Robotics, Control and Mechatronics

Our group conducts research on topics in control theory and algorithms, design and optimization for biologically-based robotics, haptics, autonomous mobile robotics, surgical robot technology, control engineering for rehabilitation, closed-loop drug delivery, control of jump parameter systems, intelligent transportation systems, and genome automation. Presently, there are 11 active Robotics and Controls faculty, and several emeritus faculty in a UW Robotics, Controls, and Mechatronics (RCM) effort, which includes faculty primarily from Electrical Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics and Mechanical Engineering as well as participation with Chemical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Applied Mathematics.

Course listings, faculty descriptions, seminar announcement and other information is available at the RCM website. EE students working on RCM topics may have primary research advisors chosen from RCM faculty in any of the participating departments.

Description of Current RCM Research by EE Faculty

Professor Blake Hannaford and Research Assistant Professor Jacob Rosen, and the Bio-Robotics lab study robot assisted telesurgery, which allows surgeons to operate on their patients from miles away by using robotic extensions of their hands and eyes.
Rosen is developing a robotically assisted upper limb exoskeleton (wearable robot) with a human machine interface at the neural levels proving a more natural control of the exoskeleton as intuitive extension of the operator body.
Associate Professor Karl Böhringer is involved in an interdisciplinary robotic activity tied to MEMS research, which recently created an omnidirectional mobile microrobot that moves via MEMS ``cilia'' actuator arrays.
Assistant Professor Eric Klavins is conducting work in robotics and self-assembly, including algorithms that allow ``programmable parts'' to assemble themselves into pre-specified shapes.
Professor Mark Damborg's work addresses the applications of control theory to electric power systems.
Professor Deirdre Meldrum's Genomation Laboratory is working on the automation of genomic testing, including the basic steps in the handling of submicroliter fluid samples, such as sample aspiration, reagent dispensing, mixing, and thermal cycling. Meldrum is also developing technology for single-cell, MEMS-based genome studies, as part of the Microscale Life Sciences Center, which she co-directs.
Professor Howard Chizeck is conducting research in telerobotics in the presence of communication channel properties such as noise and time delays. Also, in work supported by the MLSC, he and his students are applying algebraic systems theory to the modeling and analysis of DNA and genomic and proteomic processes.
Assistant Professor Alex Mamishev's Sensors, Energy, and Automation Laboratory has developed a robot that crawls along an electric power cable, scanning the cable with infrared, acoustic, and dielectrometry sensors to search for developing faults and estimate cable aging.
Research Professor Daniel Dailey's Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab tracks transit vehicles over a three county, 1800 square mile region. The vehicle locations can be viewed in on-line and are used to help travelers by predicting bus departure at thousands of locations.
Research Assistant Professor Linda Bushnell and the Networked Control Systems Lab study networked control systems, controllers for sensor networks in aquaculture, and multi-agent communication and control. The lab houses a hardware testbed with khepera robots.