Robotics and Systems Design

University of Colorado students are taking part in advancing robotics to help first responders

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 18:35:53 +0000

University of Colorado students are taking part in advancing robotics to help first responders Alexander Jame… Fri, 12/06/2024 - 11:35

Sean Humbert, professor in mechanical engineering and director of the Robotics graduate program, chats with CBS News Colorado about some of the technology him and his students are working on at CU Boulder. One of their builds is a robot that the Boulder County Sheriff's Office uses to support their bomb squad team.

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Building next generation autonomous robots to serve humanity

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 23:13:22 +0000

Building next generation autonomous robots to serve humanity Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/17/2023 - 16:13

One thousand feet underground, a four-legged creature scavenges through tunnels in pitch darkness. With vision that cuts through the blackness, it explores a spider web of paths, remembering its every step and navigating with precision. The sound of its movements echo eerily off the walls, but it is not to be feared – this is no wild animal; it is an autonomous rescue robot.

Initially designed to find survivors in collapsed mines, caves, and damaged buildings, that is only part of what it can do.

Created by a team of University of Colorado Boulder researchers and students, the robots placed third as the top US entry and earned $500,000 in prize money at a Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency Subterranean Challenge competition in 2021.

Going Futher

Two years later, they are pushing the technology even further, earning new research grants to expand the technology and create new applications in the rapidly growing world of autonomous systems.

“Ideally you don’t want to put humans in harm’s way in disaster situations like mines or buildings after earthquakes; the walls or ceilings could collapse and maybe some already have,” said Sean Humbert, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Robotics Program at CU Boulder. “These robots can be disposable while still providing situational awareness.”

The team developed an advanced system of sensors and algorithms to allow the robots to function on their own – once given an assignment, they make decisions autonomously on how to best complete it.

Advanced Communication

A major goal is to get them from engineers directly into the hands of first responders. Success requires simplifying the way the robots transmit data into something approximating plain English, according to Kyle Harlow, a computer science PhD student.

“The robots communicate in pure math. We do a lot of work on top of that to interpret the data right now, but a firefighter doesn’t have that kind of time,” Harlow said.

To make that happen Humbert is collaborating with Chris Heckman, an associate professor of computer science, to change both how the robots communicate and how they represent the world. The robots’ eyes – a LiDAR sensor – creates highly detailed 3D maps of an environment, 15 cm at a time. That’s a problem when they try to relay information – the sheer amount of data clogs up the network.

“Humans don’t interpret the environment in 15 cm blocks,” Humbert said. “We’re now working on what’s called semantic mapping, which is a way to combine contextual and spatial information. This is closer to how the human brain represents the world and is much less memory intensive.”

High Tech Mapping

The team is also integrating new sensors to make the robots more effective in challenging environments. The robots excel in clear conditions but struggle with visual obstacles like dust, fog, and snow. Harlow is leading an effort to incorporate millimeter wave radar to change that.

“We have all these sensors that work well in the lab and in clean environments, but we need to be able to go out in places such as Colorado where it snows sometimes,” Harlow said.

Where some researchers are forced to suspend work when a grant ends, members of the subterranean robotics team keep finding new partners to push the technology further.

Autonomous Flight

Eric Frew, a professor of aerospace at CU Boulder, is using the technology for a new National Institute of Standards and Technology competition to develop aerial robots – drones – instead of ground robots, to autonomously map disaster areas indoors and outside.

“Our entry is based directly on the Subterranean Challenge experience and the systems developed there,” Frew said.

Some teams in the competition will be relying on drones navigated by human operators, but Frew said CU Boulder’s project is aiming for an autonomous solution that allows humans to focus on more critical tasks.

Although numerous universities and private businesses are advancing autonomous robotic systems, Humbert said other organizations often focus on individual aspects of the technology. The students and faculty at CU Boulder are working on all avenues of the systems and for uses in environments that present extreme challenges.

“We’ve built world-class platforms that incorporate mapping, localization, planning, coordination – all the high level stuff, the autonomy, that’s all us,” Humbert said. “There are only a handful of teams across the world that can do that. It’s a huge advantage that CU Boulder has.”

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Integrated Teaching & Learning Program offers first college micro-credential

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 14:23:22 +0000

Integrated Teaching & Learning Program offers first college micro-credential Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/29/2022 - 08:23

Josh Miller, a mechanical engineering student, is the first to enroll in the ITLP Arduino micro-credential - a programs that aims to serve students looking to improve their proficiency with Arduino microcontrollers.

