Event
CANCELLED Lockheed Martin Robotics Seminar: Howie Choset, "From Snake Robots to Modular Systems"
Friday, April 29, 2016
2:00 p.m.
2216 JM Patterson
Ania Picard
301 405 4358
appicard@umd.edu
CANCELLED
Lockheed Martin Robotics Seminar Series
From Snake Robots to Multi-Degree of Freedom Modular Systems
Howie Choset
Professor
Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract
The animal kingdom is full of non-human animals worthy of investigation, emulation and re-creation. As such, my research group has created a comprehensive research program focusing on snake robots, and has applied them to search and rescue, minimally invasive surgery, and aerospace manufacturing. These robots inspire great scientific challenges in mechanism design, control, planning and estimation theory. These research topics are important because once the robot is built (design), it must decide where to go (path planning), determine how to get there (control), and use feedback to close the loop (estimation). A common theme to these research foci is devising ways by which we can simplify multi-dimensional problems so that they become lower dimensional ones. In this talk, I will discuss our results in geometric mechanics, nonlinear Kalman filtering, and scalable high degree-of-freedom planning to support these reductions. This work leads to my group’s current work on modular systems, with an emphasis on manufacturing. If time permits, I will also discuss my educational activities, especially at the undergraduate level, with a course using LEGO robots, and the role of entrepreneurism in University education.
Biorgraphy
Howie Choset is a Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University where he conducts research in path planning, motion planning, estimation, mechanism design, and hybrid controls. Much of this work has three foci: snake robots for search and rescue, manufacturing and medical robotics, multi-robot path planning for manufacturing and exploration, and coverage for de-mining and autobody painting. Choset directs the Undergraduate Robotics Minor, and the newly formed Robotics Major, at Carnegie Mellon; he also teaches an overview course on Robotics which uses a series of custom developed Lego Labs to complement the course work. Professor Choset's students have won best paper awards at the RIA in 1999, ICRA in 2003, IEEE Bio Rob in 2006 and SSRR 2012 and 2015; he has been nominated for best papers at ICRA in 1997, IROS in 2003, 2007, and 2011, and CLAWAR in 2012; additionally, he has been nominated for best video at ICRA 2010. In 2002, the MIT Technology Review elected Choset as one of its top 100 innovators in the world under 35. In 2005, MIT Press published a textbook, lead authored by Choset, entitled "Principles of Robot Motion." In 2006, Choset co-founded a medical device company called Medrobotics, Corp., now based in Raynham MA.
