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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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Current Personnel
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| The Duke Robotics Laboratory is headed by Professor Devendra P. Garg of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Both graduate and undergraduate students are currently participating in research in the RAMA Lab. |
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Devendra P. Garg received his Bachelor of Science degree from Agra University, Bachelor of Engineering degree from University of Roorkee, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. degree from New York University. |
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Dr. Garg taught at the University of Roorkee first as a Lecturer and later as a Reader in Mechanical Engineering; as an Instructor at New York University; and as an Assistant Professor, and an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA. He was also the Chairman of Engineering Projects Laboratory, a group of eleven individual laboratories, while at MIT. Since 1972, he has been Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University, and Director of the Robotics and Manufacturing Automation (RAMA) Laboratory. From 1977 to 1986 he served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University. As a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 1988, Professor Garg was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Automatic Control Engineering at the Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. In 1986, he was an invited delegate to the Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Conference held in Kremlin, Moscow along with other international leaders. While on leave from Duke University from July 1, 1992 until August 31, 1998, Dr. Garg served as Director of the Dynamic Systems and Control Program in the Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems (CMS) at the National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA. There he was appointed as the first Chairman of the Strategic Planning and Evaluation Committee of the Directorate for Engineering (1994-95). He also served as Chairman of the CMS Division’s Personnel Search Committee, the Partnership Council, and the Diversity Council. Professor Garg conceived and initiated the NSF’s Biannual Workshop for the Advancement and Retention of Underrepresented Minorities and Women Educators in Engineering. In addition, he served as Division Coordinator for the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program and Presidential Faculty Fellows (PFF) Program. Subsequently, after returning to Duke University in 1998, he served the Army Research Office in various capacities, thus providing impetus to basic research in mechanical engineering and in facilitating the establishment of close interactions between the universities and government funding agencies. In appreciation of his contributions to the Department of Defense’s Technology Reinvestment Program, the then President Bill Clinton wrote the following message to Professor Garg: “Your technical expertise has been invaluable in the selection of the most highly qualified proposals from among the thousands put forward. I commend you for your dedication in undertaking this task. Your efforts will contribute to a brighter economic future for our country.” Professor Garg is a recipient of the Technical Cooperation Mission (TCM) Award (1959) and the New York University's Founder's Day Award (1969) for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement. He is a Life Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Past Chairman of the ASME's Dynamic Systems and Control Division (DSCD) (1985-1986). He has guest-edited two Special Issues of ASME Transactions. Dr. Garg has served as Chairman of the Advisory Panel (1987-2001), and Chairman of the Honors Committee of the DSCD, ASME (1987-88). In addition, he has served as a voting member of the ASME National Nominating Committee (1990-1994) and Chairman of the Nominating Committee of the ASME Systems and Design Group (SDG) (1992-94), for which he has also served as Vice Chairman (1994-1996). Dr. Garg has received the ASME’s Dedicated Service Award (1996), and the DSCD Leadership Award (1998) from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The citation on this award reads “for his vision, consensus leadership, and perseverance in shaping the Division as an officer in all its major activities; for his founding Associate Editorship of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control; and for his mentorship and counseling of many younger members of the Division in building their professional careers”. In addition, Dr. Garg was awarded the Outstanding Work Performance Award (1993), Special Act or Service Award (1994), and the Cooperative Team Effort Award (1993) from the National Science Foundation. In 1996 and 1999 Professor Garg received the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Senior Fellowship Award and in 1997, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA)’s Invited Fellowship Award for lecturing engagements and research in the area of robotics at a number of Japanese universities and industries. In November 2003, ASME honored Dr. Garg by awarding him with the Society's prestigious Edwin F. Church Medal for his "outstanding leadership in the academic community and the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division, and for exemplary contributions to the technical programs of the U.S. government, particularly the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office".On January 25, 2007, ASME Life Member Professor Devendra P. Garg was honored in New Delhi, India, by being presented the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award by the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) Welfare Society of India. |
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Manish Kumar graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur with Honors in 1998. There he earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering. | |
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Following his undergraduate study, Manish worked as an engineer for two years for the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. In 2000 he came to Duke as a graduate student and earned his Master of Science degree in May 2002. After earning his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University, Manish has joined the RAMA Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate. Manish's interests lie mainly in sensor fusion - the integration of various sensing devices, such as the force-torque and vision sensors in the workcell, leading to efficient control and cooperative manipulation of robots. |
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Abhishek graduated from IIT Roorkee earning a Bachelors degree in mechanical engineering in 2005. In fall 2005, he joined RAMA lab as a graduate research assistant. After defending his Master's thesis in fall 2006, he has continued working with the lab as a Ph.D. candidate. |
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Currently, Abhishek 's research interests lie in biologically inspired robotics. webpage: www.duke.edu/~aa77
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Andrew Ofstad grew up in Montana and is currently an undergraduate at Duke University. He is double majoring in Electrical Engineering and Economics, and began work in the robotics lab Spring of 2007 after spending a semester in London. Currently, his work involves updating the robotics software and enabling simultaneous communication between several Khepera robots. |
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Former Personnel |
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Recent
Brian Dieckmann, BS
Adam Schmelzer, BS
Paul Nesline, BS
Piyush Jain, MS
Ram Parimi, MS
Dave Cochran, BS
Justin Kalweit , BS
Brian Schaaf , BS
Chris Dillenbeck , BS
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Past
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Adrian Akins, NSF/REU Wajd Almadani, MS Santosh Ananthraman, PhD Leonides DeOcampo, MS Sailaja Devarakonda, MS Bruce Ellingboe, MS J. Austin Fath, BSE Tom Fridericks, MS Tom Givens, MS Navneet Gulati, MS Ashlee Holbrook, NSF/REU Zakir Hussain, MS Piyush Jain, MS Chris Johnson, MS Faruk Kececi, MS Manish Kumar, PhD Alex Martinez, BSE
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Richard McCracken, MS Ramesh Menon, MS Omer Mercier, PhD Nsi Obotetukudo, NSF/REU Abhijit Nagchaudhuri, PhD Ram Parimi, MS Clayton Poppe, BSE Sameer Prabhu, MS, PhD Michael Ross, MS Chartree Ruengcharungpong, MS Srinivasa Ravi Shankar, MS Stanley Woodard, PhD Jun Yang, MS Reed Young, MS
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