Title:

From Concept to Reality: Designing Robots for Manipulation and Environment Interaction

Speaker:

Dr. Tony Chen

Affiliation:

Stanford University

When:

Monday, February 19, 2024 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

MRDC Building, Room 4211

Host:

Dr. Ye Zhao
ye.zhao@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

Enabling robots to interact with real-world environments in controlled, task-oriented ways opens the doors to future applications in manipulation and field robotics. My research focuses on designing mechanical embodied intelligence mechanisms that are highly synergistic with modern controls, perception, and machine learning and conceptualizing and prototyping new robotic manipulation and mobility methods through the use of rapid prototyping and bio-inspiration when appropriate. I will illustrate this research approach with two different projects. First, I will introduce a gripper for aerial grasping with drones in mid-flight, where simple dynamic models inform the design of a passively activated gripper and its implications for flight control and trajectory planning. Second, I will introduce ReachBot, a new paradigm of climbing robots designed for planetary exploration in extreme environments, such as Martian lava tubes, and walk through the design journey from conceptualization to field testing in the Mojave Desert and beyond.

Biography

Tony G. Chen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University. He completed his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in ME from Stanford University and his B.S. degree in ME from Georgia Tech in 2017. His research focuses on mechanism design, particularly the design of mechanical hardware inherently synergistic with modern robotic perception and controls for manipulation and field robotics applications. He is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a NASA Robotics Academy graduate. He has built robots that have been field-tested in a wide range of environments, from lava tubes in the Mojave Desert to the International Space Station. His work has been recognized by the IEEE RAM Best Paper in 2023, IEEE IROS Best Paper in Mechanisms in 2022, and Best Poster at Living Machines in 2023.

Notes

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