The Robotics, Biomechanics, and Dynamic Systems Laboratory


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Research
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Two-DOF Robot Arm
Robotic Manipulator Design and Control
Here robotic manipulator dynamics are studied. This mainly involves characterizing the force and acceleration capabilities of robotic manipulators. These capabilities refer to a manipulator's ability to accelerate its end-effector and to apply forces to the environment at the end-effector. These abilities determine a mechanism's ability to manipulate grasped and non-grasped objects. Performance measures and design methodologies based on this characterization are also developed.
cable
Bouncing Bicycle
Hybrid Dynamic Simulation
Daniel Montrallo Flickinger
In hybrid dynamic simulation, discrete and continuous events are combined in order to predict a system's motion. Currently this work focuses on the simulation of simultaneous impact and contact while considering energy consistency and Coulomb friction. Many different types of systems experiencing discrete events can be modeled using this approach. One of the applications for this project is analysis of simultaneous impact and contact in agile locomotion.
VIDEOS   Latest hybrid simulation videos.
PDF Daniel Montrallo Flickinger and Alan Bowling. Simultaneous oblique impacts and contacts in multibody systems with friction. Multibody System Dynamics, accepted for publication.
Daniel Montrallo Flickinger and Alan Bowling. Impact forces in the simulation of simultaneous impacts and contacts in multibody systems with friction. Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pages 3398-3403, October 2009. St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
PDF Alan Bowling, Daniel Montrallo Flickinger, and Sean Harmeyer. Energetically consistent simulation of simultaneous impacts and contacts for multibody systems with friction. Multibody System Dynamics, vol. 22, no. 1, pages 27-45, August 2009.
cable
http://sparkleberrysprings.com/innerlifeofcell.html
Kinesin Intracellular Transport
Motor Protein Locomotion
Mahdi Haghshenas
Motor proteins are involved in a number of biological processes within the cells and tissues of biological systems. They exist in several different forms and are involved in muscle contraction, construction and deconstruction of the cytoskeleton, and intracellular transport. The proteins currently being examined have a biped structure and walk along the cytoskeleton pulling organelles and nutrient packets along as cargo: the picture to the left depicts kinesin in this role. These proteins have a size on the order of nanometers so it difficult to observe their dynamic behavior. Modeling and simulation can be used to attempt a prediction of the details of motor protein dynamic behavior that are difficult to observe. This work involves the development of a new approach towards modeling and simulating the locomotion of these proteins.
VIDEOS   Latest motor protein videos.
PDF Alan Bowling, Andre Palmer, and Lauren Wilhelm. Contact and impact in the multibody dynamics of motor protein locomotion. Langmuir, vol. 25, no. 22, pages 12974-12981, November 2009.
PDF Alan Bowling and Andre Palmer. The small mass assumption applied to the multibody dynamics of motor proteins. Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 42, no. 9, pages 1218-1223, June 2009.
hexapod
The latest hexapod.
Design of Agile Legged Robots
Ashwin Balasubramanian, Ramya Lingam, Richard Margolin, Ryan Robertson, Adrian Rodriguez, Michael Russell, Micheal Tadros, Xi Sun
This project involves the development of new design methodologies for producing agile legged locomotion systems. Legged systems utilize contact and impact forces in order to locomote through the environment. One goal of this work is to develop a performance analysis which includes these forces and tells how well a legged system can utilize ground contact to accelerate itself. This analysis will form the basis for new design methodologies. A key element in this type of performance-based design is that the performance is described in terms of functions which are nonlinear in the variables of interest particularly configuration variables. Statistical optimization techniques are being explored which can address these nonlinearities allowing one to quantify performance over the robot's workspace without exhaustive sampling of the configuration space.
VIDEOS   Videos of the new leg design jumping.
PDF Alan Bowling. Impact forces and agility in legged robot locomotion. Journal of Vibration and Control, in press.
PDF Alan Bowling. Mass distribution effects on dynamic performance of a cable-driven hexapod. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 129, no. 8, pages 887-890, August 2007.
PDF Pedro Bergés and Alan Bowling. Rebound, slip, and compliance in the modeling and analysis of discrete impacts in legged locomotion. Journal of Vibration and Control, vol. 12, no. 12, pages 1407-1430, December 2006.
PDF Alan Bowling. Dynamic performance, mobility, and agility of multi-legged robots. ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, vol. 128, no. 4, pages 765-777, December 2006.
cable
HERACLEIA Human-Centered Computing Lab
Assisted Living Apartment
Performance Analysis and Simulation of Assisted Living Systems
Micheal Tadros
Quality-of-life can be enhanced if people can retain most of their independence as they get older. However, many elderly people need some assistance in order to live, for the most part, on their own. These types of systems involve monitoring elements, and can also involve response elements. The monitoring element attempts to analyze the patient's motion and behavior in order to determine whether an intervention is required. If required, the system can notify a monitor that assistance is needed, or robots can be used to respond in certain situations. Current work in this area involves developing a simulation and analysis tool to aid in the development of this type of an assistive living system. This work involves the formulation of a performance analysis which allows the system to predict injury. It also involves the development of a simulation for this type of system. A third aspect involves the development of robots to aid in the responding in those situations where they can have a positive impact on the situation.
Alan Bowling and Eric Olson. Human-robot team dynamic performance in assisted living environments. Proceedings of the International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA), June 2009, Corfu, Greece, accepted for publication.
Alan Bowling, Zhengyi Le, and Fillia Makedon. SAL: A simulation and analysis tool for assistive living environments. Proceedings of the International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA), June 2009, Corfu, Greece, accepted for publication.
hexapod
We can dream can't we?
Motion Control for Agile Legged Robots
Ashwin Balasubramanian, Daniel Montrallo Flickinger, George Teng, Xi Sun
This project involves the development of methodologies for autonomously producing stable periodic and nonperiodic motions for legged robots. The periodic motions are often referred to as gait motions while the aperiodic motions are referred to as agile motions. In both cases, the goal is to generate these motions autonomously without the use of motion primitives or any other predefined motions. The effort is to identify general motion principles for legged locomotion, from examination of the equations of motion, upon which a control algorithm can be based. This work also involves studying the integration and fusion of sensor information in order to provide adequate feedback to the control for producing stable locomotion.
VIDEOS   Agile locomotion of a planar quadruped.
PDF Yanto Go, Xiaolei Yin, and Alan Bowling. Navigability of multi-legged robots. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 11, no. 1, pages 1-8, February 2006.
PDF Sean Harmeyer and Alan Bowling. Autonomous gait generation using acceleration capability analysis. Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), vol. 3, pages 2127-2133, August 2005. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
cable
Cable-Driven Leg.
Performance Analysis of Flexible Systems
Ryan Robertson
In this work, the effect on performance resulting from the mass properties of flexible components in a robotic system is studied. Cable-driven robotic manipulators are of particular interest here, with a goal of determining the conditions under which the cables will yield. These conditions impose a limit on the performance of the system and this project is concerned with determining those limitations. The long term goal is to incorporate other sources of flexibilities into the analysis such as link and joint flexibilities.
VIDEOS   Videos of the new leg design jumping.
PDF Xiaolei Yin and Alan Bowling. Dynamic performance limitations due to yielding in cable-driven robotic manipulators. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 128, no. 1, pages 311-318, January 2006.
hexapod
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fibroblast.jpg
Mouse Embryo Fibroblast
Fibroblast Locomotion
Ryan Robertson
This project involves the development of a model of fibroblast locomotion through a matrix of collagen fibers. These cells can secrete collagen fibers as well as adhere to them. They can the create a fiber matrix, locomote through it, and compact it. These functions are critical in wound healing which is the subject of this work. The model being developed consists of a collagen fiber matrix along with the cell.
VIDEOS   Preliminary development of planar collagen fiber matrix.


