Robotics Commons^™

Investigating Autonomous Ground Vehicles For Weed Elimination, Abraham Mitchell

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The management of weeds in crop fields is a continuous agricultural problem. The use of herbicides is the most common solution, but herbicidal resistance decreases effectiveness, and the use of herbicides has been found to have severe adverse effects on human health and the environment. The use of autonomous drone systems for weed elimination is an emerging solution, but challenges in GPS-based localization and navigation can impact the effectiveness of these systems. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate techniques for minimizing localization errors of drones as they attempt to eliminate weeds. A simulation environment was created to model …

Love Machina, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Love Machina (2024), directed by Peter Sillen.

Developing A Miniature Smart Boat For Marine Research, Michael Isaac Eirinberg

Computer Engineering

This project examines the development of a smart boat which could serve as a possible marine research apparatus. The smart boat consists of a miniature vessel containing a low-cost microcontroller to live stream a camera feed, GPS telemetry, and compass data through its own WiFi access point. The smart boat also has the potential for autonomous navigation. My project captivated the interest of several members of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s (Cal Poly SLO) Marine Science Department faculty, who proposed a variety of fascinating and valuable smart boat applications.

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works: Abstracts, Emma Aggeler, Elena Arroway, Daisy T. Booker, Justin Bravo, Kyle Bucholtz, Megan Burnham, Nicole Choi, Spencer Cockerell, Rosie Contino, Jackson Garske, Kaitlyn Glover, Caroline Hamilton, Haley Hartmann, Madalyne Heiken, Colin Holter, Leah Huzjak, Alyssa Jeng, Cole Jernigan, Chad Kashiwa, Adelaide Kerenick, Emily King, Abigail Langeberg, Maddie Leake, Meredith Lemons, Alec Mackay, Greer Mckinley, Ori Miller, Guy Milliman, Katherine Miromonti, Audrey Mitchell, Lauren Moak, Megan Morrell, Gelella Nebiyu, Zdenek Otruba, Toni V. Panzera, Kassidy Patarino, Sneha Patil, Alexandra Penney, Kevin Persky, Caitlin Pham, Gabriela Recinos, Mary Ringgenberg, Chase Routt, Olivia Schneider, Roman Shrestha, Arlo Simmerman, Alec Smith, Tessa Smith, Nhi-Lac Thai, Kyle Thurmann, Casey Tindall, Amelia Trembath, Maria Trubetskaya, Zachary Vangelisti, Peter Vo, Abby Walker, David Winter, Grayden Wolfe, Leah York

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Showcase.

Garden Bot: Autonomous Home Garden Weed Removal Robot, Brendon Lovejoy, Robert Connolly, Isaac Lucas, Stevan Veselinov

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With frequent weeding being a tedious chore and an essential task for a successful garden, there is need for an automated method of handling this routine. Existing technologies utilize computer vision, GPS, multiple units and other tools to remove weeds from garden plots. However, these solutions are often complex and expensive, suited for large agricultural plots in contrast to small-scale home gardens. In addition, many of these technologies, along with manual tillers and cultivators suited for home use, are unable to perform weeding within rows of crops in a process known as intra-row weeding. The Garden Bot is an autonomous, …

Contrastive Learning For Unsupervised Auditory Texture Models, Christina Trexler

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sounds with a high level of stationarity, also known as sound textures, have perceptually relevant features which can be captured by stimulus-computable models. This makes texture-like sounds, such as those made by rain, wind, and fire, an appealing test case for understanding the underlying mechanisms of auditory recognition. Previous auditory texture models typically measured statistics from auditory filter bank representations, and the statistics they used were somewhat ad-hoc, hand-engineered through a process of trial and error. Here, we investigate whether a better auditory texture representation can be obtained via contrastive learning, taking advantage of the stationarity of auditory textures to …

Body And Tail Coordination In The Bluespot Salamander (Ambystoma Laterale) During Limb Regeneration, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Keegan Lutek, Keshav Gupta, Emily M. Standen

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Animals are incredibly good at adapting to changes in their environment, a trait envied by most roboticists. Many animals use different gaits to seamlessly transition between land and water and move through non-uniform terrains. In addition to adjusting to changes in their environment, animals can adjust their locomotion to deal with missing or regenerating limbs. Salamanders are an amphibious group of animals that can regenerate limbs, tails, and even parts of the spinal cord in some species. After the loss of a limb, the salamander successfully adjusts to constantly changing morphology as it regenerates the missing part. This quality is …

Development Of A Wearable Haptic Feedback Device For Upper Limb Prosthetics Through Sensory Substitution, Marco B.S. Gallone

