Completed Projects
Search and Rescue Robot (MQP)
Kevin Bobrowski, Francisco De Molina, Chris Korzeniowski
Advisor: Professor R.J. Duckworth
This Major Qualifying Project designed and built a robot prototype of a first response unit for fire emergencies. The robot followed the guidelines and rules of the Trinity College Home Robot Fire Fighting Contest. The robot measured temperatures, distances, and accelerations to find candles and a baby doll that emits a simulated body heat. These operations are performed autonomously.
Meta-reasoning Diagnosis Agent (MQP)
Elijah D Forbes-Summers & Michael Longqiang Zhang
Advisor: D.C. Brown
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042308-205702/
Why Do Humans Imagine Robots? (IQP)
Advisor: Professor Lance Schachterle
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-030310-235516/
Social Impact of Household Robotics (IQP)
Vasilios Mitrokostas
Advisor: D.C. Brown
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042008-201836/
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Design (MQP)
Description: The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) organized by Oakland University offered a hands-on design experience for engineering students. The competition required project teams to design a small outdoor vehicle that will autonomously travel from a starting point to a number of target destinations and return to home base. The entries were judged based on a number of criteria including overall design, a written report, oral presentation, and performance during the competition. 2009 marked the 17th year of the IGVC. Competition rules, design reports from previous years and more information can be found at http://www.igvc.org/.
The MQP team designed(mechanical, electrical, software), built, and tested WPI’s first entry to IGVC in 2010. One major requirement of this project was the product realization. Teamwork and communication skills as well as commitment to the project were essential.
Advisor(s): Professor Taskin Padir and Professor Bill Michalson
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042910-143753/
Pneumatic Actuator Development for MRI Robots (MQP)
Description: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an ideal interventional guidance modality: it provides near real-time high-resolution images at arbitrary orientations and is able to monitor therapeutic agents, surgical tools, biomechanical tissue properties, and physiological function. At the same time, MRI poses formidable engineering challenges by severely limited access to the patient and high magnetic field that prevents the use of conventional materials and electronic equipment. Traditional actuators are often contraindicated by the strong magnetic and electric fields present in the MRI scanner bore. Further, it is critical that the devices not introduce noise or distortion into the acquired images.
Pneumatic actuators are ideal in that they can be completely compatible; however, they are notoriously difficult to control precisely. The focus of this project was to develop a pneumatic linear stepping motor with integrated position sensing that provides high-precision motion with high reliability. Components of this project included: surveying existing technologies, modeling and designing the actuator, constructing the hardware, and developing a self contained controller circuit. The endpoint was evaluating the actuator in the MRI scanner at UMass med.
Advisor(s): Greg Fischer
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042610-184021/
Robot Modeling and Controller Development (MQP)
Description: We had a pair of 4-axis high-speed industrial robots that were recently acquired. The robots had integrated position sensing and were powered by DC servo motors. This project was focused on a full system development of a controller for these robots from scratch. Components of the project included: 1) modeling the kinematics and dynamics of the robots, 2) developing custom hardware to interface with the robot connections, 3) developing the controller electronics, 4) implementing low-level controllers that allow for joint level and Cartesian position control, velocity control, and force control, and 5) developing an interface to the robot. The endpoint of the project was a robot controller suitable for use as an active research platform. Other related projects included development of end effectors and control algorithms (specifically ones taking advantage of a pair of identical robots working together on a common task).
Advisor(s): Greg Fischer
Roof Robot Phase 3 (MQP)
Description: The nationally known WPI Roof Robot was developed by an MQP group in ’07. It was intended to be a robust robot capable of safely traversing commercial and residential roofs of varying materials pitched as steeply as 45 degrees. Additional work remained to build a minivan-portable ascender device to get the robot from ground level to a third story roof. Additional work also was required on the operator controls and feedback system (WiFi camera/laptop based). Finally, a more advanced sensor suite capable of assessing roof damage was desired by the external sponsor.
The MQP team designed (mechanical, electrical, software), built, and tested one or more of these product improvements.
Advisor: Professor Ken Stafford
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042910-164550/
Sand-Swimming Snake Robot (MQP)
Description: This multi-segment robot was designed and built by an interdisciplinary MQP group in ’09 as a research vehicle to investigate snake-like swimming behavior in granular material (sand stimulant). Follow-on work was to develop improved performance in navigation and multidimensional control. Additional DOF segments was necessary to better control pitch and roll. Genetic algorithms were needed to be employed to optimize the robot’s performance. Further work could also include improved power management (especially as it concerns battery life and waste heat dissipation).
Advisor(s): Professor Ken Stafford and Professor Stephan Kohler
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-043009-153413/
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: March 09, 2011 10:27:10