Snapshot February 2025

[Images flash through of an operation being conducted, x-rays and ultrasounds on a screen, data on a screen, a male working on a computer, and a car moving along a road]

Hashini Senaratne: AI is currently being used in diagnosing illnesses, assisting humans to drive safely, but AI is not perfect.

[Images move through to show networking lines moving through a city, firefighters rolling out a hose and fighting a fire]

AI is very powerful in running computational algorithms in seconds or milliseconds but humans on the other hand we know the contextual knowledge, seeing the big picture, and we can connect dots in the past and predict what will happen in the future better than AI.

[Images move through to show a person suspended below a helicopter]

If you combine these complementary skills they will surpass each other’s capabilities.

[Image changes to show a side and then facing view of a robotic quadruped moving across the ground, and text appears: Applying artificial intelligence in a human-centred way]

Applying artificial intelligence in a way that the users fast in a human-centred way is one of the great challenges that we’re trying to solve here.

[Image changes to show Dr Hashini Senaratne talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr Hashini Senaratne, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Collaborative Intelligence for Human-Robot Teams)]

I’m Hashini Senaratne.

[Image changes to show an Australian map with a pinpoint photo on Brisbane, and text appears: Turrbal and Yuggera Country, Brisbane, QLD]

I’m a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CSIRO Data 61 based in Brisbane. I’m researching how humans and robots can better work together.

[Images move through to show a rear and then facing view of Hashini walking through a building, a side view of Hashini walking through the building, and a model building, and text appears: Collaborative Intelligence Future Science Platform (CINTEL)]

The Collaborative Intelligence Future Science Platform, shortly we call it CINTEL, is one of the new research programs introduced at CSIRO Data 61.

[Images move through to show Hashini talking to the camera, Hashini and a colleague carrying a Boston Dynamic robotic machine and placing it on the floor, and Hashini talking to the camera again]

What CINTEL does is trying to make collaboratory relationship between humans and machines.

[Images move through to show various views of the robotic vehicle, and then Hashini and a colleague looking at a computer together]

The human robot team in applications that we have here is basically in the domain of  finned robotics for example sending a fleet of robots to a search and rescue mission and the humans guiding those robots.

[Images move through to show Hashini talking to the camera, views of Hashini and a colleague controlling a walking quadruped and tracked robot moving over the ground, and then Hashini talking]

That is actually situational awareness and in a dynamic environment, humans as well as robots at liberty to perceive each other’s actions and status as well as the state of the environment and predict the near future events.

[Images move through to show various views of Hashini and her colleagues controlling the two robots over different terrains, through a tunnel, and Hashini talking to the camera]

So, if human robot team that works on a search and rescue domain make errors and end up with degraded performance, so it’s very critical.

[Images move through to show the tracked robot and the quadruped moving through a tunnel towards the camera, Hashini talking to the camera, and Hashini and her colleague talking together]

I see it as continuance communication though between human and robots.

[Images move through to show Hashini talking to the camera, and then a model human brain on a table]

One approach that we are taking is by studying the cognitive state of humans.

[Images move through to show a computer screen showing data, Hashini looking at a piece of equipment, and Hashini talking to the camera]

The bio signals that we study are mainly of two types, physiological and behavioural.

[Images move through to show an ECG, feet jumping, eyes opening and closing, a wave form on a screen, a male spinning around, Hashini talking with a colleague and putting on glasses, and various people looking stressed]

For example are electrocardiography which reflects your heart rate, electro thermal activity which reflects your sweat levels and ECG your brainwaves and eye gaze, your speech patterns and movement patterns but these are signals are a reflection of a underlying physical processes which also reflect our underlying cognitive states like stress, work load, anxiety.

[Images move through to show Hashini and a colleague looking at a screen and talking, a helicopter, a tractor and chaser bin moving through a paddock, a robotic arm, Hashini talking, and the ASKAP array]

We see robotics playing a vital role in a wide range of domains, health care, disaster response, agriculture and manufacturing and we are starting to use robotics in space exploration as well.

[Images move through to show views of Hashini working on her computer, Hashini and a colleague working on a motherboard and soldering, and Hashini talking to the camera]

In my childhood I was looking for answers like, why did this happen that way and why it is not happening the other way around.

[Images move through to show Hashini and her students looking at small plastic parts together, a close view of the plastic parts, and then the quadruped and tracked robotic vehicles moving]

Physical science, computing science and electronics was really fascinating for me because they provided me with the answers for my curiosity and I think that is where my inspiration is coming from.

[Image continues to show the robotic vehicles moving through a tunnel, a close view of a written page, a side view of a robot in a movie, and Hashini talking to the camera]

The current state of our human robot teaming that we experience now is far behind the stories that we see in sci-fi movies or the books that we have read.

[Images move through to show Hashini operating a robotic quadruped, working on her computer, in conversation with students, soldering a motherboard, talking to the camera, and robotic vehicles moving down a tunnel]

While it is challenging to envision when these technologies will be available as mainstream technologies, seeing the rapid pace of human centred AI officially reach that goal, maybe beyond that.

[Image changes to show Hashini and a colleague looking at a computer together, and then the image changes to show a robotic quadruped turning around]

Following all these challenges would be impossible without you.

[Music plays and the image changes to show the CSIRO logo and text appears: CSIRO,, Australia’s National Science Agency]