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Haptics can enable a direct communication pipeline between the artificial limb and the brain; adding haptic sensory feedback for prosthesis wearers is believed to improve operation without drawing too much of the user's attention. Through neuroplasticity, the brain can become more cognizant of the information delivered through the skin and may eventually interpret it as inherently as other natural senses. In this thesis, a wearable haptic feedback device (WHFD) is developed to communicate prosthesis sensory information. A 14-week, 6-stage, between subjects study was created to investigate the learning trajectory as participants were stimulated with haptic patterns conveying joint proprioception. 37 …

Leveraging Chemical And Computational Biology To Probe The Cellulose Synthase Complex, B. Kirtley Amos

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Cellular expansion in plants is a complex process driven by the constraint of internal cellular turgor pressure by an expansible cell wall. The main structural element of the cell wall is cellulose. Cellulose is vital to plant fitness and the protein complex that creates it is an excellent target for small molecule inhibition to create herbicides. In the following thesis many small molecules (SMs) from a diverse library were screened in search of new cellulose biosynthesis inhibitors (CBI). Loss of cellular expansion was the primary phenotype used to search for putative CBIs. As such, this was approached in a forward …

The Law Of Black Mirror - Syllabus, Yafit Lev-Aretz, Nizan Packin

Open Educational Resources

Using episodes from the show Black Mirror as a study tool - a show that features tales that explore techno-paranoia - the course analyzes legal and policy considerations of futuristic or hypothetical case studies. The case studies tap into the collective unease about the modern world and bring up a variety of fascinating key philosophical, legal, and economic-based questions.

The Design And Development Of A Wrist-Hand Orthosis, Amber Gatto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with an incomplete C5-C7 spinal cord injury (SCI) lose grasping abilities but wrist function is almost universally retained. Most rehabilitation techniques apply the tenodesis effect, however, current tenodesis wrist-hand orthoses (WHOs) engage only the thumb and index finger, meaning that only 20% of activities of daily living (ADLs) can be completed.

This study tested the feasibility of a student-designed powered WHO by testing the device on healthy subjects to see if they could complete a variety of ADLs. A simulation software was then used to analyze wrist, thumb, and index finger joint angles. Additionally, an Assistive Technology Survey was …

A New Ectotherm 3d Tracking And Behavior Analytics System Using A Depth-Based Approach With Color Validation, With Preliminary Data On Kihansi Spray Toad (Nectophrynoides Asperginis) Activity, Philip Bal, Damian Lyons, Avishai Shuter

Faculty Publications

The Kihansi spray toad (Nectophrynoides asperginis), classified as Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN, is being bred at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bronx Zoo as part of an effort to successfully reintroduce the species into the wild. Thousands of toads live at the Bronx Zoo presenting an opportunity to learn more about their behaviors for the first time, at scale. It is impractical to perform manual observations for long periods of time. This paper reports on the development of a RGB-D tracking and analytics approach that allows researchers to accurately and efficiently gather information about the toads’ behavior. …

Application Of Advanced Algorithms And Statistical Techniques For Weed-Plant Discrimination, Saman Akbar Zadeh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Precision agriculture requires automated systems for weed detection as weeds compete with the crop for water, nutrients, and light. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of machine learning methods to classify weeds/crops in agriculture. Statistical methods, support vector machines, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are introduced, investigated and optimized as classifiers to provide high accuracy at high vehicular speed for weed detection.

Initially, Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms are developed for weed-crop discrimination and their accuracies are compared with a conventional data-aggregation method based on the evaluation of discrete Normalised Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVIs) at two different …

Automated And Standardized Tools For Realistic, Generic Musculoskeletal Model Development, Trevor Rees Moon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Human movement is an instinctive yet challenging task that involves complex interactions between the neuromusculoskeletal system and its interaction with the surrounding environment. One key obstacle in the understanding of human locomotion is the availability and validity of experimental data or computational models. Corresponding measurements describing the relationships of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems and their dynamics are highly variable. Likewise, computational models and musculoskeletal models in particular are vitally dependent on these measurements to define model behavior and mechanics. These measurements are often sparse and disparate due to unsystematic data collection containing variable methodologies and reporting conventions. To date, …

Effective Plant Discrimination Based On The Combination Of Local Binary Pattern Operators And Multiclass Support Vector Machine Methods, Vi N T Le, Beniamin Apopei, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Accurate crop and weed discrimination plays a critical role in addressing the challenges of weed management in agriculture. The use of herbicides is currently the most common approach to weed control. However, herbicide resistant plants have long been recognised as a major concern due to the excessive use of herbicides. Effective weed detection techniques can reduce the cost of weed management and improve crop quality and yield. A computationally efficient and robust plant classification algorithm is developed and applied to the classification of three crops: Brassica napus (canola), Zea mays (maize/corn), and radish. The developed algorithm is based on the …