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ME Course Column: Bio-inspired Robotics

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 16:19:38 +0000

ME Course Column: Bio-inspired Robotics Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/25/2022 - 09:19

Rachel Leuthauser

The ME Course Column is a recurring publication about the unique classes and labs that mechanical engineers can take while at the University of Colorado Boulder. Follow the series to understand the core curriculum, discover elective course options and learn the broad applications of mechanical engineering skills.

Bio-inspired robotics is the interface of biology and engineering – motivating the development of technology from artificial muscles and medical devices to gecko-inspired adhesives and robots that run, fly and swim.

Professor Kaushik Jayaram

Header image: Students remodeled CAD hand using bio-inspired robotics.

The field focuses on solving technical problems with designs inspired by nature – going beyond the idea of simply copying existing biological solutions.

MCEN 4228/5228: Bio-inspired Robotics introduces engineers to this area of study. Taught by Professor Kaushik Jayaram, the course compels students to develop useful solutions for societal issues by combining mechanisms in biological solutions with best human practices. Students learn to translate the principles of function, performance and aesthetics from biology to human technology.

“At a very high level, this course is about understanding the philosophy of what bio-inspired engineering is,” Jayaram said. “Since this is a fundamentally interdisciplinary field, we cannot do bio-inspiration in isolation.”

Jayaram introduces students to a series of projects and case studies to understand successful approaches to bio-inspired robotics. One of the projects involves students modifying 3D-printed hands with biological inspirations from an animal of their choice.

“Basically, they start off with a CAD model and then add to it,” Jayaram said. “For example, koalas have six fingers – two thumbs on each hand. Some groups get inspiration from that and find their model is better at gripping."

Bio-inspired Robotics culminates in students designing and building their own bio-inspired devices. They start by identifying a novel biological discovery that can be translated to an application for technology.

Students have developed ideas to advance robotic locomotion. They have channeled biological solutions like webbed feet and fins for better movement in water or wings for maximum energy motion in flight.

Other projects have resulted in algorithms and simulated software inspired by how rats use their sense of touch and smell to navigate complex mazes. Another group looked at the surface of leaves and their condensation abilities to build a water filter for desert areas.

CAD hand remodeled with fingers oriented in different directions for flexible gripping.

“There is a wide range of examples from animals to plants and in both hardware and software,” Jayaram said. “Somebody who is working in this field needs to have a strong understanding of biology, a strong understanding of different kinds of engineering and potentially have an understanding about art, ethics and society.”

While the inventive and technical processes of Bio-inspired Robotics prepare students to enter a variety of engineering fields, the creative and insightful aspects also strengthen their prospects in entrepreneurship.

Jayaram wants to eventually open the course to students outside of science fields because of the interdisciplinary nature of bio-inspired engineering. This would mean including students with diverse backgrounds such as business, humanities and the arts.

Bio-inspired Engineering is currently open to juniors, seniors and graduate students in mechanical and biomedical engineering, as well as those studying engineering management.

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Science documentary series "Evolve" features Jayaram's research

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:38:05 +0000

Science documentary series "Evolve" features Jayaram's research Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/15/2022 - 10:38

Rachel Leuthauser

Above: Professor Kaushik Jayaram
Header image: HAMR-Jr robot developed by Jayaram's research group.

A new science documentary series looks at how nature can help humanity solve some of the world’s biggest problems, and one of the episodes features a Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering professor.

Professor Kaushik Jayaram shared his research on bio-inspired robotics with biologist Patrick Aryee on the CuriosityStream series titled “Evolve.” In the show, Jayaram brings Aryee inside his Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory (AIM-RL) at the University of Colorado Boulder to see the robots his research group has developed based on nature’s greatest survivors – cockroaches.

The robots’ designs are inspired by different aspects of cockroaches’ biology such as their leg or body morphology and their miniature size. One of the robots Jayaram showed Aryee, named HAMR-Jr, is the size of a penny. Jayaram also said he hopes to add wings to future robots, allowing them to either fly or crawl on land.

“There’s a lot of potential to do good with robots interacting with humans,” Jayaram said in the show. “Some of the key directions where we’re thinking these robots can be influential are obviously things like search and rescue.”

Such cockroach-inspired robots could help save lives in the future. In a collapsed building scenario, the robots can move through and over terrain like insects. They are small enough to squeeze into places that first responders cannot reach, allowing search and rescue to find victims faster.

