Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Vibrissae-Inspired Vision-Based Magnetic-Actuated Whisker, Zhixian Hu, Yi Cheng, Juan P. Wachs, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Tactile perception is significant for robotic operation in unstructured environments. Whisker-based sensors offer lightweight bio-inspired solutions, yet most rely on single-whisker sensing and are limited by passive interaction and constrained functionality. Here we present a circular array of eight independently actuated whiskers, each driven by a pulse-switchable permanent magnet and tracked by a camera. This design enables simultaneous multi-point sensing and coordinated actuation, supporting diverse functions. Quantitative analyses demonstrate accurate pixel-to-physical mapping, consistent pixel-to-force characterization, and long-term repeatability. In this work, we show that an vibrissae-inspired vision-based magnetic-actuated whisker array integrating distributed perception with active interaction achieves reliable physical mapping, …

From Test Tracks To Carbon Tracks: Evaluating The Carbon Emissions Of Autonomous Vehicle Development, Sarah Deniz

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Autonomous vehicle (AV) development has seen a sharp increase in the past 10 years, and there is a significant energy cost of training AVs to meet safety regulations. The training process includes virtual simulation training as well as physical training on public roads and within private testing facilities. The high energy expenditure associated with AV training has a respective environmental cost that can be quantified as a lifetime “carbon debt” of released carbon emissions. The environmental sustainability of AVs has not been thoroughly studied in currently available literature, and this paper showcases a model that quantifies the total “carbon debt” …

Diffog: Differentiable Policy Trajectory Optimization With Generalizability, Zhengtong Xu, Zichen Miao, Qiang Qiu, Zhe Zhang, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Imitation-learning-based visuomotor policies excel at manipulation tasks but often produce suboptimal action trajectories compared to model-based methods. Directly mapping camera data to actions via neural networks can result in jerky motions and difficulties in meeting critical constraints, compromising safety and robustness in real-world deployment. For tasks that require high robustness or strict adherence to constraints, ensuring trajectory quality is crucial. However, the lack of interpretability in neural networks makes it challenging to generate constraint-compliant actions in a controlled manner. This article introduces differentiable policy trajectory optimization with generalizability (DiffOG), a learning-based trajectory optimization framework designed to enhance visuomotor policies. By …

Tacscope: A Miniaturized Vision-Based Tactile Sensor For Surgical Applications, Md Rakibul Islam Prince, Sheeraz Athar, Pokuang Zhou, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The lack of tactile feedback in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) limits surgeons’ ability to palpate tissues, a critical technique for locating abnormalities such as tumors. To address this challenge, we introduce TacScope, a novel, vision-based tactile sensor leveraging the magnification properties of a spherical-surface elastomer to provide tactile feedback for advanced clinical applications. TacScope features a robust, low-cost, and easyly fabricate design, enabling seamless integration into surgical robotic setups. It reconstructs high-resolution 3D geometry from variations in particle-density distribution across its elastomer surface, requiring only a single image for calibration. The curved elastomer membrane alters particle-density distribution under …

Robotic System With Tactile-Enabled Leaf Tracking For High-Resolution Hyperspectral Imaging Device For Autonomous Corn Leaf Phenotyping In Controlled Environments, Xuan Li, Ziling Chen, Raghava Uppuluri, Pokuang Zhou, Tianzhang Zhao, Darrell Zachary Good, Yu She, Jian Jin

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Hyperspectral imaging of individual corn leaves provides valuable data for analyzing nutrient content and diagnosing diseases. However, existing leaf-level imaging techniques face challenges such as low spatial resolution and labor-intensive processes. To address these limitations, this study developed a robotic system integrated with a high-resolution line-scanning hyperspectral imaging device to autonomously scan a corn leaf. The hyperspectral imaging device used a vision-based tactile sensor for active leaf tracking throughout the scanning process, ensuring high image quality. Additionally, the device incorporated an in-hand leaf manipulation mechanism that ensured the leaf was properly positioned on the tactile sensing area at the start …

Enhanced Global Oil Spill Dataset From 1967 To 2023 Based On Text-Form Incident Information, Yiming Liu, Zhuoli Yin, Hua Cai

The School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering (SEE) Faculty Publications

