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MEAM Seminar: “Hierarchical Methods for Geometric Control of Underactuated, Free-Flying Robotic Systems”

Towne 337

Free-flying robotic systems (such as multibody aerial and space vehicles) evolve on high-dimensional non-Euclidean manifolds subject to nonlinear, underactuated dynamics. Because such systems can rely only on the severely limited computational resources available onboard, the design of general-purpose controllers capable of dynamic and reliable real-time performance remains a formidable challenge. To mitigate these obstacles and […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Exploiting Flows for Orienteering and Planning Problems”

Towne 337

Task and path planning algorithms for robots in the presence of flows confront a fundamental dichotomy between the continuous and the discrete: task planning algorithms discretize the world and their goals, whereas flows are continuous in nature. This contrast is exemplified in many robotic applications where environmental forces impact navigation and exploiting those flows is […]

Nano Seminar: “Conductive Nitrides for Plasmonics in the Visible Region: Properties and Applications”

Room 35, Singh Center for Nanotechnology 3205 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Plasmonic nanostructure based on silver and gold that produces LSPR to withstand ultrahigh temperatures without damage remains a great challenge for future ultra-compact integrated circuits, and high-power enabled photonic devices. In principle, the shapes of plasmonic nanostructures containing noble metals would change after the heat treatment that altered the plasmonic resonance. Thus, discovering refractory plasmonic […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “Mobile Wireless Infrastructure on Demand in Robot Teams”

216 Moore Building

Communication is fundamental to successful coordination in teams of robots. Indeed, the promise that robot teams can complete tasks faster and more efficiently than any single agent depends on their ability to share information and effectively coordinate their actions. Today, teams of mobile robots are increasingly being deployed to tackle challenging tasks in environments without […]

MEAM Seminar: “Bringing Microrobots into Biomedicine”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Recent progress in diverse disciplines such as soft matter physics, nanoparticle synthesis, nanomedicine, and microbiology has enabled rich opportunities for translation of small-scale robots into medical applications. These robotic systems are providing innovative, high-precision, therapeutic and diagnostic approaches for the treatment of diseases associated with microbial biofilms and are rapidly moving from proof-of-concept studies to […]

MEAM Seminar: “A Symbiotic Philosophy for Bio-inspired Robotics”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Humans have frequently looked to natural phenomena to inspire the design of art, structures, and mechanisms. However, there are as many different ways to learn from nature as there are words for this approach: bioinspiration, biomimicry, and biodesign to name a few. In this talk, I propose a taxonomy for categorizing distinct biodesign approaches and […]

MEAM Seminar: “Hardware / Controls Co-design to Overcome Challenges for Aerial Robots”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Aerial robotics have become ubiquitous, but (like most robots) they still struggle to operate at high speed in unstructured, cramped environments. By considering a vehicle's mechanical design simultaneously with the design of controls and automation algorithms, we have more degrees of freedoms to find creative solutions to problems. In this talk I will present some […]

MEAM Seminar: “Advancing the Versatility of Legged Robots and Assistive Devices”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Recent years have witnessed tremendous growth in the capabilities of legged robots, with quadrupeds and humanoids demonstrating athletic behaviors that even five years ago were out of reach. Likewise, actively powered lower-limb assistive devices have made great strides in their maturity, with hardware such as the Open-Source Leg broadening access for future breakthroughs. Despite this […]

MEAM Ph.D. Thesis Defense: “No Watts Wasted: Spines and Tails for Agile Legged Locomotion”

Levine 307 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Despite considerable advancements in recent years, legged robots still fall short in terms of agility when compared to their animal counterparts. This thesis takes a two pronged approach to creating more agile behaviors by pursuing the intuition that agile legged machines should use much of their available power during agile behaviors. The first approach leverages […]

MEAM Seminar: “Computational Design of Origami and Compliant Robots”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Soft and compliant robots provide new opportunities for machines that are flexible, adaptable, safe, and robust. Origami-inspired engineering enables custom robots to be designed and fabricated within days, or even hours. These robots are capable of executing a variety of shape-changing and dynamical tasks by taking advantage of their folded shape and programmable mechanics. In […]