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Oct 2006 - Acquired 8 Khepera II robots from K-team corp. Fall 2006 - Abhishek receives his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering Fall 2005 - Abhishek joins the RAMA Lab as a MS student and Research assistant Jan 2005 - Brian Dieckmann joins the RAMA Lab as Pratt Undergraduate Fellow Nov 2004 - Dr. Manish Kumar presented three jointly coauthored research papers at the 2004 IMECE in Anaheim, CA Nov 2004 - Dr. Manish Kumar joined the RAMA Lab as a Post doctoral Associate Oct 2004 - Dr. Garg received the Scientific Research and Leadership Award at the 2004 Heritage India Festival Sept 2004 - Dr. Garg delivered invited lectures on robotics at the Indian Institute of Technology/Roorkee and Indian Institute of Technology/ Delhi, India Aug 2004 - Ram Parimi recieved his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering July 2004 - Paul Nesline is the new webmaster for the RAMA LAB June 2004 - Dr. Prem Vrat, Director of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee visits the lab June 2004 - Dr. Masayoshi Tomizuka, Director of the Dynamic Systems and Control Program at NSF visits the lab Summer 2004 - Nsi Obotetukudo from Case Western Reserve University joined the RAMA Lab for 10 weeks under the NSF/REU Program Summer 2004 - Adam Schmelzer joined the RAMA Lab as Research Assistant May 2004 - Manish Kumar received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering May 2004 - Congratulations to Brian Schaaf and Chris Dillenbeck on their graduation with BSE degrees April 2004 - William Chandler Salinger joins the lab as an Intern for four weeks April 2004 - Ram Parami presented "Intelligent Control for Mobile Robot Navigation" in the Graduate Seminar Series |
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Equipment
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Currently in the Laboratory we have a variety of equipment to use in our different projects and designs. |
We have 8 Khepera II mobile robots. They are equipped with encoders, infrared sensors and ambient light sensors.
We have 1 Cognex 5000 camera for our mobile robot test-bed.
We have 2 LMS 400, SICK LADAR sensors which are being used on our mobile robot test bed.
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We have two ABB IRB 140 stationary industrial robots. Their work cell takes up about half of the lab space. They have motion about 6 axes, allowing them to reach any position within their range at any orientation. They use a variety of end effectors including 2- or 3-fingered grippers in conjunction with force-torque sensors and quick tool changers. For more information, check out ABB's website.
There are two ABB S4C Controllers powering the IRB 140s. These giant processors take care of all functions required in manipulating the robotic arms.
There are also three Cognex In-sight 1000 digital cameras mounted around the workcell. They have vision recognition software built in and upload data to a PC through ethernet cable. For more information, check out Cognex's website.
The industrial robots use force-torque sensors from ATI Automation. These allow the robots to sense impacts with their surroundings by measuring the forces and torques acting on the payload and end effector. The quick tool changers we use are also made by ATI. Visit ATI's website for more information.
The pneumatic grippers used to grab and manipulate objects in the workcell were donated by Schunk Precision Workholding Systems. In the lab there are 2-fingered grippers like the one shown above as well as 3-fingered grippers. Two ADS Pyro 1394 Firewire webcams are being used on the mobile robot project. These cameras have a frame rate of 30 frames per second at a resolution of 640 x 480. They are 400 Mbits/second capable and offer the fastest streaming rate over the web. For more information on these cameras, check out the ADS website.
Two new Compaq Presario Laptops are being used to control the mobile robots. Each mobile robot carries a computer on board to process the variety of sensor inputs and control outputs. The computers have Cisco Wireless Ethernet cards and USB/ Firewire/ Serial/ Parallel Commuications.
New to the lab is an indexing table in position between the two ABB IRB 140s. It is a 6-position, rotary, motor-driven indexing table. It is 28 inches in diameter and has an accuracy of 60 arcseconds. The indexing table was supplied by Advantage Conveyor, Inc. of Raleigh, NC.
For use in the mobile robot project, Acroname donated two BrainStem Modules. These devices help control the sensor inputs on the mobile robots. For more information about BrainStem, visit Acroname's Website.
In the robotic control lab adjacent to the RAMA lab, there is a pendulum robot, or pendubot supplied by Mechatronic Systems, Inc. One can program the pendubot for swingup control, balancing, regulation and tracking, identification, gain scheduling, disturbance rejection, and friction compensation. For more information about MTI's pendubot, visit their web site here.
There is a Feedback Ltd. Magnetic Levitation System in the robotic control lab. This device can control the suspension of a small metal ball in the air by way of electromagnetic forces. An infrared sensor and receiver provide location feedback while MATLAB and SIMULINK provide the necessary control. Learn more at Feedback's web site.
In the robotic control lab, we also have a rotary inverted pendulum provided by Quanser Consulting. This machine is capable of performing a variety of rotary control experiments using MATLAB. The robot is operated through a series of control and feedback servomotors. For more information, see Quanser's web site.
A Montrac conveyor system surrounds the workcell in the lab. Controlled by a series of pressurized valves, the sled is powered by an electric motor that stops at two "stations," one on each side of the workcell. For more information, please visit Montrac's website. |
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