The Lab for Autonomous and Intelligent Robotics (LAIR) is a research laboratory at California Polytechnic State University. Directed by Dr. Christopher Clark, research at the LAIR is focussed on multi-robot systems and its applications in their field. Within these domains, topics of interest include motion planning, localization, mapping, integration of social systems, and control. Much of the lab's research involves international partnerships and expeditions. Funding for research projects originates from ONR, NSF, the Norwegian funding agencies, the California State University System, and Cal Poly.

Michael Boardman, Jeremy, and and Chris Clark's paper "Multi-Robot Boundary Tracking with Phase and Workload Balancing" has been accepted to the 2010 IEEE conference on Intelligent Robotic Systems (IROS).

After several delays due to the eruption in Iceland, our team of students and faculty will travelled on June 15, 2010 to the Trondheim Biological Station and Sletvik Field Station in Norway. Students, Dr. Clark, and Dr. Kasper Hancke collaborated to conduct several biological sampling experiments using our OceanServer Iver2 AUV.

On June 14, 12 new undergraduate research interns met with advisors to kick off this summer's program. This years projects include development of an automated traffic monitoring system, a stair climbing chassis, AUV tracking of marine life, cubesat control, and mapping algorithms for an aautonomous helicopter.

Visit the NSF REU Robotics Project page to learn more.

In January of 2010, researchers from Cal Poly, NTNU, and UNIS convened in the research station at Ny-Alesun, Svalbard Norway. The expedition was part of the NORUS program, a partnership between collaborators from Norway and the USA. Observations of the arctic ecosystem were conducted using a wide variety of technology. Results from this trip demonstrated marine life was highly active despite the lack of sunlight.

Visit the NORUS project page to learn more.

In November of 2009, researchers from Cal Poly, NTNU, and UNIS convened at Cal Poly's Center for Coastal Marine Science for the second NORUS workshop. Four different robotic platforms were demo'd including a REMUS AUV, Iver2 AUV, Slocum glider, and VideoRay ROV. Students and faculty members helped program and launch these vehicles, allowing everyone to get their hands dirty.

Visit the NORUS project page to learn more.

In August of 2011, Dr. Clark and Dr. Lowe (CSU Long Beach, and students Forney and Manii will travel to Long Beach, CA. The goal of this 1 week trip will be to oberve, catch, tag and track leopard sharks. Stay tuned for updates.

In June of 2011, Dr. Clark , Dr. Fidopiastis (Biological Sciences), MS candidate Jia Li and undergraduate student Tim Peters travelled to Oahu, Hawaii. For the first time a new LED based fixed positioning system was used to localize our ROV while tracking squid. An small LED tag was also attached to the squid to improve tracking capabilities.

In June of 2011, Dr. Clark and Dr. Wood each presented papers at the 21st International Offshore (Ocean) and Polar Engineering Conference.

Visit the ISOPE conference web page to learn more.

In March of 2011, 3 faculty and 8 students travelled to Malta for 4 weeks. Underwater robots were deployed into over 30 ancient cisterns and caves. Using video and sonar data obtained from navigating a robot throughout the cisterns, maps and visualizations were created.

Visit the ICEX 2011 blog to learn more.