Knowing how much oil was released into the environment in each incident is critical to studying the environmental, ecological, and economic impacts of oil spills. However, the release amounts (RAs) for numerous oil spill incidents remain unavailable in a structured format for large-scale analysis. The most extensive global oil spill database, managed by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, only documents the worst-case scenario estimations in the machine-readable dataset, while more accurate values are embedded within unstructured incident descriptions and subsequent updates. To enhance the dataset with more accurate RAs, we developed a framework to extract the actual RAs from …

Safe Human–Robot Collaboration With Risk Tunable Control Barrier Functions, Vipul K. Sharma, Pokuang Zhou, Zhengtong Xu, Yu She, S. Sivaranjani

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

In this article, we consider the problem of guaranteeing safety constraint satisfaction in human–robot collaboration (HRC) with uncertain human position. We pose this problem as a chance-constrained problem with safety (chance) constraints represented by uncertain control barrier functions, where the probability of safety constraint satisfaction under uncertainty is bounded by a tunable user-defined risk. We solve this stochastic optimization problem using a sampling-based approach and obtain a risk-tunable controller to safely accomplish HRC tasks. We demonstrate the safety and performance of this approach through both simulation and hardware experiments on a 7 degree-of-freedom Franka–Panda manipulator and characterize the tradeoff between …

In-Hand Singulation, Scooping, And Cable Untangling With A 5-Dof Tactile-Reactive Gripper, Yuhao Zhou, Pokuang Zhou, Shaoxiong Wang, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Manipulation tasks often require a high degree of dexterity, typically necessitating grippers with multiple degrees of freedom (DOF). While a robotic hand equipped with multiple fingers can execute precise and intricate manipulation tasks, the inherent redundancy stemming from its high-DOF often adds complexity that may not be required. In this paper, we introduce the design of a tactile sensor-equipped gripper with two fingers and five-DOF. We present a novel design integrating a GelSight tactile sensor, enhancing sensing capabilities and enabling finer control during specific manipulation tasks. To evaluate the gripper's performance, we conduct experiments involving three challenging tasks: 1) retrieving, …

Cost-Effective Active Laser Scanning System For Depth-Aware Deep-Learning-Based Instance Segmentation In Poultry Processing, Pouya Sohrabipour, Chaitanya Kumar Reddy Pallerla, Amirreza Davar, Siavash Mahmoudi, Philip Crandall, Wan Shou, Yu She, Dongyi Wang

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The poultry industry plays a pivotal role in global agriculture, with poultry serving as a major source of protein and contributing significantly to economic growth. However, the sector faces challenges associated with labor-intensive tasks that are repetitive and physically demanding. Automation has emerged as a critical solution to enhance operational efficiency and improve working conditions. Specifically, robotic manipulation and handling of objects is becoming ubiquitous in factories. However, challenges exist to precisely identify and guide a robot to handle a pile of objects with similar textures and colors. This paper focuses on the development of a vision system for a …

Dartbot: Overhand Throwing Of Deformable Objects With Tactile Sensing And Reinforcement Learning, Shoaib Aslam, Krish Kumar, Pokuang Zhou, Hongyu Yu, Michael Yu Wang, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Object transfer through throwing is a classic dynamic manipulation task that necessitates precise control and perception capabilities. However, developing dynamic models for unstructured environments using analytical methods presents challenges. In this study, we present DartBot, a robot that integrates tactile exploration and reinforcement learning to achieve robust throwing skills for nonrigid relatively small objects under the influence of moment of inertia which cause the object to spin in the air. Unlike traditional sim-to-real transfer methods, our approach involves direct training of the agent on a real hardware robot equipped with a high-resolution tactile sensor, enabling reinforced learning in a realistic …

Desktop-Scale Robot Tape Manipulation For Additive Manufacturing, Nahid Tushar, Rencheng Wu, Yu She, Wenchao Zhou, Wan Shou

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Advancements in additive manufacturing and robotic automation have enabled diverse fabrication techniques using various materials. However, small-scale tape placement for three-dimensional (3D) printing remains underexplored, with most research focused on large-scale composite manufacturing using carbon fiber prepreg tapes. This work presents an innovative, automated, and cost-effective tape placement system that extends traditional methods beyond carbon fiber prepreg. We developed a customized tape print module (TPM) integrated with a robotic arm, enabling precise and versatile tape placements. Our system supports non-linear toolpaths, complex patterns, and controllable placements on multi-plane surfaces, creating overhangs without support. We demonstrate circuit printing with copper tape …

