Dr Haas is Associate Professor and reader in applied control systems. He is leading the Intelligent Transportation Systems and 5G Team within the Future Transports and Cities research centre at Coventry University. He has multidisciplinary expertise in systems modelling, optimisation, control, artificial intelligence, image processing, and visible light communication and has a long history of successful collaboration with industry. His research funding originated from InnovateUK, TSB, TCS/KTP, industry and EPSRC.

Self-driving vehicle:

• Testing and safety: Olivier is currently the principal investigator for the £2.7m InnovateUK CERTUS which aims to develop software tools to speed up testing and validation of technology. He is currently supervising joint PhD research with DLR, Germany on risk assessment methods for autonomous vehicles.
• Deep learning for automated annotation:  Olivier was the principal investigator, of an externally funded video annotation project to train automated vehicles to recognise their environment, including road users, traffic signs and road signs.
• Digital twin: Olivier’s team, funded by InnovateUK, created a digital twin of the award-winning facility Assured CAV Parking at Horiba MIRA and simulated autonomous parking, Greenlight optimized speed advisory and emergency braking manoeuvres.

Connected vehicles:

• Traffic simulation and advanced driver assistance systems:  Olivier was the technical lead and manager of high-profile projects UK CITE (Innovate UK funded) and iVMS (CW LEP funded) as well as a joint PhD with Horiba-MIRA on intelligent transportation system and a  KTP with Talecom leading to research on agent-based traffic simulator to evaluate incident response in an urban environment. These projects created urban and motorway microscopic traffic simulations to evaluate advanced driver assistance systems involving V2X communication.  Olivier was contracted by ATKINS for Highways England’s, Task 220 16371-01 NextGen Highway, 2017. Olivier’s expertise resulted in his appointment as a ‘Specialist Modelling Advisor’ for Transport For West Midlands 2019-2027.
• Communication & positioning: Olivier has recently successfully supervised research on visible light vehicle communication and positioning as well as drone positioning

Vehicle electrical systems

• Olivier's team is developing a software tool to identify the most appropriate locations to install electric vehicle chargers in Coventry and find customers who would benefit from the innovative Enstorel mobile electric vehicle charging solution developed by Doublemsc Solutions Limited, whose design is being improved by Stewart Birrell's team.
• Olivier developed the software using MATLAB and VISSIM to calculate the charge received by individual vehicles driving over dynamic wireless charging section as well as the charge required to be provided by the grid. The network comprised a major signalised intersection (A45/A421) and link roads. Traffic flows, turning ratio and signal timing were modelled in VISSIM. The project was awarded the 2022 Energy Innovation Awards - Best Collaborative Initiative.
• PhD in collaboration with Jaguar and Land Rover (awarded 2021): modelled parasitic load and develop a fuzzy based control system to manage them to reduce power consumption. 
• PhD in collaboration with Microcab on Fuel cell management (awarded 2021): Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) and Energy Storage System (ESS) passive hybridization for electric vehicles

Vehicle Control system

• PhD in collaboration with FEV: developed advanced control system (look ahead economic model predictive controller) to reduce emission whilst maintaining vehicle performance via airpath management of compression ignition engines. Patent application UK 2205759.0.
• KTP Saic, 2013-2014: (K Burnham PI Haas Co-I) The overall project aimed to reduce CO2 emissions through a number of initiatives. O Haas supported CO2 reduction by optimising the gear ratio and gear shift map for specific engines

Radiotherapy treatment:

Olivier's early career involved world-leading research including

• 1st demonstration in the UK of intensity-modulated radiotherapy using patient-specific compensator,
• 1st prize - Elekta KTP project on patient positioning system control,              
• Concept design and controller implementation of the 1st Total Skin Electron Treatment unit (treated patients between 2004 and 2014),

His team created

• new quality assessment devices and methods (Linear accelerator Gantry, patient support system and patient motion management),
• 1st demonstration in the world of model predictive control on patient support system EU FP6 MAESTRO project led by Olivier,

 He was Invited by Prof. Dirk Verellen to adapt the assessment mechanisms developed during MAESTRO for the VERO prototype system.

Dr Haas has been a reviewer of research applications for French Plan Cancer (since 2009) and EPSRC (since 2012). International Programme committee member for: CompSens 2012 and 2013, chair of the local organising committee for UK Automatic Control Council (UKACC) International Conference on CONTROL 2010 and the International Conference series on Systems Engineering (ICSE), with Wroclaw and University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. He has also been the special session co-organiser at the 14th International IEEE Annual Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2011), Washington USA and UKACC CONTROL 2010.

As well as this, he has been a reviewer for IFAC, IEEE, Elsevier and Institute of Physics journals. Member of International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) technical committees: Biological and Medical Systems, Computational Intelligence in Control. He has over 25 years’ of experience as a lecturer, researcher and consultant for industrial organisations. He has authored and co-authored over 150 scientific and technical papers, chapters and books and has successfully supervised 27 PhD students.

He believes in the use of industry standards software and tools in research and teaching. He has used software including MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, LabVIEW and SCADE, and hardware from National Instruments and ANSYS-SCADE to solve applied research problems in aerospace, railways, automotive, medical and petroleum sectors.

Modern Applied Research is multidisciplinary in nature, requiring the combination of established engineering, and computer science techniques such as systems identification, control engineering, optimisation, and image processing with more recent developments such as mobile and cloud computing.

The human dimension of research is ultimately what makes it worth doing. Current radiotherapy physics treatments are becoming patient-specific, offering opportunities to develop new control solutions to improve treatment delivery and quality control. In intelligent transportation systems, research focuses on being able to simulate accurately scenarios that could help individuals carry out their journey in a timely but more importantly predictable manner. Automation of vehicle systems aims to remove human error whilst managing the increasingly complex vehicle software architecture. 

View Olivier's expert directory profile.