Integration Of Robotic Perception, Action, And Memory, Li Yang Ku

Doctoral Dissertations

In the book "On Intelligence", Hawkins states that intelligence should be measured by the capacity to memorize and predict patterns. I further suggest that the ability to predict action consequences based on perception and memory is essential for robots to demonstrate intelligent behaviors in unstructured environments. However, traditional approaches generally represent action and perception separately---as computer vision modules that recognize objects and as planners that execute actions based on labels and poses. I propose here a more integrated approach where action and perception are combined in a memory model, in which a sequence of actions can be planned based on …

Application And Evaluation Of Lighthouse Technology For Precision Motion Capture, Soumitra Sitole

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the development towards a system that can capture and quantify motion for applications in biomechanical and medical fields demanding precision motion tracking using the lighthouse technology. Commercially known as SteamVR tracking, the lighthouse technology is a motion tracking system developed for virtual reality applications that makes use of patterned infrared light sources to highlight trackers (objects embedded with photodiodes) to obtain their pose or spatial position and orientation. Current motion capture systems such as the camera-based motion capture are expensive and not readily available outside of research labs. This thesis provides a case for low-cost motion capture …

A Dexterous, Glove-Based Teleoperable Low-Power Soft Robotic Arm For Delicate Deep-Sea Biological Exploration, Brennan T. Phillips, Kaitlyn P. Becker, Shunichi Kurumaya, Kevin C. Galloway, Griffin Whittredge, Daniel M. Vogt, Clark B. Teeple, Michelle H. Rosen, Vincent A. Pieribone, David F. Gruber, Robert J. Wood

Publications and Research

Modern marine biologists seeking to study or interact with deep-sea organisms are confronted with few options beyond industrial robotic arms, claws, and suction samplers. This limits biological interactions to a subset of “rugged” and mostly immotile fauna. As the deep sea is one of the most biologically diverse and least studied ecosystems on the planet, there is much room for innovation in facilitating delicate interactions with a multitude of organisms. The biodiversity and physiology of shallow marine systems, such as coral reefs, are common study targets due to the easier nature of access; SCUBA diving allows for in situ delicate …

Prototype Of A Fish Inspired Swimming Silk Robot, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Sarah A. Bradner, Juanita Mathews, Erin Sanders, Casey R. Culligan, David Kaplan, Eric D. Tytell

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Elongate fishes have evolved hundreds of times throughout the tree of life. They occupy many aquatic environments, from streams and ponds to the deepest parts of the ocean. Due to their long body and numerous vertebrae, they are also highly flexible animals, which makes them useful as bioinspiration for designs in the field of soft robotics. We present a biodegradable soft robot prototype, inspired by elongate fishes. The robot's body is primarily composed of a silk hydrogel with embedded fibers to mimic the structure of natural fish skin. When actuated at the front, the flexible gel prototype mimics the undulatory …

Smart Vertical Farm System (Svfs), Sarasit Sirawattanakul

The International Student Science Fair 2018

The unremitting trends of increasing population, urbanization, diminishing water supply, and continuing climate change have contributed to declining stocks of arable land per person. Land available for farming is shrinking, and the demand for food is growing. All of these lead to food insecurity. For the first version of Smart Vertical Farm System is designed to increase food productions by an automatic system. It built with shelves which support soil and hydroponic system, stacked vertically. The system first shovels the soil in the tray and sews the seeds. There is also additional watering system. The hydroponic parts are on the …

Smart Vertical Farm System (Svfs), Sarasit Sirawattanakul

The International Student Science Fair 2018

The unremitting trends of increasing population, urbanization, diminishing water supply, and continuing climate change have contributed to declining stocks of arable land per person. Land available for farming is shrinking, and the demand for food is growing. All of these lead to food insecurity. For the first version of Smart Vertical Farm System is designed to increase food productions by an automatic system. It built with shelves which support soil and hydroponic system, stacked vertically. The system first shovels the soil in the tray and sews the seeds. There is also additional watering system. The hydroponic parts are on the …

Biomimetic Design And Construction Of A Bipedal Walking Robot, Alexander Gabriel Steele

Dissertations and Theses

Human balance and locomotion control is highly complex and not well understood. To understand how the nervous system controls balance and locomotion works, we test how the body responds to controlled perturbations, the results are analyzed, and control models are developed. However, to recreate this system of control there is a need for a robot with human-like kinematics. Unfortunately, such a robotic testbed does not exist despite the numerous applications such a design would have in mobile robotics, healthcare, and prosthetics.