Vilp: Imitation Learning With Latent Video Planning, Zhengtong Xu, Qiang Qiu, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

In the era of generative AI, integrating video generation models into robotics opens new possibilities for the general-purpose robot agent. This letter introduces imitation learning with latent video planning (VILP). We propose a latent video diffusion model to generate predictive robot videos that adhere to temporal consistency to a good degree. Our method is able to generate highly time-aligned videos from multiple views, which is crucial for robot policy learning. Our video generation model is highly time-efficient. For example, it can generate videos from two distinct perspectives, each consisting of six frames with a resolution of 96 × 160 pixels, …

Unit: Data Efficient Tactile Representation With Generalization To Unseen Objects, Zhengtong Xu, Raghava Uppuluri, Xinwei Zhang, Cael Fitch, Philip Glen Crandall, Wan Shou, Dongyi Wang, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

UniT is an approach to tactile representation learning, using VQGAN to learn a compact latent space and serve as the tactile representation. It uses tactile images obtained from a single simple object to train the representation with generalizability. This tactile representation can be zero-shot transferred to various downstream tasks, including perception tasks and manipulation policy learning. Our benchmarkings on in-hand 3D pose and 6D pose estimation tasks and a tactile classification task show that UniT outperforms existing visual and tactile representation learning methods. Additionally, UniT's effectiveness in policy learning is demonstrated across three real-world tasks involving diverse manipulated objects and …

Vibtac: A High-Resolution High-Bandwidth Tactile Sensing Finger For Multi-Modal Perception In Robotic Manipulation, Sheeraz Athar, Xinwei Zhang, Jun Ueda, Ye Zhao, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Tactile sensing is pivotal for enhancing robot manipulation abilities by providing crucial feedback for localized information. However, existing sensors often lack the necessary resolution and bandwidth required for intricate tasks. To address this gap, we introduce VibTac, a novel multi-modal tactile sensing finger designed to offer high-resolution and high-bandwidth tactile sensing simultaneously. VibTac seamlessly integrates vision-based and vibration-based tactile sensing modes to achieve high-resolution and high-bandwidth tactile sensing respectively, leveraging a streamlined human-inspired design for versatility in tasks. This paper outlines the key design elements of VibTac and its fabrication methods, highlighting the significance of the Elastomer Gel Pad (EGP) …

Fatigue-Resistant Mechanoresponsive Color-Changing Hydrogels For Vision-Based Tactile Robots, Jiabin Liu, Wei Li, Yu She, Sean Blanchard, Shaoting Lin

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Mechanoresponsive color-changing materials that can reversibly and resiliently change color in response to mechanical deformation are highly desirable for diverse modern technologies in optics, sensors, and robots; however, such materials are rarely achieved. Here, a fatigue-resistant mechanoresponsive color-changing hydrogel (FMCH) is reported that exhibits reversible, resilient, and predictable color changes under mechanical stress. At its undeformed state, the FMCH remains dark under a circular polariscope; upon uniaxial stretching of up to six times its initial length, it gradually shifts its color from black, to gray, yellow, and purple. Unlike traditional mechanoresponsive color-changing materials, FMCH maintains its performance across various strain …

Kitchen Ergonomics In Health And Healthcare: A Rapid Scoping Review, Haozhi Chen, Nicholas Anton, Richard J. Holden, Denny Yu

Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund

Although traditional workplace settings such as hospitals and clinics are well-studied, non-clinical areas like home kitchens, which connect clinical healthcare with the care provided in daily living settings, have received less attention. During the early stages of the global pandemic, there has been an increase in home cooking activities due to widespread isolation and restrictions imposed on dining publicly. Ergonomics is at the intersection between work environments and human task performance, and kitchen ergonomics informs knowledge on effective, safe, and efficient cooking practices while maintaining the desired kitchen functionality. Numerous contributions across various disciplines have added knowledge to the kitchen …

How Individuals’ Opinions Influence Society’S Resistance To Epidemics: An Agent-Based Model Approach, Geonsik Yu, Michael Garee, Mario Ventresca, Yuehwern Yih

Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund

Background

Protecting public health from infectious diseases often relies on the cooperation of citizens, especially when self-care interventions are the only viable tools for disease mitigation. Accordingly, social aspects related to public opinion have been studied in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, a comprehensive understanding of the effects of opinion-related factors on disease spread still requires further exploration.

