Offroad Robotics is a multidisciplinary engineering research group that focuses on field and mobile robotics, mechatronics, and systems control. The group is a collaboration of students and researchers from The Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 

Recent projects have focused on robotic mapping and vehicle positioning research and development (see Figure 1), robotic geotechnical surveying, autonomous driving and multi-vehicle coordination, robotic excavation (see Figure 2), and remote operator-assist systems. The work is applied and multidisciplinary, and features close collaborations with industry. They have joined colleagues in the Faculty's new Ingenuity Labs institute. 

The group is a founding member of the NSERC Canadian Robotics Network (NCRN), a large national partnership advancing mobile robot systems and human-robot interaction technologies. Recently, an Offroad Robotics member served as co-chair (sponsorship) of the 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), and served as senior editor of the IROS Conference Paper Review Board in 2019. 

Offroad Robotics’ Husky mobile robot conducts underground geotechnical mapping using Queen’s patented AxisMapper technology
Figure 1: Offroad Robotics’ Husky mobile robot conducts underground geotechnical mapping using Queen’s patented AxisMapper technology.
Offroad Robotics’ robotic wheel loader
Figure 2: Offroad Robotics’ robotic wheel loader conducts autonomous excavation experiments at Queen’s Innovation Park.