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Applications are invited for a self-funded, 3 year full-time or 6 year part-time PhD project.

The PhD will be based in the School of Mechanical and Design Engineering and will be supervised by Dr Ya Huang.

The project intents to develop a human response to motion inspired intelligent controller to improve the seakeeping performance and safety of human occupants on fast surface vessels. Seakeeping, concerning the control of vessel motion when subjected to waves and the resulting effects on humans, systems, and mission capacity, remains one of the biggest challenges in maritime safety. In heavy seas each ‘wave slam’ induces high-acceleration mechanical shocks. Storms are expected to become more common and severe due to climate change. To preserve the maritime industry, offshore wind farms and rescue services, the marine systems will need to adapt.

To make control decisions that mitigates detrimental effects on seakeeping requires interpretation, derivation and validation of the multiple-input-multiple-output system of oncoming wave features, hydrodynamic loading on the vessel, dynamic loading on machines and biomechanical loading on occupants.  

The School of Mechanical and Design Engineering has collaborated with the RNLI engineering team to establish the fundamental loading patterns of typical slam encounters on its fleet of lifeboats. Laboratory based dynamic sitting experiments conducted by experienced lifeboat coxswains has provided insights of the main biomechanical loads. A set of primary visual cues for wave encounters are derived from a questionnaire study with a group of experienced RNLI coxswains. The project will start to design path planning based on interpreted wave visual cues using rule-based systems.

The memory-based reasoning approach will resolve overlaps of the different categories of experts. The new project will significantly impact on the human factors, future transport system designs, and particularly the marine industry. The project is aligned with the University’s vision to build global and national partnership through the boundary-breaking themes of future transportation and intelligent systems. The student is expected to collaborate with project partners from areas of mechanical engineering, computing, intelligent systems, biomechanics and industrial partners in the maritime industry. Furthermore, the student is expected to attend multiple events such as conferences, project meetings, and workshops.

Fees and funding

Visit the research subject area page for fees and funding information for this project.

Funding availability: Self-funded PhD students only. 

PhD full-time and part-time courses are eligible for the UK  (UK and EU students only).

Bench fees

Some PhD projects may include additional fees – known as bench fees – for equipment and other consumables, and these will be added to your standard tuition fee. Speak to the supervisory team during your interview about any additional fees you may have to pay. Please note, bench fees are not eligible for discounts and are non-refundable.