Here's a portfolio of the more interesting projects I've done. Please contact me if you'd like to talk about any of it!

Autonomous Off-Road Robots

RPI Rock Raiders (college)
  • Tags:
  • ROS
  • Autonomous Navigation
 

Rockie rolling along

Rockie was a 75(ish) pound rover developed initially for URC and later for IGVC. It was entirely custom built and controlled by the ROS NavStack.


High-Speed Autonomous Off-Road Robot

Cone Crook
  • Tags:
  • 3d-printing
  • Autonomous Navigation
 

Driving in circles. Rolling over was probably not good for the battery, it was taped right on top.

Cone Crook is the start of a smaller autonomous rover for the SRS Robo Magellan. The physical rover is a little larger than a 1/5th scale RC car, and will have a much higher weight capacity. The summer 2020 competition was sadly canceled, so this project is on hold until 2021.


Solar Powered Autonomous Boat

Lake Launderer
  • Tags:
  • PX4
  • Autonomous Navigation
 

Motoring around Haller lake


Underactuated Robot Control

University of Washington Sensor Systems Lab (11th & 12th grades)
  • Tags:
  • acrobot
  • robotics
  • underactuated robotics
  • memory-based Learning
  • instance-based learning
 

I've been working as an RA with Prof. Josh Smith at UW on a control system for underactuated robotics, i.e. robots that don't have a motor in every joint. The robot I work on is known as the acrobot, and is a two-segment arm with a powered elbow joint. The goal is to have it stand up and balance on a knife edge. This is a challenge because it has to be balanced by controlling just the elbow joint, and the equations of motion for the acrobot are far from simple. My research has been to apply instance-based learning, a type of machine learning, to the acrobot.

For details, please see my research paper:

Underactuated Robotics Control Via Memory-Based Learning

 

Computer-controlled Robotic Arm

2013 Science Olympiad (9th grade)
  • Tags:
  • Java
  • Python
  • Raspberry Pi
  • networking
  • servos
  • I2C
  • PWM
 

Testing the robotic arm. Note the nails and pens arrayed around it as pick-up items and the cut-off milk cartons as the drop bins. Control is through the mouse and keyboard, but once the claw was positioned above an object, software took over and picked up the object and dropped it into the target bin.

 

Tricopter with custom Arduino-based software navigation controller

Just for fun (10th grade)
  • Tags:
  • tricopter
  • multi-rotor control
  • Arduino
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Java
  • inertial measurement unit (IMU)
  • servos
  • PWM
  • networking
  • video

The tricopter hovering in a test flight.

 

3D printer #1: Makerbot Thing-O-Matic kit

Put it together from the kit (8th grade)
  • Tags:
  • Makerbot
  • 3D printer kit
  • Replicator G
  • heated build platform
  • ABS
  • Colberabbit

A great little printer, was easy to put together.

Details:
 

3D printer #2: Ultimaker kit

Put it together from the kit (9th grade)
  • Tags:
  • Ultimaker
  • 3D printer kit
  • Cura
  • PLA
  • Colberabbit

The completed printer in operation

Details: