Professor Michael Jackson

Background

Prof Mike Jackson joined Loughborough University as a lecturer in 1987 and was promoted to various posts over the years. He became the Principal Investigator and Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation from its inception in July 2011 to its conclusion in March 2017.

Mike has now retired from full-time academic life, but continues to engage with the University via the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering and the Intelligent Automation Centre.

Backgroun0
Prof Mike Jackson has had a long and fruitful industrial and academic career which spans over 40 years.

He gained his BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering at Salford University in 1975. Mike developed an exceptionally strong industrial background in the UK machine tool industry whilst employed by the Wadkin Group plc, UK between 1968-1986, where he attained the Board level position of Technical Director there in 1983. He undertook company based research at Wadkin on machine tool vibration from 1978-1986 and was awarded a PhD (CNAA) in collaboration from Leicester Polytechnic in 1986.

In 1987, Mike was awarded an MSc in Flexible Manufacturing Systems and Robotics at Loughborough University, following which he joined the Mechanical Engineering department at Loughborough University as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2000 and Chair in Machine Systems in 2007 and was also academic theme lead for Intelligent Automation at the Manufacturing Technology Centre from 2009 to 2017.

Mike became Principal Investigator and Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation at Loughborough University from its inception in July 2011 to its conclusion in March 2017. During this period, a team of 50 academic staff, RAs and PhD students were engaged in TRL 1-4 research in Robotics and Automation for a new wave of advanced manufacturing machines.

His career research earnings are in excess of £13 million, with over 60 PhDs graduated and RAs supervised, resulting in more than 250 Journal and Conference publications.

Main research interests

Research Interests and Activities

Mechatronics, Laser Sensing, Laser Processing, Real-time Machine Vision, 3D Machine Vision, Embedded Microprocessor Control of Machinery/Products, Product Design, Machine Tool Vibration & Surface Analysis, Textile Engineering, Advanced Automotive Systems, Colour Imaging and Printing Process Control, Intelligent Laser Welding of Aseptic Food Packaging, Novel Woodworking Machinery Research/Design, Mechatronics & Sustainability, Autonomous Vehicles, Modelling Systems for Mechatronic Product Design and Realisation, Intelligent Automation applied to industrial processes.

External Activities

• Journal editorial board membership: IMechE Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering
• Learned society engagement: Organising committee member of the IMechE MICG Mechatronics Forum
• Professional affiliations: FIMechE
• International conferences:
  • co-chair ICOM 2003;
  • conference international programme committee member for: Mechatronics ‘98, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008; ICMT 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007; IEEE/ASME AIM 2007;
  • session chair for: Mechatronics ‘98, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008;
  • ICMT 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011;
  • keynote papers: ‘Mechatronics and Intelligent Machines’, The 2nd International Symposium of Precision Mechanical Measurement, ISPMM2004, Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers, Beijing, PRC, August 2004;
  • ‘Machine Vision and Intelligent Machines’, The 8th International Conference on Mechatronics Technology, ICMT2004, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, Institute of Mechanics, Hanoi, Vietnam, November 2004;
  • ‘Reference Model for the Use of Embedded Information Devices to Enable Sustainability in the Product Life Cycle’, The 9th International Conference on Mechatronics Technology ICMT2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 2005;
  • ‘Mechatronic Process Machinery’, ICMT2006, University of Monterrey, Mexico City, Mexico, November 2006.
  • ‘Sensing, Control and Actuation Examples in Mechatronic Systems’, ICMT2009, Cebu City, Philippines
  • ‘Recent developments in UK Manufacturing Research and Innovation’, ICMT2011, Melbourne, Australia;
• Invited papers in influential journals:
  • ‘Laser Cutting of Lace’, Ingenia, Royal Academy of Engineering, April 2000
• Invited lectures:
  • Seventeen research lectures on Mechatronics have been presented across the world at Universities in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Poland, Russia, Malaysia, Mexico.
  • Five lectures were at the European Union Intensive Programme on “Open Systems, Mechatronics and Laser Materials Processing”, University of Applied Science, Emden, Germany, 2000, 2002;
  • an exclusive lecture was given to the Chairs at Moscow State University (MADI), Russia, 2004;
  • short course “Mechatronics Design Methodologies”, to Faculty Academic Staff at ITESM (Monterrey University), Mexico, 4th July 2005, 1000 pp. on CD ROM, 40 hour lecture programme. Course delivered jointly with R. M. Parkin;
  • Short course for 21-42 company engineers directly funded by Thales Group, ’Satisfying the Customer’, run annually with R. M. Parkin and A. Sutton since 2006.
  • IMechE Lecture on Intelligent Automation, Manufacturing technology Centre, September 2013
• Advisory Roles:
  • EPSRC College member; Invited expert for round table discussion on Mechatronics Research and Education at IEEE Industrial Technologies Conference, Slovenia 2003;
  • invited research management and supervision seminar for staff and researchers at University Technology Mara, Malaysia;
  • invited member on the International Advisory Panel for the IEM Journal, The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia;
  • EU Project member EUMECHA-PRO 2005-2007, providing input to Manufuture, Leadership action for FP7.
• Journal referee:
  • IMechE Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture;
  • IEM Journal - the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia;
  • Journal of Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier;
  • Measurement Science and Technology, Institute of Physics;
  • Optics and Laser Technology, Institute of Physics;
  • International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, IFAC, Elsevier;
  • Mechatronics, Pergammon;
  • Real Time Imaging, Elsevier.
• Collaborative Research:
  • Past examples are: CWV Group and Shelton Vision Systems on EPSRC funded Web Based High Speed Printing Research (2003-2005);
  • IRISYS on EPSRC funded Infra-red Imaging Research (2000-2003);
  • Royal Mail University Technology Centre directly funded research on Condition Monitoring of Mail Sorting Machinery (2000-2004);
  • Northern Foods, Lumonics, Packaging Automation, RPC Containers, FFP Packaging on DEFRA funded research on Laser Sealing of Aseptic Food Packaging (2001-2004); FP6 Project member EUMECHA-PRO 2005-2007.
  • Current examples are: Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Aero-Engine Controls, MTC on EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation (2011-present).
• Commercialisation of research: Research collaborator high-tech SME Shelton Vision Systems are the PrintSpector product developer - technology resulting from the INTELLIWEB and RAPIWEB research projects funded by EPSRC.
• Company directorships:
  • Research & Marketing Director for Iensys Ltd, Loughborough University Spin Out company.
• Invited keynote speaker for the 12th Walloon Lecture, University of Liege, Belgium, December 13th 2007
• Invited international member of the PhD Commission for Manufacturing and Production Systems at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy 2008
• Invited international member of the Flanders Mechatronics Technology Centre Scientific Advisory Board, Belgium 2008
• Invited contributor to TSB SIG on Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Awards