This thesis presents a robotic testbed model of human lower legs. By using MRI and CT scans, I designed …

Optimizing The Use Of A Liquid Handling Robot To Conduct A High Throughput Forward Chemical Genetics Screen Of Arabidopsis Thaliana, B. Kirtley Amos, Victoria G. Pook, Seth Debolt

Horticulture Faculty Publications

Chemical genetics is increasingly being employed to decode traits in plants that may be recalcitrant to traditional genetics due to gene redundancy or lethality. However, the probability of a synthetic small molecule being bioactive is low; therefore, thousands of molecules must be tested in order to find those of interest. Liquid handling robotics systems are designed to handle large numbers of samples, increasing the speed with which a chemical library can be screened in addition to minimizing/standardizing error. To achieve a high-throughput forward chemical genetics screen of a library of 50,000 small molecules on Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), protocols using a …

A New Approach To Multiplanar, Real-Time Simulation Of Physiological Knee Loads And Synthetic Knee Components Augmented By Local Composition Control In Fused Filament Fabrication, Joshua Taylor Green

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite numerous advances in biomedical engineering, few developments in surgical simulation have been made outside of computational models. Cadavers remain the primary media on which surgical research and simulation is conducted. Most attempts to quantify the effects of orthopedic surgical methods fail to achieve statistical significance due to limited quantities of cadaver specimen, large variations among the cadaver population, and a lack of repeatability among measurement techniques. The general purpose of the research covered in this dissertation is to develop repeatable simulation of physiological loads and develop techniques to fabricate a synthetic-based replacement of cadaver specimens. Future work applying this …

Insulting Words: "They Are Animals!", Carolyn A. Ristau

Animal Sentience

As Chapman & Huffman state, creating divisive human categories has rationalized atrocities committed against the “other.” Labeling neighboring warring villagers as “animals” is considered a despicable insult. Yet contemporary scientific views of many animals grant them thinking and conscious faculties, and the capacity for impressive achievements, many unattainable by humans. Robots, too, can accomplish many similar feats. But the essential reason we must protect animals is not because of their admirable abilities, but their capacity for consciousness, for suffering. Robots are not conscious. Participants in the human-animal debate should not complain about changing criteria for determining human uniqueness. New and …

The Rhetoric Of Science Education And Technology, Iwasan D. Kejawa

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Nearly thousands of science experiments are performed both on humans and animals every year in the United States (Gregory, 1999). Does Science enormously play a role in the well-beings of individual in the society? Research has found that science education is through motivation and satisfying the needs of humans. The scientific world is part of an elongated human development. This can be substantiated with the use and evolution of TECHNOLOGY and SCIENCE (Minton, 2004). Education of the entities that comprise the need to achieve the goal of TECHNOLOGY and SCIENCE which are important issues of today. Research has shown that …

Soft Foam Robot With Caterpillar-Inspired Gait Regimes For Terrestrial Locomotion, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Zachary T. Serlin, Piers Echols-Jones, Anthony E. Scibelli, Alexandra Cohen, Jeanne-Marie Musca, Shane Rozen-Levy, David Buckingham, Robert White, Barry A. Trimmer

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Caterpillars are the soft bodied larvae of lepidopteran insects. They have evolved to occupy an extremely diverse range of natural environments and to locomote in complex three-dimensional structures without articulated joint or hydrostatic control. These animals make excellent bio-inspiration for the field of soft robotics because of their diversity and adaptability. In this paper, we present SquMA Bot, a caterpillar-inspired soft robot. The robot's body is primarily composed of a soft viscoelastic foam, and it is actuated using a motor-tendon system. SquMA Bot is able to mimic the inching gait of a caterpillar and can use its flexible body to …

Implementation Of The Tickbot: Results And Implications For Modeling, Alexis White, Armin Bahrani, Amanda Devleeschower, Holly Gaff

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Superhero Robotics, Frank Sup, Brian Umberger, Nick Sawyer

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

No abstract provided.

Studying The Effects Of Serpentine Soil On Adapted And Non-Adapted Species Using Arduino Technology, Kiana Saniee, Edward Himelblau, Brian Paavo

STAR Program Research Presentations

Abstract: Serpentine soils are formed from ultramafic rocks and are represent an extreme environment for plants. Serpentine soils are unique in that they carry high concentrations of heavy metals, are nutrient deficient, particularly in calcium, and have poor water retention capabilities. Although these soils constitute harsh conditions for plant growth, there are a number of species that are adapted and even endemic to serpentine soil. Water retention by commercial potting mix was compared with serpentine soil. Also, serpentine adapted and non-adapted species were grown in both soil treatments and physiological data were collected. We used the Arduino electronic platform to …