“The time critical nature of trying to find survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake, for example, imagine having these, hundreds of these [robots],” Aryee said. “Being able to just send them out in a potentially really dangerous environment for those first responders and be able to locate exactly where those victims are. That would be so cool.”

These robotic devices could also help society with inspection and maintenance, personal assistance and environmental monitoring.

Other episodes in “Evolve” look how nature – from mushrooms to beetles to giraffes and squids – can inspire technologies for medicine, protection, transportation and climate change mitigation.

“Evolve” premiered on CuriosityStream on Jan. 27. CuriosityStream is a subscription-based service.

The new show looks at how animals can help humanity solve some of the world's biggest problems, which leads biologists to Professor Kaushik Jayaram. His research group is developing robots inspired by one of nature's greatest survivors – cockroaches.

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Sean Humbert to serve on the DARPA Microsystems Exploratory Council

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Sean Humbert to serve on the DARPA Microsystems Exploratory Council Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/11/2022 - 00:00

Rachel Leuthauser

Professor Sean Humbert

Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor Sean Humbert has been named a member of the prestigious Microsystems Exploratory Council (MEC).

Humbert, an expert in micro robotics and systems design, joins 13 other academic and industrial scientists, researchers and engineers serving on the MEC.

The MEC is a study group created and sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). The council’s mission is to help DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office assess the status of advanced microelectronics and microsystems technology as it relates to Department of Defense and national security issues.

“I am excited to learn about all the areas in microsystems science and technology outside of my background and look forward to helping identify new domains for potential research,” Humbert said.

The group’s main responsibility is to identify new research avenues of potential interest. Humbert will bring his expertise in flight dynamics and control, as well as bio-inspired perception and estimation to the council.

He plans to encourage the MEC to explore ways to achieve autonomous locomotion based on principles we can observe in small biological organisms. Humbert said the council can specifically study the development of sensors and feedback architectures that could produce that robust and agile movement.

A second topic that Humbert would like the MEC to examine is biological and neuromorphic computation principles to reduce the size, weight and power (SWaP) of micro robots.

Other responsibilities of the MEC include discovering long-term research goals and performing studies in support of them. The council also introduces new, talented scientists and engineers to problems of national importance, while also keeping a corporate memory of national problems and programs in microelectronics and microsystems.

While Humbert has not worked with the MEC yet, he has a history of successful projects with DARPA. He was recently the primary investigator on a three-year, $4.5 million DARPA grant to compete in the Subterranean Challenge. The University of Colorado Boulder's team placed third in the final competition, winning a $500,000 prize.

Professor Sean Humbert, an expert in micro robotics and systems design, will help the Microsystems Exploratory Council identify new research avenues as it relates to Department of Defense and national security issues.

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A new design workflow for an integral piece of soft robotic systems

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 19:09:23 +0000

A new design workflow for an integral piece of soft robotic systems Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/08/2021 - 13:09

Pneumatic Soft Actuators Project Video

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_9QF8w0bk&t=2s]

A Department of Mechanical Engineering student-written paper that presents an innovative workflow for designing and fabricating pneumatic soft actuators has won the IEEE-CASE Best Application Paper Award at the 2021 CASE Conference in Lyon, France.

The award recognizes the significance of new applications on technical merit, originality, impact on the field and clarity of presentation. The accolade comes with a $1,000 prize to be shared by all authors.

PhD students Lawrence Smith and Travis Hainsworth, graduate student Zachary Jordan and Professor Robert MacCurdy co-authored the paper—titled “A Seamless Workflow for Design and Fabrication of Multimaterial Pneumatic Soft Actuators.” High School Research Assistant Xavier Bell is a co-author as well.

Pneumatic soft actuators are a fundamental part of soft robotic systems. We asked Smith about their project and the team's future plans.

Lawrence Smith, Dpt. of Mechanical Engineering PhD student

Question: How would you describe the results of this work?

Answer: In this paper, we introduce design tools that our lab developed to help soft robotics students enter the field. We noticed that designing, simulating and fabricating soft robots is a time-intensive and manual process, which typically requires multi-domain expertise. Our paper introduces a seamless workflow for designing soft robots that uses an intuitive graphical user interface for design and visualization, and automates the trickiest parts of the process – interfacing with finite element software and preparing designs for 3D printing.

Question: Was there a particular aspect of this work that was hard to complete?

Answer: The trickiest part of this work was building an approachable and intuitive interface for our design tools. We wanted to create software that is enjoyable to play and explore with to encourage students to discover new designs, without being bogged down in unnecessary complexity.

