Engineering Commons^™

The Coral Carousel: A Device And Method For In-Situ Propagation Of Deep-Sea Corals, Gregory Bales

Open Access Master's Theses

The research described herein covers the development of a tool station for performing in-situ propagation of corals using a work class ROV. This includes a system for manipulating coral fragments and affixing them to a cement base plug. To validate this tool station, testing was performed both in the lab as well as at depth in the Gulf of Mexico. As restoration of shallow-water corals has grown in popularity, many techniques have been developed for propagation. However, it is difficult or inappropriate to directly apply these techniques to deep-sea corals. While some forms of diving are capable of approaching the …

Flower Cluster Matching Utilizing The Unscented Transform For Robotic Pollination, Andy Chu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The use of automated systems for agriculture is integral to keeping the food supply secure. Both industry and academia are exploring and applying methods to increase the yield of plants in environments ranging from outdoor fields to greenhouses. Specifically, many automated systems use continuous monitoring of plants to track plant health and yield. The use of computer vision is necessary when it comes to precision operations that use robotics. Today, robots are trained to weed, harvest, and pollinate. To accomplish these tasks autonomously, a lot of data is needed, which is where spatial-temporal observations of the plants are being recorded …

Exploring The Benefits, Barriers, And Sustainability Of Community Stem Partnerships: A Qualitative Case Study On Stem Collaboration In Elementary Education, Katherine M. Blagden

Open Access Dissertations

In an era of increasing emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, elementary schools often face significant challenges in implementing high-quality, integrated STEM instruction. These challenges include limited resources, inconsistent professional development, and a lack of access to real-world, community-based learning experiences (Dorph et al., 2018; National Science Board, 2024). This dissertation explores how collaborative partnerships among elementary schools, community organizations, and industry professionals can overcome these barriers and foster meaningful, sustainable STEM learning opportunities for young students. Drawing on the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993) and informed by a constructivist theoretical framework (Vygotsky, …

Navigating Human-Robotic Interaction Challenges In Teaching-By-Demonstration, Shakra Mehak

Doctoral

The advancement in interdisciplinary research domains, like robotics and HRI, presents a challenging task. It is an exception rather than the norm for research to extend beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines and encompass the challenges presented by other fields of study. This project is part of ”Collaborative Intelligence for Safety Critical Systems” (CISC), which is a Marie Curie Training Network funded by the European Commission to hire and train researchers with the expertise and skillset necessary to carry out the major tasks required to develop a Collaborative Intelligence system. The program encompasses four overarching themes: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human …

Filter Based Motor Control For Robotic Applications, Shuzan Kumar Sarkar, Noah Wilding, Shruti Pandey, Nicholas Hawkins, Michael L. Mcintyre

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Controlling coreless DC motor in the field of humanoid robotic application involves considering various surrounding electromagnetic environment interference and sudden change of load with parameters variation of motor dynamics which makes the system complex. This paper presents a filter-based control scheme for a coreless DC motor drive system using an H-bridge inverter as the input circuit of the motor which is easy to implement and cost effective. From the electromagnetic characteristics, the dynamic model of the motor along with the control scheme is implemented in the commercial software PLECS. Then the effectiveness of this approach is validated through simulations demonstrating …

Ai-Driven Robotic System For Predictive Maintenance: Urban Road Defect Detection In Smart Cities, Mostafa Abdelaziz, Mahmoud Khedr

Mechanical Engineering

This paper presents the development and evaluation of an integrated AI & robotic solution for predictive maintenance in smart cities, focusing on urban road defect detection. The proposed system integrates a mobile robot equipped with a high-resolution camera and a GPS module to capture video footage and geolocation data of road surfaces. The collected data is processed using cloud-based AI models, with YOLOv9 and Roboflow 3.0 Object Detection (Fast) identified as the most effective for analyzing footage to detect cracks and potholes. Experimental results validate the system's ability to accurately identify defects and generate timely reports for maintenance teams. While …

Improved Optimal Tracking Of Uncertain Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems Using Experience Replay, Maxwell Geiger, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper addresses the infinite horizon optimal tracking control problem for partially uncertain control-affine nonlinear discrete-time (DT) systems, where the control input dynamics are known. Multi-layer critic and actor neural networks (MNNs) are utilized for online estimation of the infinite horizon value function and optimal control input. The NN weights are tuned online using a direct temporal difference error (TDE)-driven learning approach, which modifies the singular values of the gradient with respect to the NN weights to accelerate their convergence. The critic NN uses a novel experience replay technique to improve sample efficiency without introducing biased TDEs and guarantee the …

