How AI and robotics contribute to the UAE’s growth sectors including energy, agriculture, and aviation

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has been proactively recruiting some of the global thought leaders in robotics – since launching its new department in August 2023 – to develop the curriculum and applied research areas that will deliver the most benefit across industry.

Professor Dezhen Song joined MBZUAI as its inaugural Professor of Robotics and Deputy Department Chair of Robotics. He is a key subject matter expert whose prior research has focused on robot spatial intelligence or retrieving spatial information from multimodal sensory data and making decisions based on it. Song holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from UC Berkeley and highlights a number of areas in which the research that he, fellow researchers, and students at MBZUAI will be delivering to help advance some of the major growth sectors for the UAE and wider region.

“Artificial intelligence has its roots in the field of robotics, going back to the 1950s; robots are the physical interface through which AI interacts with the real world,” says Song. “MBZUAI’s focus is on the computer science side of robotics rather than the hardware side; our research is developing the ‘brain side’ of the robot to enhance perception, navigation, motion planning, and control. If you have AI capability, you need a robot to really be able to interact with or influence the physical world to make specific things happen.”

Describing the new department as “a capability amplifier for this entire university,” Song outlines the specific applied research that can make a significant contribution to the Emirates. “Given that the UAE plays a major role in the energy industry, AI research in robotics enables the automated inspection of infrastructure, from a pipeline and equipment safety perspective to delivering a range of monitoring diagnoses,” Song added.

With the nation’s move toward more sustainable energy sources, Song maintains that AI research can be used to develop and maintain larger solar or wind farms, with robots used to inspect and maintain infrastructure.

Food security is another vital area around sustainability in which MBZUAI’s robotics research can deliver tangible results. Coming from an agricultural research background in his former role at Texas A&M University, Song enumerates the ways in which AI studies are helping to create more efficient farming practices.

“AI in agriculture ranges from field surveys of land for farming through to counting yield estimation or how many crops will likely be delivered in a specific season,” he said. “Using robots to traverse fields for these surveys is a far less labor-intensive process, and more cost effective.”

AI research enables food producers to use robotics sensors to detect the quality of their crops, from which location provides the best produce to the preferred time for picking and harvesting, by creating and analyzing data on the ripeness of produce including watermelons, tomatoes, and potatoes.

For more sustainable farming practices, AI-enabled robots are also trained in precision removal of weeds and to prevent mass spraying of pesticides. “The robot can traverse the field with a small flame thrower to kill the weeds – a precise burning that reduces the use of chemicals,” Song explains. MBZUAI recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Silal which supports the National Strategy for Food Security 2051 aimed towards developing a comprehensive national system to enable sustainable food production using modern technologies and enhance local production.

Similar to what happens in a warehousing fulfillment center, AI-enabled robots can also transport agricultural products between fields and depots, interacting with the people managing the farm. “This kind of robot human collaboration can really make an immediate impact because it doesn’t really need a lot of investment or additional research, but still gradually increases efficiency and reduces labor costs,” the professor adds.

Finally, MBZUAI is collaborating with Etihad Airways to develop AI outcomes that will enhance the aviation sector, Song highlights how the university is studying how to make airlines safer.

“In perception-focused robotics research, we have numerous areas for infrastructure inspection, including new airplane surfaces made of carbon fiber and composite materials,” he describes. “Using sensors, we can create a mechanical vibration that detects subsurface cracks in airplane exteriors which are otherwise invisible during safety inspections.”

He explains that AI-enabled micro laser beams are sent into the airplane exterior, generating a sound wave that is bounced back and highlighting areas for further safety inspection.

“This sort of AI research in aviation shows the alignment of the different areas of research that MBZUAI has within its university departments – if we do spectrum analysis learning while analyzing patterns with machine learning methods, and the whole process is enabled by robotics, we are able to find previously undetected issues and predict how they may develop in the future.”

From delivering research for the energy sector to sustainable food security and the aviation industry, Song and MBZUAI’s new Robotics Department are tangible evidence that AI is a force for good in industry and growth areas of the UAE economy.

A total of 21 students have now commenced their master’s or Ph.D. as part of the inaugural MBZUAI robotics cohort to help cater to the surging global demand for these disciplines, which is expected to hit USD $225 billion[i] and $140 billion, respectively, by 2030[ii].

MBZUAI faculty and researchers will take part in the 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024) – one of the largest and most important robotics research conferences in the world – to be held from October 14 to 18, 2024 at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi.

The theme of IROS 2024 is ‘Robotics for Sustainable Development’ and focuses on highlighting the role of robotics in achieving sustainability goals; something the university aligns with and will showcase as an event sponsor.

[i] Precedence Research https://www.precedenceresearch.com/robotics-technology-market

[ii] Precedence Research: https://www.precedenceresearch.com/robotics-technology-market