Methods

We propose an agent-based simulation framework incorporating opinion dynamics within an epidemic model based on the assumption that mass media channels play a leading role in opinion dynamics. The model simulates how opinions about preventive interventions change over …

Nature Of Occupational Incidents Among Roofing Contractors: A Data Mining Approach, Ikechukwu Sylvester Onuchukwu, Pouya Gholizadeh, Genian Liko, Behzad Esmaeili

Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund

Given that roofing contractors in the construction industry have the highest fatality rate among specialty contractors, understanding the root cause of incidents among roofers is critical for improving safety outcomes. This study applied frequency analysis and decision tree data-mining techniques to analyze roofers’ fatal and non-fatal accident reports. The frequency analysis yielded insights into the leading cause of accidents, with fall to a lower level (83%) being the highest, followed by incidence sources relating to structures and surfaces (56%). The most common injuries experienced by roofing contractors were fractures (49%) and concussions (15%), especially for events occurring in residential buildings, …

Letac-Mpc: Learning Model Predictive Control For Tactile-Reactive Grasping, Zhengtong Xu, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Grasping is a crucial task in robotics, necessitating tactile feedback and reactive grasping adjustments for robust grasping of objects under various conditions and with differing physical properties. In this article, we introduce LeTac-MPC, a learning-based model predictive control (MPC) for tactile-reactive grasping. Our approach enables the gripper to grasp objects with different physical properties on dynamic and force-interactive tasks. We utilize a vision-based tactile sensor, GelSight (Yuan et al. 2017), which is capable of perceiving high-resolution tactile feedback that contains information on the physical properties and states of the grasped object. LeTac-MPC incorporates a differentiable MPC layer designed to model …

Leto: Learning Constrained Visuomotor Policy With Differentiable Trajectory Optimization, Zhengtong Xu, Yu She

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper introduces LeTO, a method for learning constrained visuomotor policy with differentiable trajectory optimization. Our approach integrates a differentiable optimization layer into the neural network. By formulating the optimization layer as a trajectory optimization problem, we enable the model to end-to-end generate actions in a safe and constraint-controlled fashion without extra modules. Our method allows for the introduction of constraint information during the training process, thereby balancing the training objectives of satisfying constraints, smoothing the trajectories, and minimizing errors with demonstrations. This “gray box” method marries optimization-based safety and interpretability with powerful representational abilities of neural networks. We quantitatively …

Cable Manipulation With A Tactile-Reactive Gripper, Yu She, Shaoxiong Wang, Siyuan Dong, Neha Sunil, Alberto Rodriguez, Edward Adelson

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Cables are complex, high-dimensional, and dynamic objects. Standard approaches to manipulate them often rely on conservative strategies that involve long series of very slow and incremental deformations, or various mechanical fixtures such as clamps, pins, or rings. We are interested in manipulating freely moving cables, in real time, with a pair of robotic grippers, and with no added mechanical constraints. The main contribution of this paper is a perception and control framework that moves in that direction, and uses real-time tactile feedback to accomplish the task of following a dangling cable. The approach relies on a vision-based tactile sensor, GelSight, …

Agile And Lean Six Sigma Integration: A Leadership Framework, Alessandro Laureani

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

Submitting final version of the paper attached.

Agile and Lean Six Sigma integration: a Leadership framework

Author: Alessandro Laureani, Independent Lean Six Sigma Scholar, Ireland

E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +353 87 914 4532

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Agile methodologies and Lean Six Sigma can coexist and propose a Leadership framework to successfully merge Agile methodologies with Lean Six Sigma practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper builds on the author’s doctoral thesis on Leadership for Lean Six Sigma, and integrate Agile practices based on the author’s experience in the software development industry.

Findings

Agile methodologies, that came to …

Lss Implementation In Micro Enterprises: Adoption Of Tools To Support Competitiveness, Seamus O'Reilly, Dermot Freeman, Lawrence Dooley

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

LSS Implementation in Micro Enterprises:

Adoption of tools to support competitiveness

Seamus O’Reilly^a ([email protected]), Dermot Freeman^b ([email protected])

and Lawrence Dooley^a ([email protected])

^aCork University Business School, Ireland. ^bDermot Freeman & Associates, Ireland

Purpose

This study seeks to contribute to an emerging literature addressing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation in the micro enterprise context. Specifically, it explores what LSS tools address business opportunities and challenges identified by micro enterprises.

