  Near infrared adaptive optics observations are crucial to be able to
interpret kinematic and dynamical data and study star formation properties
within the often extremely dusty interacting luminous IR galaxies (LIRGs). NIR
AO data are also needed to find supernovae in their bright and dusty central
regions and to fully characterize the young stellar clusters found in these
kinds of systems. We have used AO in the K-band to survey a sample of LIRGs at
0.1 arcsec (30 to 100 pc) resolution. The data are merged with SALT and AAT
spectroscopic follow-up and HST and Spitzer archival imaging. The first AO
detected SNe are reported as well as details of the first studied LIRGs. One
LIRG showed an unexpected third component in the interaction, which moreover
turned out to host the most active star formation. Another target showed
evidence in the NIR of a very rare case of leading spiral arms, rotating in the
same direction as the arms open.
