Professor David Lane

David Lane

Staff (Academic or Related)

BSc, PhD, FRSE, FRGS, FIET, FSUT, FRGS

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
  • Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology
  • Fellow of the Society for Underwater Technology
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

External appointments

  • Founder, Director, SeeByte Ltd and SeeByte Inc (2001- date)
  • Scientific Advisor, NATO Undersea Research Centre. La Spezia, Italy (2007)
  • Visiting Professor Florida Atlantic University, USA (1999 -2000)
  • H. Burr Steinbach Scholar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, USA (1995)
  • Directing Staff, Operation Raleigh, (1986-88)
  • Committees for professional bodies above, focusing on innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer
  • Technical conference committees and review bodies for EU and Research Councils
  • Director, euRobotics aisbl, Brussels, March 2013 – Present
  • Chair, UK Special Interest Group: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, January 2013 – Present 

Education

  • Kingswood School, Bath (1969-76)
  • BSc Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (1980)
  • PhD Subsea Robotics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (1986)

Career history

  • British Oceanics Ltd – Diver/Maintainer (1979-80)
  • Ferranti Ltd, Development Engineer (1980-82)
  • Heriot-Watt University - Research Associate (1982), Lecturer (1985), Senior Lecturer (1992) Professor (1999)
  • SeeByte Ltd – CEO (2001-10)
  • SeeByte Inc – President (2005-2010)

Areas of research

  • Autonomy: Engineering of advanced cognition into unmanned and autonomous systems – control, navigation, signal processing, planning, world modelling, learning, operator dialog, architecture. (e.g. autonomous underwater vehicles for oil and gas intervention, under-ice survey)
  • Analytics: Predictive fault detection and diagnosis for condition based maintenance and through life support of remote assets (e.g. offshore wind farms, railways, subsea oil and gas infrastructure).
  • Biomimesis: Bio-inspired sensing and locomotion (e.g. dolphin inspired underwater sonar, turtle magnetic navigation, fish propulsion and energy harvesting)

Interests and hobbies

  • British Sub Aqua Club Advanced Instructor
  • Pilots License with Instrument and Aerobatic Certification (RAF Reserve 1978-80)
  • SRU Mini Rugby Coach/Referee
  • Skiing/Snowboarding
  • Running (10k, half marathon), Cycling