Robotics Commons^™

Orbital Maneuvers And Interplanetary Trajectory Design Via Reinforcement Learning, Roberto Cuéllar Rangel

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This dissertation investigates the application of reinforcement learning (RL) to the design and optimization of low-thrust spacecraft trajectories, with an emphasis on autonomy, adaptability, and robustness in the presence of system uncertainties and unmodeled perturbations. Classical approaches to low-thrust trajectory design are predominantly grounded in optimal control theory, which relies on the availability of precise dynamical models and often requires problem-specific reformulation and solver tuning. While optimal control methods offer high accuracy under deterministic conditions, their sensitivity to stochastic disturbances and computational limitations in highly nonlinear or uncertain environments pose significant challenges for future autonomous space missions.

To address these …

Development Of A Control System For An 8-Dof Quadrupedal Robotic Research Platform, Jack Butler

Master's Theses

Quadrupedal robots offer a versatile locomotion option that can extend the operating space of a robot into uneven terrains. However, controlling these systems presents significant challenges due to nonlinearities introduced by various factors.

In this thesis, model-predictive control (MPC) is applied to an 8-DOF legged robot developed by Cal Poly’s Legged Robotics group. The MPC framework employs a lumped rigid-body model that treats the robot as a single rigid body with forces applied directly at the foot contact points. The controller is developed within the ROS2 environment, with integration of state estimation and gait-pattern generation, to provide maximum modularity and …

Visor-Zt: A Visibility, Simulation, And Operational Resilience Framework For Zero Trust Security In Ros 2, Noah Tinker

All Theses

Robotic systems are becoming more and more prevalent in modern society, with Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) being the dominant operating system for these implementations. Its popularity can be attributed to its design, which is purpose-built for distributed systems and asynchronous communications. However, ROS 2 security is static and therefore less capable of responding to contemporary threats and network behavior. This becomes a greater issue when considering its applications in the military and defense sectors, where security is of the highest importance. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has implemented zero trust (ZT) security based on …

Real-Time Fiducial Marker Based Localization For Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation, Sourav Raxit

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

By harnessing fiducial markers as visual landmarks in the environment, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can rapidly build precise maps and navigate spaces safely and efficiently, unlocking their potential for fluent collaboration and coexistence with humans. Existing fiducial marker methods rely on handcrafted feature extraction, which sacrifices accuracy. On the other hand, some deep learning pipelines for marker detection fail to meet real-time runtime constraints crucial for navigation applications. In this work, I propose YoloTag- a real-time fiducial marker-based localization system. YoloTag uses a lightweight YOLO v8 object detector to accurately detect fiducial markers in images while meeting the runtime constraints …

Enhancing Emotional Accuracy And Behavioral Novelty In Robot Behaviors: A Generative-Discriminative Approach, Rista Baral

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Recent advancements in language modeling have improved robotic emotion expressiveness, yet several challenges remain. Many existing robotic expression models rely on fixed rules and static frameworks, which limit their ability to capture the dynamic nature of emotional expression. Additionally, these systems often struggle to balance emotional accuracy with generating novel and varied behaviors. These limitations underscore the need for method capable of delivering both emotionally accurate and diverse robot behaviors.

In this thesis, we addresses these challenges by introducing a new framework for expressive behavior generation in robots. We develop a generative model that generates robot behavior sequences that align …

Low-Level Memory Attacks On Edge Assisted Robotic Applications, William Arnold

Master of Engineering Theses

This thesis investigates how low-level memory faults can undermine edge-assisted robotic systems that rely on memory optimization. As robots are utilized in real world applications, the ability to operate safely and successfully in mission critical deployment becomes important. To help achieve these goals, developers are increasingly starting to place computation nodes at network edges to meet latency and reliability requirements. Edge nodes, however, are resource-constrained and resources conservation techniques such as Kernel Same-page Merging (KSM) are enabled to deduplicate identical pages across processes or virtual machines. This thesis shows that this optimization technique quietly widens the attack surface and can …

Human Comfort Modeling, Measurement, And Improvement In Human–Robot Collaboration, Yuchen Yan

All Dissertations

A dissertation is proposed to explore human comfort in human-robot collaboration (HRC) through modeling, prediction, and enhancement methodologies. Human comfort is a crucial yet underexplored factor in HRC, directly influencing task efficiency, trust, and overall collaboration effectiveness. Understanding the influential factors, developing computational models, and refining methods to improve human comfort in HRC are essential steps toward advancing the field of collaborative robotics. To address these challenges, multiple studies have been conducted. A series of experimental studies were performed to investigate how robot motion-based parameters affect human comfort in HRC. These studies examined both analytical comfort modeling approaches and physiological …

Design Of A Simplified Biomimetic Autonomous Entertainment Robot, Jessica E. Morris, Shanny May Ruiz, Morgan Snyder, Hannah Guild, Gabriel Cardona-Tous

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

The advancement of technology has paved the way for robots with the purpose of entertainment to become more popular. However, the exploration of biomimetic actions as a factor of entertainment is majorly limited to the mimicry of young domesticated animals such as puppies and kittens, with some notable exceptions. However, there is a wide range of possibilities for robotics that mimic animals marketed as pets, outside of the common examples. This work seeks to explore the opportunity for autonomous systems with entertainment driven and expressive actions in the family of Testudines (turtles and tortoises), an undomesticated species, but still often …

A Uas-Centered Investigation Of Vorticity Characteristics And Cold Pool Structure Across Forward And Left-Flank Boundaries In Supercells, Mark R. De Bruin

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Supercell internal boundaries are the locus of tornadogenesis; thus, understanding the characteristics of these boundaries, particularly in terms of vorticity, is important for identifying the role they play in tornado formation. Insight into the overall characteristics of internal boundaries and their possible role in tornadogenesis have been driven by studies reliant on numerical modeling-based experiments. Observational studies often neglect above-surface conditions or, when these observations are made, lack the spatial resolution to resolve boundary characteristics. During TORUS (Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells) 2019 and TORUS-LItE (TORUS Left-flank Intensive Experiment) 2023, uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and mobile mesonets …

Artificial Intelligence In Everyday Life, Sally Brown

Artificial Intelligence Exhibit

This section explores using AI in everyday life including decision making.

