Creating intelligent robotics is at the cutting edge of technology. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are of particular interest for surveillance applications. UAVs have the potential to provide quick and cheap aerial data that would be difficult to obtain by conventional means. UAVs also have the ability to navigate without being...
Control algorithms for accurate and fast moving robots require the use of the complete dynamic model of the robot. The complete dynamic model takes into account the nonlinearity and coupling terms of the whole structure. The time of computing the dynamic equations determines whether they are usable in practical applications....
Practical bipedal robots need to be simultaneously efficient, robust, and versatile machines, but designing robots dynamically capable of these demands has been a significant bottleneck. We designed ATRIAS to be a highly dynamic biped capable of both walking and running untethered in real environments. To meet these goals, ATRIAS is...
The objective of this study is to propose control strategies for legged robots to walk and run naturally like humans and animals. To achieve this goal, we use the spring-mass model for the legged robots to be able to create the same dynamics in the leg as humans and animals....
Disaster response robots need to be simultaneously able to survive extreme environment and complete the mission efficiently and robustly. One of the determinants is the performance of the actuators in each joint, which drive the robot to the desired motion accurately. In robotics society, people usually build their robots directly...
Bipedal locomotion is a complex phenomenon to understand and control, making it difficult for legged robots to achieve the speed, agility, efficiency, and robustness of their animal counterparts. This thesis argues for the use of numerical optimization to investigate and implement bipedal control as it applies to biology, dynamical models,...
Robots are being utilized in ever more complex tasks and environments to help humans with difficult or dangerous tasks. However, robotic grasping is still in its infancy and is one of the limiting factors which prevent the deployment of robots in the home and other assisted living scenarios. Traditional methods...
Attracting, educating and retaining new engineering students is a challenge. The creative aspirations and "can do" attitude spawned by the space race, Heathkits, and homemade crystal radios have been replaced with the passive satisfaction of video games, cell phones and throwaway electronic appliances. At Oregon State University we have made...
In 2000 the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Oregon State University began a new and innovative program named TekBots[superscript TM]. This program was created to solve the problems of students in existing undergraduate engineering education not having sufficient skill when graduating in six program educational objectives; Depth, Breadth, Professionalism,...
In April of 1997 it was pointed out at an NSF Engineering Education Innovators conference that “… education appears to ignore the need for connections and for integration – which should be at the core of an engineering education.” In order to solve this problem a group named ‘TekBotsTM’ was...