Projects

Robot for Detection of Landmines

This project integrated a quantum-based sensor from QiS with a tracked ground vehicle and operated it at an inert minefield in Oklahoma; 150 different landmines were successfully detected. This effort was orchestrated in only one month (integration, testing, shipping, and field testing); this tight timeline provided partner QiS to communicate the results to politicians on Capitol Hill and secure government interest.

Tele-Robotic System for Waste Disposal

This project aims to investigate the feasibility of using tele-robotic systems to facilitate efficient and safe waste disposal. Specifically, we aim to design and develop a prototype system that utilizes a robot to manipulate waste materials in a remote location, and evaluate its effectiveness in terms of reducing human exposure to hazardous waste and improving the overall efficiency of waste management processes.

Envelope Packaging Robotic Solution

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This project is to automate the operations of packaging envelopes into boxes using robot manipulators. The robotic system will include an RGB-D perception pipeline to identify the envelope stack on the production line, the design of a custom gripper, a manipulation procedure for this pick-and-place task, and a robotic case erector.

WireInspect: Autonomous Thin Wire Inspection using Aerial Robots 

WireInspect implements real-time wire segmentation and tracking, active motion planning, and post-flight analysis for autonomous inspection of thin wires using drones. The system employs the SAM-Track model for zero-shot wire detection and introduces VizFlyt, a Hardware-In-The-Loop simulation framework for accelerated perception-centric testing. WireInspect demonstrates the feasibility of automating wire inspection in complex environments, offering potential enhancements in safety, efficiency, and reliability for electrical infrastructure maintenance.  https://pear.wpi.edu/research/vizflyt.html
 

Multi-Robot Collaborative Active Inspection

Boeing 737 aircraft to be inspected in simulation
The regions within the aircraft being identified.
Robots offering their capabilities where needed.
This project focuses on detecting anomalies in a GPS-denied environment with a heterogenous set of autonomous robots. Each type of anomaly may have a region of probable occurrence and will need specific capabilities to detect it. We are developing algorithms to detect such regions and then assign the robots with suitable capabilities to that region detecting the anomalies autonomously.

Robot-assisted Dig Safe

Current Dig Safe process
Dig Safe robotic assistant
Technical Summary
Project to develop a semi-autonomous ground vehicle to assist technicians in marking a Dig Safe worksite. Data about the worksite, such as provided by a GIS system, would be loaded on the robot and the proposed system will have automated deployment and recovery capabilities and a simple user interface to allow the technician to identify the area or path to be explored by the robot or modify worksite information. Efficiency and usability of the system will be extremely important.

Robotic Bird Deterrent

Birds gathering on power lines
Robotic Bird Deterrent in development
Robotic Bird Deterrent Use Case
Design and build two small proof-of-concept robots to patrol a power line and discourage birds from congregating on the wire. The proposed system comprises two similar robots and a method for providing power to them. Using two robots not only allows for more effective dispelling of the birds, but the redundancy provides a means of rescuing a faulty robot, which would otherwise prove costly to retrieve from the line. A significant outcome of the project is to determine the most effective method for dispelling birds; two robots allows for customization for the purpose of testing different dispersion methods

Robotic Cutting for Metal Scrap Recycling

This is a project to develop a semi-autonomous robotic cutting system to be used in the Metal Scrap Recycling industry. A human-machine workflow for cutting the scrap pieces will be designed and the robotic cutting solution will identify the cutting related parameters, integrating them to the motion planner. The robot will be able to identify the cutting trajectory of a metal part regardless of the complexity of the shape of the metal.
Metal Scrap Cutting Industry
Robotic solution to Metal Scrap Cutting
Robot identifies the cutting trajectory

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NSF I/UCRC robots and Sensors for Human Well Being

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