Ai Questions; "The Ai Tea", Sally Brown

Artificial Intelligence Exhibit

This section includes a series of questions related to AI and the exhibit content, as well as button designs by WVU students and Art in the Libraries committee members, a list of the exhibition sponsors, and information on the exhibition launch panel.

Artificial Intelligence Introduction Section, Seth Newell, Sally Brown

Artificial Intelligence Exhibit

The introduction gives an overview of the exhibition, along with an explanation of AI literacy, AI vs. Google, and a basic AI timeline.

Artificial Intelligence In Surveillance And Privacy, Elizabeth D. Brasher

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

This paper attempts to provide insight into the new and developing world of artificial intelligence and its integration into surveillance technologies. These technologies being implemented by the government, retail companies, healthcare organizations, and more, all raise ethical questions and implications addressed in this article; other topics, such as the integration of Christian ethics and responsibilities, are also explored.

Bridging Virtual Robots And Physical Tasks Via Augmented Reality, Xiangfei Kong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Entry to human-robot interaction research, e.g., conducting empirical experiments, faces a significant economic barrier due to the high cost of physical robots, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. This cost issue also severely limits the field’s ability to replicate user studies and reproduce the results to verify their reliability, thus offering more confidence to incorporate these findings. Although virtual reality (VR) user studies present a potential solution, it is unclear whether we can confidently transfer the findings to physical robots and physical environments because VR isolates both the physical robot and the physical world where robots operate. To address …

Development Of An Embedded Iot Board For Real-Time Floor Estimation Of Autonomous Robots, Carter J. Sorensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As service robots become more prevalent in multi-story environments such as hospitals, hotels, and laboratories, accurate floor-level detection is critical to ensuring operational reliability. Consider a robot tasked with delivering medical samples in a multi-story laboratory. Without accurate feedback, a robot exiting on the wrong floor could introduce delays, disrupt workflows, or compromise sample integrity. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offer a way to address these risks by providing real-time error detection and corrective capability. However, current IoT-based floor estimation systems often require invasive modifications to building infrastructure—particularly elevator control panels. These approaches introduce challenges related to cost, liability, backward …

An Advanced Hexacopter For Autonomous Exploration Of Mars: Attitude Control And Navigation Strategies, Laura Sopegno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mars exploration has recently witnessed major interest within the scientific community. Unmanned robotic platforms offer reliable solutions to acquire and collect data and information from the Red Planet. Particularly, rovers, landers, and orbiters have significantly shaped planetary exploration on the Moon and Mars, contributing significantly to past missions while also highlighting limitations in their capacity to cover diverse terrains over wide ranges. Given current advances in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer promising alternatives for future scientific missions.

It is argued that hexacopters, with their relatively compact design and redundancy, present a promising …

Spy Bot, Nathanael Bruce Farris

Computer Engineering

This project set out to develop a compact, mobile-controlled robotic platform designed for remote video surveillance and control via a smartphone. Using a Raspberry Pi as the core controller, the robot integrates a Flask-based server, HTML/JavaScript-based user interface, and an infrared-capable camera to provide real-time video streaming and directional control through a web browser. Key design challenges included managing power delivery, integrating motor control with live video, and modernizing web technologies to ensure smooth communication between client and server. The final system demonstrates a responsive and portable proof of concept that highlights the potential for future upgrades, such as night …

A Turtlebot3 Hardware Testbed For Distributed Kalman Filter Localization, Dmitri Dobrynin, Indigo T. Garcia

Electrical Engineering

This report presents the preliminary design for a distributed localization framework for a multi-robot system. Many robotics research papers provide simulations of proposed algorithms in regards to formation control and task allocation. However, it is often that these proposals are without hardware experiments, being limited only to simulation. The objective of this framework is to provide a hardware implementation of a distributed Kalman filtering algorithm for multi-agent localization, as well as provide grounds for future multi-agent experiments. The framework is implemented on a swarm of three Turtlebot3 mobile robots. The robots can accurately localize themselves with respect to other agents …

Conversational Social Robot, Julianna M. Christopoulos, Mackenzie Goldman, Cece E. Hujanen, Jared Hunter

Mechanical Engineering

Background: Social robots are used in various settings to reduce burden on human workers and expand opportunities for people in need of assistance.

Challenge: Design a humanoid robot head and torso capable of holding conversations and interacting with a user using a LLM and motion. Conversations are limited to discussing Cal Poly resources and opportunities with visitors to the Bently Research Center on campus.

Framework For Multi-Agent Coordination And Distributed Localization In Micro-Uavs, Minwoo Park, Nikolas Tambornini

Electrical Engineering

Micro-UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) due to their inexpensive nature and compact form factor have shown an increase in prevalence throughout a multitude of applications including, but not limited to: search and rescue, military reconnaissance, and agriculture monitoring. However, for a majority of these high impact applications, a swarm of micro-UAVs are required and furthermore mandate that they are able to cooperatively and autonomously coordinate with each other. For long, controlling and communicating between a user and a singular micro-UAV has been a well known and solved problem, however the same can't be said for swarms of micro-UAVs. This project seeks …