Engineering Commons^™

Tunable Plasmonic Thermal Emitter Using Metal-Coated Elastomeric Structures, Robert Zando

Masters Theses

This project was focused on the creation of a gold-coated grating structure capable of inducing a surface plasmon polariton within the mid-infrared region, enhancing emissions at specific wavelengths based on the grating periodicity. The grating structure was formed on a silicone elastomer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), in order to give the structure, the ability to have the periodicity dimensions of the grating altered by applying a stress, thereby changing the location of the emission enhancement, giving the device the potential to be used as an infrared strain sensor.

Creation of the structure employed a top-down, micro-scale fabrication technique referred to as Direct …

Tunable Photonic Multilayers From Stimulus-Responsive, Photo-Crosslinkable Polymers, Maria C. Chiappelli

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the synthesis of photo-crosslinkable copolymers and their utilization for the fabrication and testing of tunable and responsive one-dimensional (1D) photonic multilayers. Photonic multilayers exhibit structural color due to the interference of incident light at layer interfaces, providing a convenient route towards optically responsive materials that do not rely on potentially light- or oxygen-sensitive chromophore-containing pigments and dyes. A fabrication technique based on sequential spin-coating and crosslinking of photo-crosslinkable polymers is used to assemble tunable and responsive photonic multilayers. Chapter One introduces the fundamental underlying principles of 1D photonic structures and explores their importance in a variety of …

Ubot-7: The Design Of A Compliant Dexterous Mobile Manipulator, Jonathan Cummings

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the design of uBot-7, the latest version of a dexterous mobile manipulator. This platform has been iteratively developed to realize a high performance-to-cost dexterous whole body manipulator with respect to mobile manipulation. The semi-anthropomorphic design of the uBot is a demonstrated and functional research platform for developing advanced autonomous perception, manipulation, and mobility tasks. The goal of this work is to improve the uBot’s ability to sense and interact with its environment in order to increase the platforms capability to operate dexterously, through the incorporation of joint torque feedback, and safely, through the implementation of passive and …