People
Faculty
Alan Bowling bowling@uta.edu
Graduate Research Assistants
Ashwin Balasubramanian ashwin.balasubramanian@mavs.uta.edu MS ME
Srider Thirupachoor Comerica srider.thirupachoorcomerica@mavs.uta.edu MS ME
Daniel Montrallo Flickinger daniel.flickinger@mavs.uta.edu PhD ME
Mahdi Haghshenas mahdi.haghshenas@mavs.uta.edu PhD ME
Parvati Aruna Kandala parvati.kandala@mavs.uta.edu MS ME
Ryan Robertson ryan.robertson@mavs.uta.edu PhD ME
Adrian Rodriguez adrianrodriguez2009@mavs.uta.edu MS ME
Micheal Tadros michael.tadros@mavs.uta.edu PhD ME
Shih-Chien (George) Teng shih.teng@mavs.uta.edu MS ME
Xi Sun xi.sun@mavs.uta.edu PhD ME
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Richard Margolin richard.margolin@mavs.uta.edu BS ME
Michael Russell michael.russell@mavs.uta.edu BS ME
High School Research Assistants
Nafiul Ahmed nafiul93@gmail.com Diploma
Affiliates
Ramya Lingam MS student in Dr. Agonafer's group
Alumni Last Contact
Jeremy Newkirk MS ME '07 jnewkirk@nd.edu University of Notre Dame
Pedro Bergés MS ME '06 pedro.berges@gmail.com Praxair, Inc.
Sean Harmeyer PhD ME '06 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Yanto Go MS ME '04
ChangHwan Kim Postdoc '04 ckim@kist.re.kr Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)
Xiaolei Yin MS ME '04 x-yin@northwestern.edu Northwestern University
Wei Wang MS ME '02
The links to personal web pages are provided as a courtesy to lab members. Any opinions expressed on a personal page are solely those of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other lab member, including faculty.

Message for Prospective Students (undergraduate and graduate)

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7/25/09-Group dinner at Pappadeaux in Arlington, Texas. LtoR, Shih-Chein (George) Teng, Alan Bowling, Daniel Flickinger, Oriana Flickinger (Honorary), Ryan Robertson, Salvador (Chava) Jimenez.
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7/16/09-Entertainment at banquet dinner, AIM'09 in Singapore.



Support

We are grateful for the support provided by the following agencies:
The National Science Foundation


Links

  Group Robotics Blog/Forum (webmaster Michael Tadros)

last updated November 2, 2009