Question: What's next with this project?

Answer: We plan to build on this research by migrating these design tools from their current embodiment – a MATLAB App – to a public website. That way anyone can access our design tools on the web without downloading and installing any software.

Question: What are you and your co-authors’ plans for the $1,000 prize?

Answer: 3D printer filament, probably!

Smith, Hainsworth, Jordan and MacCurdy developed the novel workflow in MacCurdy’s Matter Assembly Computation Lab at CU Boulder’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Three mechanical engineering students and Professor Robert MacCurdy developed the novel workflow and published it in a paper that won the IEEE-CASE Best Application Paper Award at the 2021 CASE Conference in France.

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Video: Kaushik Jayaram on Bio-Inspired Engineering

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 20:36:32 +0000

Video: Kaushik Jayaram on Bio-Inspired Engineering Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/27/2021 - 14:36

Inspired by the natural world, Kaushik Jayaram heads up the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory (AIM-RL) at CU Boulder. The group aims to develop robotic devices that benefit and enhance human capabilities in the areas of search and rescue, inspection and maintenance, personal assistance, and environmental monitoring. As an assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jayaram's work is highly interdisciplinary, working at the crossroads of engineering, biomimicry and design.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzoDqWKOXxo]

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Return to Research: Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Lab hits the ground running

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 13:29:28 +0000

Return to Research: Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Lab hits the ground running Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/30/2020 - 07:29

Oksana Schuppan

For approximately three months, many researchers in the College of Engineering and Applied Science have been working remotely. Now, they are gradually and safely returning to campus to continue their work in the lab. While away, researchers said they adapted quickly and overcame unique challenges, and as they return, they look forward to claiming a new normal in their labs and moving forward in their research.

Above: Graduate student Parker McDonnell conducts research in the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory. (PC: Glenn Asakawa)
Top: Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram and Parker McDonnell work in the lab after returning to campus in June 2020. (PC: Glenn Asakawa)

Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram’s research combines biology and robotics to uncover principles of robustness that make animals successful at locomotion in natural environments. He and his lab, the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory, study small animals like cockroaches and how they handle occurrences such as head-on collisions, body deformations and partial or complete amputations to learn how these principles might be successfully integrated in small robots. He and his group are working on expanding the capabilities of these robots by developing novel actuators, sensors and bioinspired appendages.

Graduate student Parker McDonnell works alongside Jayaram. Below, McDonnell shares about their return to research.

How many people are currently back to work in your lab? What’s the general mood about returning?

Two: myself and Professor Jayaram. We are both excited to get back to work on research this summer, especially while things are quiet on campus.

How is your lab restarting research after two months away? What are your priorities now? How have they shifted?

We are in a unique situation since our lab is quite new, and for the most part, the current students are new hires, including myself. Most students weren't planning to arrive until the fall anyway, and for me, I'm lucky that most of my design work can be done remotely; it's only in the last week or so that I've needed to be on campus to do work!

Our top priority right now is to recreate the cutting-edge solutions in microrobotics from Professor Jayaram's previous research and other current literature in-house, and in addition, to improve these designs using the newly acquired state-of-the-art tools we have at CU Boulder. This will give our new lab the opportunity to build confidence by establishing a baseline for our methodology before we begin to advance the field forward. By the end of the year, we hope to have a novel spider-inspired autonomous crawling robot that can be used to run experiments and demo to our potential collaborators.

Live spiders housed in aquariums in the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory. When campus closed, graduate student Kristen Such took the spiders home to care for them.

What changes, postponements or issues did you face in your research?

The biggest issues were centered on receiving orders and communicating with lab members. We had a laser system that was stuck in customs for months due to COVID-19, and we just received it a few days ago. On the communication side of things, Zoom, Slack, and email have been critical for the team to stay in touch and keep progress moving forward. I can't imagine trying to keep in touch during a pandemic without the internet.

As I mentioned previously, a lot of my design work and lab equipment procurement could be done remotely on a computer as no one was working in the lab.

What precautions are you taking to stay safe?

In addition to wearing masks and regularly cleaning surfaces, we are limited to only two people in our lab area. Going forward, it will typically be me in the lab, and Professor Jayaram will stop by from time to time.

What are the biggest challenges as you restart? How will you address them?