Head Mounted Surgical Robot, Mason Currens

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this design project is to utilize a six degree of freedom, robotic system that will be head mounted device that can either assist in, or perform, facial and optical surgery. The six degree of freedom idea came from current systems used in flight simulations. By optimizing the system to fit the figure of a patient’ s head, many of the present errors in surgical robotics can be reduced. One of the major errors when using a facial tracking robot is sudden impulses, such as a cough or a twitch, that the robot can't precisely track. Mounting the …

Autonomous Landscape Exploration Rover Using Imaging Surface Navigation (Alexis), Noah Jones, Dominic Salupo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective is to develop a small-form-factor rover prototype that can be used to prove out a novel traversal method for use on extraterrestrial surfaces. The novel traversal method being proposed is LIDAR/CV-enhanced navigation, provided by a detachable flight vehicle that can communicate with the rover. On planets with thin atmospheres, cold gas thrusters or similar may be needed, but for the scope of this project more traditional flight/propulsion methods will be used.

Dynamically Scaling Biomimetic Robots Through Parallel Viscoelastic Actuators, Foster Olaf Holmquist

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Robots provide a unique proving ground for testing scientists’ understanding of neuromuscular systems. Synergistically, mimicking biological control laws and mechanics could offer robotics the robust and adaptive locomotion of animals. Previous work has utilized the wealth of research on insect biomechanics to develop scaled robotic models but doing so presented a problem: while these robots’ larger scale has simplified manufacturing, the scale has also shifted its mechanics from those of the modeled organisms. While animals walk, forces are generated that describe their mechanics and influence motor control. The musculoskeletal structure and stretch of muscles result in viscous and elastic forces, …

Development And Prototyping Of A Modular Quadruped Towards Testing Standardization For Legged Robot Stability, Michael Conner Larsen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Legged robots are well-suited for navigating uneven and unmapped terrain, making them valuable in various robotics applications. Maintaining balance and stability in such environments relies on a combination of sensors, control strategies, and mechanical design. However, selecting the most effective sensing and control method for a given use case remains challenging. Previous studies have explored various approaches, integrating combinations of joint angle measurement, inertial measurement units (IMUs), torque-based control, leg force measurement, image processing, and machine learning, paired with numerous controller designs, which can contribute to stability. However, direct comparisons of these methods are often limited by the need for …

Design And Implementation Of Smart Automation For Sustainable Plastic Recycling With Iot Integration, Mostafa Abdelaziz, Mahmoud Khedr, Amr Bakkar, Yossef Zidan, Abdelrahman Youssef, Mahmoud Magdy

Mechanical Engineering

Plastic pollution poses a critical environmental challenge, infiltrating ecosystems and impacting human health. One innovative solution involves repurposing recycled plastics into interlocking blocks as a sustainable alternative to concrete in construction. However, manual production methods hinder scalability, efficiency, and product consistency while generating material waste. This research addresses these limitations by automating the production process using PLC and IoT technologies. The findings demonstrate that automation significantly enhances production rates, ensures consistent quality, and minimizes waste, thereby improving operational efficiency and environmental sustainability. IoT is integrated to enhance the system's capabilities by providing real-time connectivity and data exchange. The IoT dashboard, …

Digital Twins For Flexible Manufacturing, Drew Brandon Sander

Theses and Dissertations

With the establishment of Digital Twins as an enabling technology for Industry 4.0, it is time to transition from the previous foundations to works that implement and highlight the capabilities Digital Twins present. The Industry 4.0 paradigm has recentered the focus on customizability, leading to reemerging goals of flexibility within manufacturing. Empowered through new cyber-physical systems, new enabling technologies are driving the revolution. To identify how Digital Twins as an enabling technology contribute to flexibility within manufacturing, a comprehensive investigation is conducted along with a detailed case study. A systematic literature review is conducted to analyze quality Digital Twin implementations …

Design, Manufacturing, And Assembly Of Modular Snake-Like Robotic Arm, Alongside Design And Implementation Of System’S Digital-Twin, Scott Brown

Master's Theses

A unique modular snake-like robotic arm, also referred to as MA\RS – the Modular Arm \ Robotic System - was designed, manufactured, assembled, simulated, and programmed to create a modular robot which could move to a desired end position given the number of links, the position of the end link and the duration of motion. This robotic arm serves as the start of research into a modular space robotic system to be used in low-gravity environments. As such, this project focused on developing the initial design of the robot and its digital twin. The system’s modularity allows for changes to …

Mechanically Cost-Effective Approach For Bipedal Walking In Robots Using Instantaneous Collision Angle, Smit R. Patel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Humans, as bipedal locomotors, are effective at reducing the mechanical cost of transport (CoTmech) by adopting movement strategies and gaits that minimize energy expenditure for a given distance. By using different gaits at different speeds, leveraging their long spring-like tendons and muscle elasticity which store and release energy during movement, humans reduce the mechanical effort required for locomotion. Current locomotion solutions offered in bipedal robots, based on legacy walking and running gait models, are not great at energy efficiency unless walking at very low speeds. Additionally, the control system of robots, designed to ensure stability and adaptability, requires substantial resources, …

Pseudo Gps For Romi, Emmanuel Baez, Owen Guinane, Gabriel Coria, Conor Schott

Mechanical Engineering

The Pseudo-GPS system for Romi robots addresses the need for precise real-time location tracking in Cal Poly's Mechatronics lab. This project, developed by Emmanuel Baez, Gabriel Coria, Owen Guinane, and Conor Schott, under the guidance of instructor Charlie Refvem, provides a proof-of-concept system to enhance the Romi robots' geolocation capabilities for advanced robotic algorithms.

