Performance
Research
Autonomous Ground Vehicle Navigation
Prior research in this area focused on the development of accurate positioning systems, off-line path planning, and vehicle control approaches. Integration of these technologies allowed for navigation along a planned path and the research was applied to several range clearance operations.
Current work focuses on the following issues:
* vehicle control at speeds of ~40 mph
* environment sensing and interpretation
* modeling of the environment
* mission planning
* interaction of autonomous, connected, and traditional vehciles
The research is sponsored by the Florida Dept. of Transportation, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Dept. of Energy..
Related to this activity, CIMAR participated in the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge events and the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge event.
Spatial Mechanism Design and Analysis
Research is focused on the design and analysis of spatial serial and parallel mechanisms with emphasis placed on the development of mechanisms that can be used to control contact forces.
The particular research tasks are listed as follows:
* development of passive compliant manipulator wrist mechanism
* design of active mechanisms to manipulate large payloads and control contact forces
* closed-form analysis of tensegrity mechanisms
* incorporation of tensegrity principles in parallel mechanisms
* design and analysis of variable compliant mechanisms
* design and analysis of systems with variable damping
* use of non-circular gearing in spatial mechanisms
Teaching
Graduate instruction is an important element of the Center activities. Following is a list of courses that were developed by the CIMAR faculty.
EML 6281 – Robot Geometry I. A detailed analysis of the forward and reverse displacement analysis of robot manipulators and spatial closed-loop mechanisms.
EML 6282 – Robot Geometry II. An introduction to screw theory and its application to velocity and force control of manipulators and parallel mechanisms.
EML 6283 – Robot Geometry III. An advanced study of spatial geometry.
EML 6275 – Coplanar Kinematic Synthesis. The design and analysis of planar mechanisms to include multiply separated position theory for 3, 4, and 5 positions of the moving system.
EML 6934 – Dynamics of Robots. The dynamic analysis of serial and in-parallel robot manipulators.
Students also take several other courses that are offered within the College of Engineering and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. A sampling of these courses follows:
Mechanical Engineering:
EML 5223 – Design Synthesis in Vibrations
EML 5273 – Advanced Dynamics of Machinery
EML 5311 – Control System Theory
EML 5318 – Computer Control of Machines and Processes
EML 5504 – Mechanical Design I
EML 5505 – Mechanical Design II
EML 6267 – Structural Dynamics of Production Machinery
EML 6324 – Fundamentals of Production Engineering
Electrical Engineering:
EEL 5182 – State Variable Methods in Linear Systems
EEL 5631 – Digital Control Systems
EEL 5719 – Digital Filtering
EEL 5840 – Elements of Machine Intelligence
EEL 6311 – Electronic Circuits I
EEL 6312 – Electronic Circuits II
EEL 6505 – Digital Signal Processing
EEL 6562 – Image Processing and Computer Vision
EEL 6614 – Modern Control Theory
EEL 6667 – Kinematics and Dynamics of Robot Manipulators
EEL 6668 – Intelligent Robot Manipulator Systems
Computer Science:
CAP 5416 – Computer Vision
CAP 5705 – Computer Graphics
CAP 5805 – Computer Simulation Concepts
CAP 6615 – Neural Networks for Computing
CAP 6618 – Image Algebra
CAP 6635 – Artificial Intelligence Concepts
Mathematics:
MAD 6406 – Numerical Linear Algebra
MAP 6208 – Numerical Optimization
Service
The autonomous vehicle that was developed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has been taken to and demonstrated at several elementary schools in Alachua county. Most of the listed schools have been visited more than once. The schools that have been visited are:
Alachua Elementary
Brentwood Academy
Duval Elementary
Hidden Oak Elementary
Irby Elementary
J.J. Finley Elementary
Martha Manson Academy
Williams Elementary
Lofton High School
Presentations and demonstrations of robotics technologies are also made at several locations. As an example, the following photographs show demonstrations given at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa.
International
Kookmin University
Seoul, Korea
Postech
Pohang, Korea
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