We were fortunate enough to already be in a reset state at the end of the semester as old students left and new students joined the lab. COVID-19 isn't causing issues for us now, but if facilities don't open up fully in the fall, we will start to see more of an impact on our work as access to equipment and interaction with team members may become limited. In this scenario, Zoom, Slack and other platforms will be critical in keeping everyone up-to-date. Furthermore, bringing certain lab items home to aid in remote work could be another tactic to speed up research.

Have you noticed any “silver linings” to your time away from campus?

I think everyone agrees, it’s nice being able to make lunch at home every day, rather than sticking something in the microwave at work! Also, it's easy (for me at least) to stay focused on a task at hand, when there isn't as much activity going on around me. Plus, I'm able to take better care of myself during the day, be it going for a quick run before lunch or stepping outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air when I'm feeling overwhelmed.

CU Boulder is in the midst of a phased return to on-campus research and creative work in summer 2020. In this series, CU Engineering researchers share tips, tricks and takeaways as they navigate a new approach to research prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CU Boulder researchers are gradually and safely returning to campus to continue their work in the lab. Read about Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram and graduate student Parker McDonnell's return to research.

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CU Boulder researchers uncover the secret to a faster soft actuator

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 19:04:16 +0000

CU Boulder researchers uncover the secret to a faster soft actuator Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/29/2020 - 13:04

Oksana Schuppan

Researchers in CU Boulder’s Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering recently uncovered new information that could revolutionize the design of electrohydraulic soft actuators to enable robots to perform at faster speeds.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Philipp Rothemund.

The experimental setup includes a high-speed camera that tracks a marker at the bottom of the soft actuator. This diagram also shows the weight that hangs from the actuator. Click here for license information for this figure.

In 2018, the Keplinger Research Group developed a new type of soft actuator that mimics the way muscles move in nature. In addition to being faster, their design was stronger, cheaper and more dexterous than other available technologies at the time. But what exactly contributed to their success? Researchers set out to discover, finding that the right geometry, materials, and applied external loads not only contributed to their original design but could now make their high-performance actuators even faster.

“Soft actuators mimic the way muscles move and need to move quickly, especially when used in robots that jump, run or fly,” said postdoctoral research fellow Philipp Rothemund, the lead researcher on the project. “I was interested in understanding why our electrohydraulic soft actuators, compared to others, are as fast as they are.”

Their findings, described by Rothemund, PhD Student Sophie Kirkman and Assistant Professor Christoph Keplinger, will be released this week in a paper titled “Dynamics of electrohydraulic soft actuators” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The electrohydraulic soft actuator is composed of a flexible outer shell that is covered with electrodes and houses an oil-based liquid inside. When voltage is applied to the electrodes, the actuator contracts, and when the voltage is turned off, the actuator elongates with the help of a weight—or load—that pulls it into full extension, resulting in a motion that mimics the way muscles move. Researchers in this study measured the time it takes for an actuator to contract and elongate as the actuator’s geometry, properties of the outer shell and the liquid inside, and applied external loads were adjusted.

What they found, Rothemund said, was surprisingly simple.

“Now, all we need is to measure the speed of two actuators, and based on the result, we can predict how other actuators of the same type are going to react,” Rothemund said.

To measure speed, Rothemund applied a square wave voltage, which turns from off to on and back again, and used a high-speed camera to record the motion of a visual marker he added to the bottom of the actuators. From this recording, he determined exactly how long it took for the actuator to contract and elongate.

Rothemund discovered two dynamic regimes—or states—in which an electrohydraulic soft actuator can exist. Changes in geometry, properties of the liquid inside, and external load affect the actuation speed differently depending on whether the actuator is in the viscous regime, where the liquid inside is thick, or the inertial regime, where the liquid inside flows easily.

In the viscous regime, the thicker liquid resists flow through the actuator, slowing the speed of actuation. For these actuators, Rothemund said a shorter actuator, less-viscous liquid, larger applied voltage and larger applied external load, which hangs at the bottom of the actuator, will significantly increase speed.

In the inertial regime, the liquid flows more easily, making high-speed movement possible. For these actuators, Rothemund said the speed is limited by the inertia of the external load and largely influenced by the length of the actuator—shorter actuators move faster. He said actuators in the inertial regime are faster than those in the viscous regime.

“Other researchers in our group are already using these results to their advantage,” said Rothemund.

Electrohydraulic soft actuators designed to operate in the inertial regime enable unprecedented speeds of motion that he said may one day contribute to a new generation of bio-inspired robots.

[video:https://youtu.be/wGYxmUN7DmU]Speed comparison between electrohydraulic soft actuators in the inertial regime versus the viscous regime.

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