The proposed system uses a Raspberry Pi 4 equipped with a Pi camera module and ArUco markers to track the position and orientation of Romi robots within a lab environment. Custom 3D-printed stands secure markers on the robots, and a designated origin marker defines the coordinate …

End-To-End Learning For A Low-Cost Robotics Arm, Abhishek Chothani

Theses and Dissertations

Robotic manipulation is a cornerstone of automation, with the ultimate goal of developing versatile systems capable of executing a wide range of real-world tasks autonomously. Traditional robotics approaches, while reliable and widely adopted in industrial settings, often struggle with adaptability, perception, and dynamic task execution. This thesis explores the evolution from classical robotics techniques to modern learning-based approaches, leveraging advancements in artificial intelligence to overcome these limitations.

Initially, the thesis presents a pick-and-place pipeline built using the Drake robotics framework and the KUKA iiwa robotic arm. This system employs a pseudoinverse controller for inverse kinematics to perform structured tasks like …

Improving Robustness Of Learning-Based Approaches In Autonomous Systems And Engineering Education, Godwyll Aikins

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation advances the development of robust learning-based approaches across two complementary domains: engineering education and autonomous systems. Through four studies, this research addresses critical challenges in preparing data-proficient engineers and developing reliable autonomous systems that can operate under uncertainty and incomplete information. The engineering education study examines how mechanical and aerospace engineering undergraduates conceptualize and develop data proficiency skills essential for modern engineering practice. Through interviews with 27 students, the research employs the How People Learn framework to analyze student perspectives on information literacy, data interpretation, and computational thinking. The findings inform pedagogical strategies for developing data proficiency in …

Collaborative Robotics: Application Of Delphi Method, Jean-Marc Salotti, Ephraim Suhir

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the domain of collaborative robotics, it is often needed to make complex multiparametric choices or assessments that combine heterogeneous criteria, such as task performance, reliability, safety, and ergonomics. The Delphi method, a process of arriving at group consensus by providing experts with rounds of questionnaires, as well as the group response before each subsequent round, can be applied to solve this type of problems. The following Delphi method efforts are addressed in our analysis with application to finding appropriate criteria and their relative weights for the evaluation of the teleoperation task of a robotic platform: (1) Contribution of experts; …

Impact-Free Gaits For Planar Bipeds: Changing Walking Speed And Gait, Aakash Khandelwal, Nilay Kant, Ranjan Mukherjee

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The problems of changing the walking speed and stride length of impact-free gaits for point-foot planar bipeds are addressed. The impact-free gaits are designed using an approach developed in prior work. It is shown that the impulse controlled Poincaré map (ICPM) approach can be modified to transition between orbits defining gaits with different walking speeds, and the continuous controller can be changed during the swing phase to transition between gaits that have distinct stride lengths. The effectiveness of the approaches is demonstrated using simulations carried out on a five-link biped.

Computer Vision In A Robotic Arm, Jack Maxwell

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

We used a machine learning-based object detection algorithm to give a robotic arm the ability to "see" with its camera.

Distributed Multi-Robot Localization And Coordination Framework For Mobile Robots, Dmitri Dobrynin, Indigo T. Garcia

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project aims to develop an experimental framework for multiple mobile robots, both in simulation and real-world hardware, using ROS 2 as the primary operating system. Utilizing TurtleBot 3 platforms, the team will establish a robust setup that enables tasks such as distributed localization, autonomous navigation, path planning, and formation control for mobile robots. Leveraging simulation environments like Gazebo, the project will replicate real-world setups in a simulated environment for testing and development. All tasks, communication, and sensor integration will be implemented using ROS 2, ensuring seamless coordination and interoperability among the robots. The project involves integrating various sensors and …

Introduction To Robotics Systems Assignment 2, Tarek Elderini

AI Assignment Library

An assignment was reformatted with respect to TILT using both Claude 3 and ChatGPT. One of the problems is that whatever pics in the file will not be added to the reformatted file. Also, I asked ChatGPT and Claude 3 to make a comparison between the two created assignments showing the pros and cons for each at the end. It was funny that both agreed that ChatGPT was more professional from the aspect of an engineering assignment. This document contains the original file, the 2 formatted assignments, and the comparison at the end.