• Best paper prize by MCB University Press for ‘Lace cutting for the next millennium', Anbar Citation of Excellence, 1998.
• Charles E. Ives award from the Society for Imaging Science and Technology USA for Best Engineering Paper in the Journal of Electronic Imaging for ‘Digital image processing and illumination techniques for yarn characterization’, 2006.
• PE Publishing Award for the best paper published in 2007 in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part E, Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering for 'On planing machine engineering characteristics and machined timber surface quality' (Vol. 221, No. E1, pp 17–32).

Selected publications

• Ogun, PS, Jackson, MR, Parkin, RM (2013) Mechatronic approach towards surface quality improvement in rotary wood machining, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 227(9), pp.1266-1276, ISSN: 0954-4054. DOI: 10.1177/0954405412461742.
• Ogun, PS, Jackson, MR, Parkin, RM (2012) In-process surface profile assessment of rotary machined timber using a dynamic photometric stereo technique, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part I-Journal of Systems nd Control Engineering, 226(I6), pp.823-830, ISSN: 0959-6518. DOI: 10.1177/0959651811433121.
• Ayub, MA, Tajuddin, R, Jackson, MR (2012) Intelligent gripping system for handling flexible web fabric, Assembly Automation, 32(3), pp.276-283, ISSN: 0144-5154. DOI:10.1108/01445151211244438.
• Albertelli, P, Elmas, S, Jackson, MR, Bianchi, G, Parkin, RM, Monno, M (2012) Active spindle system for a rotary planing machine, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, pp.1-14, ISSN: 0268-3768.
• Elmas, S, Islam, N, Jackson, MR, Parkin, R (2011) Analysis of profile measurement techniques employed to surfaces planed by an active machining system, Measurement, 44(2), pp.365-377, ISSN: 0263-2241. Full text:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2010.10.010. DOI:10.1016/j.measurement.2010.10.010.
• Lara Prieto, V, Parkin, R, Jackson, MR, Silberschmidt, V, Kesy, Z (2010) Vibration Characteristics of MR Cantilever Sandwich Beams: Experimental Study (015005), Smart Materials and Structures, 19(1), p.9, ISSN: 0964-1726. DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/19/1/015005.
• Mathavan, S, Jackson, MR, Parkin, RM (2010) A theoretical analysis of billiard ball dynamics under cushion impacts, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 224(9), pp.1863-1873, ISSN: 0954-4062.
• Ogun, PS, Jackson, MR, Parkin, RM (2010) Determination of the surface reflectance properties of timber using photometric stereo technique, 2010 2nd Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Conference, CEEC 2010, DOI:10.1109/CEEC.2010.5606492.
• Peng, ZK, Jackson, MR, Guo, LZ, Parkin, R, Meng, G (2010) Effects of bearing clearance on the chatter stability of milling process, Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications, Volume 11, Issue 5, pp.3577-3589, Full text:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nonrwa.2010.01.005. DOI: 10.1016/j.nonrwa.2010.01.005.
• Islam, N, Parkin, R, Jackson, MR, Elmas, S, Kesy, Z, Fan, KC (2010) Performance Analysis of Robust Proportional Integral Derivative Control Technique for the Auto-focusing Mechanism of an Optical Surface Profile Measurement System, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I: Journal of Systems and Control, 224(6), pp.635-646, ISSN: 0959-6518. Full text: http://dx.doi.org/10.1243/09596518JSCE966. DOI: 10.1243/09596518JSCE966.
• Ozkaya, YA, Acar, M, Jackson, MR (2010) Yarn twist measurement using digital imaging, Journal of the Textile Institute, 101(2), pp.91-100, ISSN: 1754-2340. Full text:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405000802263476. DOI: 10.1080/00405000802263476.
• Mathavan, S, Jackson, MR, Parkin, R (2009) Application of high-speed imaging to determining the dynamics of billiards, American Journal of Physics, 77(9), pp.788-794, ISSN: 0002-9505.
• Shair, S, Chandler, JH, Gonzalez Villela, VJ, Parkin, R, Jackson, MR (2008) The Use of Aerial Images and GPS for Mobile Robot Waypoint Navigation, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 13(6), pp.692-699, ISSN: 1083-4435. DOI:10.1109/TMECH.2008.2005.
• Ozkaya, YA, Acar, M, Jackson, MR (2008) Simulation of Photo-Sensor Based Hairiness Measurement Using Digital Image Analysis, Journal of the Textile Institute, 99(2), pp.93-100, Full text: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405000701462443. DOI:10.1080/00405000701462443.