Yukun Lu

UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK — A platoon of logging trucks makes its way through remote forest roads, each responding independently to the environment. A drone buzzes overhead, feeding information to the vehicles. Here’s the thing: only the lead truck is driven by a human. The others, equipped with sensors and controllers, drive themselves. It sounds like a scene from a sci-fi movie, but this high-tech system could soon find its way to New Brunswick’s back roads. When Dr. Yukun Lu came to UNB, she brought with her a background in autonomous vehicle control. …That challenge is the shortage of skilled truck drivers in the province’s forestry sector, and the solution she’s researching is a human-led autonomous truck platooning system designed to make logging transport safer, more efficient and sustainable. …Lu is an assistant professor at the UNB faculty of engineering and the director of the Intelligent Mobility and Robotics Lab (IMRL).