Dynamic Maze Puzzle Navigation Using Deep Reinforcement Learning, Luisa Shu Yi Chiu

Master's Theses

The implementation of deep reinforcement learning in mobile robotics offers a great solution for the development of autonomous mobile robots to efficiently complete tasks and transport objects. Reinforcement learning continues to show impressive potential in robotics applications through self-learning and biological plausibility. Despite its advancements, challenges remain in applying these machine learning techniques in dynamic environments. This thesis explores the performance of Deep Q-Networks (DQN), using images as an input, for mobile robot navigation in dynamic maze puzzles and aims to contribute to advancements in deep reinforcement learning applications for simulated and real-life robotic systems. This project is a step …

One Possible Solution To The Endo Challenge For Earlier, Low Cost, Non-Invasive Diagnosis Of Endometriosis, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Working Papers

This short paper outlines a potential solution to the ENDO Challenge posed by the US National Institutes of Health to spur development of painless, noninvasive diagnostic tools for early diagnosis in women suffering needlessly from endometriosis. Endometriosis is a common condition caused by regurgitation of menses backwards through the Fallopian tubes from the uterine cavity into the abdominal cavity during menstruation. A few still viable endometrial cells then implant widely and unpredictably throughout the abdominal cavity and become established on the surfaces of internal organs and the abdominal wall. There they live and remain responsive to cyclic hormones. The resulting …

Adaptive Robot Collaboration Using Robotic Skin And Motion Similarity., Jordan Dowdy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An essential part of robotics research is human-robot collaboration, which enables the use of current and new robots in everyday life and the workforce. This research applies to both parts of human-robot collaboration: physical human-robot interaction (pHRI), as well as non-physical human-robot interaction. The physical interaction uses tactile sensors and a Neuroadaptive Controller (NAC) to allow for the guidance of a robotic arm and its end-effector. The non-physical interaction uses a novel motion similarity metric, the Cartesian Segment Online Dynamic Time-Warping (SODTW), to allow a robot to better adapt to the speed of the user performing the motion during imitation …

Improving Biomimetic Passive Dynamics Of A Quadruped Robot Hind Leg Hip Joint With A 3d Printed Torsion Spring, Haonan Zheng

Dissertations and Theses

The Agile and Adaptive Robotics Lab is interested in researching the neuromuscular control network of legged animal locomotion. To validate the lab's understanding of biological neural control, synthetic neural networks are developed and applied to biologically inspired legged robots. For a synthetic neural network to operate in the same manner as a biological neural network and produce the same locomotor behavior, the robot that the synthetic neural network is controlling must also mimic its biological counterpart. Previous research produced a quadruped robot hind leg designed with biomimetic passive dynamics by installing spring and damper pairs at each joint, however, an …

Robotics Lab With The Lego Spike Prime Robot, Susan Imberman, Tatiana Anderson, Chang Guo, Vladimir Frants, Daniel Agman, Orit D. Gruber

Open Educational Resources

This lab introduces the field of Robotics. Robotics is a field that combines Artificial Intelligence with Engineering. In this lab, the student will be experimenting with the LEGO® Spike Prime Robot. The student's final report should include a copy of all the completed answers, program code, and observations.

After completing this lab experiment, the student will proceed to answer the following questions in the Observations section at the end of the lab report:

• List some applications of robotics in daily living and industry ?

• How does a robot sense and react to its environment?

• What new ideas were observed during …

Solar Car Radio Control Car Curriculum (9-10 Grade), Divya Baranwal, Ashish Gandhi

Multidisciplinary Studies Research

In this unit, high school students will comprehend the concepts of solar energy and conversion of sunlight into electricity; and basic electronics, circuitry principles, and electric components like microcontrollers, resistors, sensors, and LEDs; basic programming hands-on experience to write code for microcontrollers and programming functionalities like controlling the car’s movement, and the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy on various inclined ramps, delving into scientific principles. They will understand the basics of machine learning, robotics, soldering, engage with hands-on experiences in engineering design principles, hands-on experiences starting from building car evolution models throughout a week. This unit focus to …

Development Of A Rule-Based Monitoring System For Autonomous Heavy Equipment Safety, Amirpooya Shirazi

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Roadway construction work zones are constantly exposed to interactions among construction equipment, workers, and vehicles. Furthermore, ensuring safety in these areas is considered a challenging task due to the complexity of the environment. As shown in the rising trend of fatal accidents in roadway work zones, current OSHA regulations in construction safety are insufficient in effectively detecting unsafe situations and mitigating the risks. Furthermore, best practices, such as internal traffic control planning (ITCP), exhibit critical limitations requiring continuous monitoring of active work zones as well as adjustments to the site coordination plans due to the dynamic nature of work zone …