ARRB expanding autonomous vehicle knowledge base

ARRB has strengthened its team with a key appointment who brings a background in autonomous vehicles in defence, artificial intelligence applications, robotics, aerospace and automotive engineering.

Russell Gallagher has joined ARRB as its new Discipline Leader in the Mobility Futures team led by Renata Berglas, ARRB’s Mobility Futures Business Leader.

“Russell’s expertise adds a new dimension to the Mobility Futures team and we are very keen to grow our autonomous and zero emissions vehicle portfolio,” Ms Berglas said.

Previously a Chief Engineer for Research and Technology at defence company Rheinmetall, Russell has worked on numerous projects in the autonomous vehicles sector.

“I previously led the R&D group where we built autonomous vehicles with systems to detect soldier behaviour and location relative to the vehicle, and systems that could make vehicle control decisions based on terrain conditions and tactical environments,” Mr Gallagher said.

Vehicles included the Weisel, and UGV Mission Master, where artificial intelligence (AI) was used to further enhance the capabilities of these autonomous vehicles.

But as well as his background in defence, Russell has also previously been an aerospace engineer, automotive engineer, and built heavy machines and robotics for a number of years, bringing years of experience to ARRB.

With autonomous vehicles yet to be brought into Australia and on our roads, Russell hopes to play a part in supporting the commercialisation and introduction of the vehicles onto the Australian road network.

“I hope to be a part of the team that brings autonomous vehicles into Australia, to help setup the development pipeline, testing, and support the necessary infrastructure and development of making autonomous vehicles safe,” said Mr Gallagher.

“Russell’s extraordinary skills and experience, and his burning passion to accelerate the adoption of new, game-changing technologies make him a perfect fit for a National Transport Research organisation. We are delighted to have him on the team,” said Chief Research Officer Mike Shackleton.

But with all his knowledge in engineering, Russell also enjoys looking into new technologies including building bespoke eBikes in his spare time.

“I’m in the process of starting up a business to build bespoke eBikes. We are prototyping our next version which we intend to commercialise soon,” Mr Gallagher said.

In the future, Russell hopes to bring new technologies into different business units including new systems, sensors, and innovation into the infrastructure measurement team at ARRB.

To find out more about Russell, click here.

To get in touch with the Mobility Futures team at ARRB and find out how we can help you and your organisation, click here.