Soft materials (rubber) enable large deformations, creating new opportunities for devices that transform their shape on demand. We are developing methods to control arrays of actuators in a scalable way. These actuator arrays could have future applications in virtual reality devices, miniaturized tunable optics, and devices that control sound waves on demand.
This is a collaborative project that can include work on several topics including machine learning algorithms, programming microcontrollers, designing control electronics, and fabricating robotic devices.

Fabrication and Robotics, Material Processing and Characterization, Microelectronics

• No Major Restriction

No previous training is necessary, but experience with CAD, polymer processing, and simple control electronics (Arduino, NI DAQ) is an asset.

Mechanical Engineering

Alex Chortos

The initiative of human exploration missions across the solar system, beginning with the return of humans to the Moon, followed by the journey to deliver astronauts to Mars, brings challenges and needs of advanced technologies to enable successful operations on a planetary surface. To assist human activities under extreme environments, it is essential to develop a versatile exploration system that can be self-adapted and deployed in a wide range of environments, especially for locations inaccessible to traditional rovers.

Existing exploration vehicles deployed on the Lunar or Martian surface are rover type vehicles that have limited access to operating surfaces, which excludes extreme environments such as cliffs, steep craters, highlands rocks, and caves. The rovers have to circumvent these areas due to limited capability and safety concerns. A revolutionary concept that breaks the capability limitations of existing robotic systems is desired to enable integrated functions of multi-type surface exploration. To achieve this goal, this project is to develop a multi-type locomotive robot that can adapt its structure and functionality according to operating surface types/features. The robot is expected to have the capability of rolling on wheels, jumping, and crawling.

Students enrolled in the project is expected to design the mechanism of multi-type locomotive robot to have the functionalities of rolling, jumping, and crawling. In addition, students are expected to manufacture and test the design using lab provided hardware and instruments.

Fabrication and Robotics

• Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Ran Dai

The ability to create 3D structures in the micro and nanoscale is important for many applications including electronics, microfluidics, and tissue engineering. This project deals with development and testing of a setup for building 3D structures using a femtosecond pulsed laser. A method known as two photon polymerization is used to fabricate such structures in which a polymer is exposed to laser and at the point of the exposure the polymer changes its structure. Moving the laser in a predefined path results in the desired shape and the structures. The setup incorporates the steps from designing a CAD model file to slicing the model in layers to generating the motion path of the laser needed for fabricating the structure. Possible improvements to the process by the undergraduate researcher include control algorithms, better CAD models, and better manufacturing strategies.

Deep Learning, Fabrication and Robotics, Material Processing and Characterization, Nanotechnology

• Mechanical Engineering

junior or senior standing, CAD, Matlab or Python, minimum GPA > 3.5

Mechanical Engineering

Xianfan Xu

There is a need for testing tissues in vivo to enable the development of better diagnostic tools and treatments. Actuating on tissues under homeostatic conditions (i.e., under biologically functional conditions) is challenging due to the complex boundary conditions introduced by any device interacting with the tissue. Therefore, biological tissue testing is mostly conducted ex-vivo, implying the loss of homeostasis and capturing of less relevant material properties. An alternative approach is to develop membranes responsive to remote stimulus such as magnetic fields.
This project aims to determine the microstructure design of polymer membranes with magnetically responsive particles to actuate on biological tissues under biologically relevant conditions. Specifically, this implies optimizing the material microstructure by orienting magnetically-responsive particles across the cross-section of the membrane.

Specific tasks & deliverables
1. To familiarize with the fabrication process of polymeric membranes embedding magnetically responsive particles.
2. To fabricate and conduct mechanical tests of magnetically responsive membranes.
3. To test the adhesion properties of the developed membranes to animal skin.
4. To conduct actuation tests of membrane+skin (bilayer) patches under magnetic fields as a function of particle orientation.
5. Documentation of the fabrication process, adhesion tests, and magnetic actuation results. Production of a final report, compatible with further presentation as a poster or student paper.

Special project outcomes
1. Familiarization with fabrication of magnetically-responsive materials.
2. Replicate material testing protocols for the adhesion and in-plane stretching response of polymeric membranes.
3. Familiarization with magnetic actuation of bilayer membranes.
4. Familiarization with testing of biological tissues.

Biological Characterization and Imaging, Fabrication and Robotics, Material Processing and Characterization, Medical Science and Technology

• Biomedical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Engineering

Desirable experience: Material characterization, prior experimental work on polymers

Mechanical Engineering

Adrian Buganza Tepole

Our research group is in the midst of constructing new quantum optics characterization setups. These setups are used to characterize the photoluminescence properties of different quantum emitters down to the single photon level! This single emitter level property characterization is critical in the development of quantum optical computing, sensing, and communications! We are looking for an undergraduate student that can help with the development of software to control the various parts of the setup and to write the drivers to interface the hardware to the upper-level analysis software required to control the setup.

Big Data/Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Fabrication and Robotics, Material Processing and Characterization, Nanotechnology, Other

• No Major Restriction

Experience with embedded systems programming, analog to digital conversion experience, driver experience, python software experience.

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

Vladimir Shalaev

The goal of this project is to develop perception, control, and planning algorithms for robotic manipulation for pick-and-place tasks. The robotic system includes a UR5, a robotiq gripper, a vision-based fingertip tactile sensor (i.e., GelSight sensor), as well as a depth camera (e.g., Kinect or RealSense). First, it is expected to develop computer vision algorithms to use the depth camera to identify interested objects in a given environment. Second, motion planning algorithms are expected to be developed for the UR5 to move the robotic arm from the home position to the location of the object that is estimated by the depth camera. Third, a gripping controller is expected to be developed for the Robotiq gripper, which will leverage the tactile feedback from the GelSight sensor for robust grasping of the deformable objects, and placing the objects in another location.

Fabrication and Robotics

• No Major Restriction

one or more training/experience from the following areas: robotics, robotic manipulation, motion planning, computer vision, tactile sensing, control

School of Industrial Engineering

Yu She