Dynamic systems & robotics research

Contact the Mechanical Engineering Department

Mechanical Engineering research involvement at NAU

Our research in dynamics and robotics covers a wide variety of topics ranging from UAV systems to advanced prosthesis to new actuators. Details on some of our research projects in dynamics & robotics are described below. Please contact the lead faculty to learn more about any of our research projects.

Project abstracts

photo of a seal with a sensor on its head

Lead:
Keywords: Energy harvesting, wildlife telemetry, marine, solar power

Energy harvesting is used in terrestrial sensor applications, but is largely absent in the marine sensor field despite several possible harvesting methods and calls for use by the ocean science community. This project has focused on working with wildlife telemetry manufactures to identify practical ambient marine energy transduction methods and then developing methods to assess their potential for supplementing telemetry system energy budgets. Despite the inherent benefits of solar power, the inability to quantify energy production capacity in the marine environment has precluded adoption. This project has worked to develop the methods for marine environment solar power energy assessment through both analytic and experimental methods.

photo of a drone flying on nau campus

Lead:

Keywords: Unmanned aerial vehicle, radio telemetry, wildlife tracking

Current methods of locating and tracking small tagged animals are hampered by the inaccessibility of their habitats. The high costs, risk to human safety, and small sample sizes resulting from current radio telemetry methods limit our understanding of the movement and behaviors of many species. UAV-based technologies promise to revolutionize a range of ecological field study paradigms due to the ability of a sensing platform to fly in close proximity to rough terrain at very low cost.

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Keywords: biomimetic, artificial muscles, twisted polymer actuators, super coiled

Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) can undergo a recoverable deformation in the presence of a magnetic field or mechanical load. In this project, our group has developed several thermodynamic based models to predict the magneto-mechanical behavior of MSMAs, the most recent of which is fully three-dimensional. We are also trying to optimize use of MSMAs for various applications, most notably current work focuses on power harvesting with MSMAs.

human aware control of robots

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Keywords: bio-robot, human-robot interaction, biologically inspired control

Current state-of-the-art bio-robots (e.g., assistive exoskeletons or rehabilitation robots) are hard-coded to perform specific actions after detecting the user’s intent. This control paradigm is inherently limiting, as humans inevitably adapt their behavior in response to the interaction with the robot in the short and long timescales. Existing robots are unaware of the ever-changing biological states of the user. Our human-aware controllers encode the knowledge about how humans control and adapt their movements in new environments. Our research aim is to embed these models in robots’ controllers to bring about a paradigm shift in how we build bio-robots—robots that can infer the user’s behavior, capabilities, and limitations, to accordingly respond, adapt, correct, or assist.

exoskeleton control

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Keywords: exoskeleton, wearable robotics, control

Exoskeletons hold potential to augment walking ability, yet their use in free-living environments has been limited by the absence of practical and effective control strategies that can appropriately adapt to variable terrain, like stairs. To address this challenge, we are working on an analytical ankle joint moment estimation model using custom wearable sensors and developed an exoskeleton control scheme to adapt assistance proportional to the biological plantar-flexor moment in real-time.

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Keywords: exoskeleton, wearable robotics, actuator design

Actuation design that improves electromechanical efficiency and performance could increase the ability of untethered exoskeletons to provide meaningful assistance in free-living settings. We are working on designing a robotic ankle exoskeleton with a parallel elastic element in the form of a carbon fiber leaf spring to stored and returned energy in parallel to a cable-drive ankle joint during stance phase.

exoskeleton testing and validation

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Keywords: exoskeleton, wearable robotics, biomechanics

The ability to readily complete challenging walking conditions is paramount to increasing and normalizing activities of daily living for ambulatory children and young adults with physical disabilities. Our overarching objective for this project is to augment mobility in challenging free-living settings for individuals with disabilities via ankle exoskeleton assistance. We are testing the use of the technology at home and in community settings.

hip exoskeleton

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Keywords: exoskeleton, wearable robotics, rehabilitation

The purpose of this project is to design and validate a novel autonomous hip exoskeleton with a user-adaptive control strategy capable of reducing the energy cost of level and incline walking in individuals with and without walking impairment.

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Contact the Mechanical Engineering Department