Mechanical Engineering Seminar: Dr. Surya Singh

Title:

Agile Field Robotics: Moving with a Human Touch

Abstract:

Human locomotion can be remarkably informative for robotics.    When it comes to agility, it can not only guide the mechanics (the ``how''), but also the steering (the ``where'').  While this seems deceivingly simple -- one just accelerates, decelerates, or turns -- for dynamic systems it is complicated by inertia, saturation, compliance, and even social bias (e.g., driving direction.

Determining the motion involves solving an inverse control problem. Analytic solutions are difficult to characterize.  Discretization transforms this into a combinatorial problem to which informed search methods can be applied.   A lattice-based method is introduced that exploits the relative ease of the forward simulation to simultaneously consider control and external constraints, such as obstacles.  This is compared to optimal solutions in the plane.

This is not only applicable to robotics context (e.g., agile driving of 98-ton mining drill rigs in rough environments), but also informs biomechanics (e.g., gallop/running analysis).

Bio:

Surya Singh is a Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics where he leads modeling and control efforts.  His research interests in dynamic systems include: agile motion over terrain, motion analysis, and mechatronics design.  Dr. Singh is a Fulbright Scholar and has studied at Stanford University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University.

For more details about Dr. Surya Singh, visit http://www-personal.acfr.usyd.edu.au/spns/.

Hosted by Dr. Krishnaswamy Srinivasan