Methodology

This study adopts a purposive sampling approach. Thirty micro enterprise who had availed of a lean start programme launched by a …

Replicating Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Education, Martinus J. Buijvoets, Bob Walrave, Jukka-Matti Turtiainen, Gregory H. Watson

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

Purpose – This paper describes the intricates and possibilities of replicating a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB) education model from a pilot program to other universities—employing ‘replication as strategy’—based on a validated ‘business model.’

Study design/methodology/approach – This work is grounded in a case study on the ESTIEM LSSGB educational method and draws on the replication literature. Specifically: (1) replication as strategy (Winter and Szulanski, 2001) to replicate stimulating learning environments, and (2) replicating sets of teaching practices (Baden-Fuller and Winter, 2007). These theories are practiced using data obtained from various sources: Participant-observer data, interview data, and secondary case …

Six Sigma, Sustainability, And It Management: A Research Review And Discussion Of Future Directions, Manal Alduraibi, Timothy Winders, Chad Laux

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

Abstract

Purpose- Six Sigma is based upon quality improvement by finding the root cause and refining processes to the precision of process outcomes. The purpose of this research was to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to explore the Six Sigma techniques and information technology (IT) management concepts to identify the IT management principle's impact on the sustainability of Six Sigma project efforts and identify the gaps that are essential to be addressed through further research. This research also discusses the principles of IT management upon the influence on Six Sigma projects, and subsequent contribution to organizational economic sustainability. An …

The Application Of Measures Of Lean Production For Services, Willem Salentijn, Jiju Antony, Chad Laux

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

This paper gives insights on how to measure the degree of lean for services and explores existing instruments, proposing adaptions on an existing instrument, developed for production.

From Letters To Logistics - The Enabling Role Of A Lean Transformation Programme In A National Postal Service: The Case Of An Post, Ireland, Seamus O'Reilly, Leadiing Edge Group, An Post

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

From Letters to Logistics - The enabling role of a lean transformation programme

in a national postal service: The case of An Post, Ireland

Seamus O’Reilly (Cork University Business School), David Murray (An Post) and Joe Aherne (Leading Edge Group)

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the role of a lean transformation programme in supporting the transition of a national postal (mail) service from a traditional letter delivery service to a competitive parcel delivery service.

Methodology

Given the objective an intrinsic case study (Stake, 2005) approach was adopted, as this specific case was of interest. To support this approach the researchers …

Improve Outcomes In Lean Six Sigma With Servant Leadership, David W. Hoffa, Chad Laux, Manal Alduraibi

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

1. Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore lean leadership within Lean Six Sigma (LSS). The objective of this paper was to explore how LSS program success might be improved by focusing Black Belt efforts on mentoring Green Belts with a servant leadership model. The importance of Green Belt projects is typically overlooked in the literature. The effects of prioritizing the development of Green Belts and building a culture of continuous improvement over the traditional Black Belt project focus is explored.

2. Design/Methodology/Approach

The methodology of this paper is inspired by the authors’ field experiences in managing LSS …

Waste As A Product Of Organisational Culture, Dobrochna Sztajerska, Karolina Pawlusiak

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

The organisational culture was subjected to studies for many years (Schein, 1983; Svyantek and DeShon, 1993; Sułkowski 2001, Chmielewska-Muciek 2009), so was the muda (waste) concept (Womack and Jones, 1996; Rother and Shook, 2003; Liker, 2003; Lisiecka and Burka, 2015). However, there is no research linking these two constructs, especially when it comes to looking for specific waste depending on the organisational culture.

Six Sigma And Lean Approach For Enhanced Process Value Chain, Maryam Zulfiqar

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

Abstract

This research highlight the different aspects of implementing lean and six-sigma approach, their contrasting features and integration in manufacturing organizations. Qualitative research method has been used to conduct this research as the defined period of time for the research was limited. This method was pertinent for the deep analysis of literature and case studies of concerned approaches. It helped to conduct the research in a subjective manner. The use of secondary data saved time from preparing the questionnaires or surveys also the ethical approval from the University of the West of Scotland was not required. Descriptive feature of qualitative …