing adaptive methods for recognizing the electrical neighborhood.
• Theme II: Develop energy and behavioral models for the “extended domestic” network based on “intelligent agents” adapted for transactional management purposes.
• Theme III: Propose strategies and algorithms for transactional management of local demand and validation infrastructures.

The originality of this project lies in the development of new transactional approaches for managing residential consumers' loads and means of production in order to optimize the value of these distributed energy resources for both consumers and the power grid.

Intelligence can balance power and energy flows by leveraging the inherent operational flexibility of a neighborhood.

Canada Research Chair (CRC) 2 in Energy Sources for Vehicles of the Future

CRC 1 in Green Hydrogen Production

CRC 2 in Energy Optimization of Intelligent Vehicles

CRC 2 in Renewable Materials For Fuel Cells