Sylvia Herbert receives young investigator award from the Office of Naval Research

Sylvia Herbert is one of 32 researchers in the United States to receive an award from the 2022 Young Investigator Program at the Office of Naval Research. 

The highly competitive, early career award recognizes prior academic achievement and potential for significant scientific breakthrough. 

Herbert is an assistant professor in the UC San Diego Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She leads the Safe and Autonomous Systems Lab at the Jacobs School and is part of the UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute. The research project she was awarded for focuses on constructing and adapting control barrier functions for guaranteed safe control of autonomous systems.

Mechanical engineer recognized by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Jorge Cortes, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has been inducted as a 2020 Fellow by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mechanics.
Cortes is being recognized for contributions to the control and optimization of network systems.

The fellows were nominated for their exemplary research as well as outstanding service to the community. Through their contributions, SIAM Fellows help advance the fields of applied mathematics and computational science.

Cortés' research interests are on distributed coordination algorithms, autonomous robotic networks, adversarial networked systems, mathematical control theory, geometric mechanics and geometric integration. The recent emergence of low-cost, highly-autonomous vehicles with control, communication, sensing, and computing capabilities has paved the way for the deployment of robotic sensor networks in a wide range of applications. Controlled motion coordination of these networks will have far-reaching implications in the monitoring of natural phenomena and the enhancement of human capabilities in hazardous and unknown environments. Motivated by these scenarios, Professor Cortes' research program is developing systematic methodologies to control autonomous, reliable, and adaptive mobile networks capable of operating in unknown and dynamic environments.

Ruth J. Williams, from the UC San Diego Department of Mathematics, is also being recognized for contributions to the study of stochastic processes and their applications.

Full SIAM release here: https://sinews.siam.org/Details-Page/siam-announces-class-of-2020-fellows

Better hurricane monitoring with robotic swarms

When: 2:45 p.m. Sept. 28, 2017

Where: Santa Clara Convention Center, Expo Theater

Who:
Professor Thomas Bewley
Director
UCSD Flow Control & Coordinated Robotics Lab

Charles Bergan
VP of Engineering
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Talk webpage: http://www.robobusiness.com/conference/schedule/presented-by-qualcomm

More info:
While some robots take jobs, others save lives. The technology transfer underway from the cellphone industry into robotics has enabled a new class of low-cost robotic devices capable of providing advanced warning and tracking capabilities for major storms such as hurricanes Harvey and Irma. We will discuss a new proposal that uses cellphone technologies to build autonomous swarms of sensor-laden robots that will significantly improve our ability to estimate and forecast such extreme and dangerous atmospheric events.

Full press release about the research here: http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=2102

 Simulation available here: http://flowcontrol.ucsd.edu/katrina.mp4

Mechanical engineering professor gets book tribute for 50th birthday

Miroslav Krstic, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and associate vice chancellor for research at UC San Diego, received an impressive gift on his 50^th birthday.

Forty-six of his colleagues in the control theory and systems field – including all the most prominent scholars and scientists in his area of specialty – dedicated a new 400-page special-issue volume in his honor.

“This book is dedicated to Professor Miroslav Krstic on his 50^thbirthday,” says the book’s dedication, “to help honor him for his many important contributions to control theory and its applications. Through his many excellent presentations and publications, including 10 books, and his helpful discussions, Miroslav has inspired each of us to work on challenging control problems.”

Krstic said the birthday gift, hatched and completed in complete secrecy, was a real surprise. “In my field, an honor like this is reserved for a few top people – there was previously only one in the UC system – on the occasion of their 60^th or 70^th birthdays, and it is typically a special issue of a journal, not a book. So it is both deeply humbling and a real honor.”

The book, “Recent Results on Nonlinear Delay Control Systems,” will be published by Springer, a publisher of innovative academic and professional books, reference works, and journals.

The 10 Laws of Robotics--according to one of our alums

Nick Morozovsky with SkySweeper, one of the robots he developed and 3D printed while a Ph.D. student in the UCSD Robotics lab.

When Nick Morozovsky, a Ph.D. student in robotics here at the Jacobs School, was writing his dissertation, he realized his experiences had led him to compile a list of laws that roboticists would need to abide by to survive in grad school, and beyond. 
Morozovsky is speaking from experience. During his time working in the UCSD Coordinated Roboticcs lab, he developed and built several robots, including Switchblade, a rover that could balance on its threads, and SkySweeper, which could glide along cables and was 3D printed. He also worked on MiP, the first-ever self-balancing robot, which was developed by UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee. 

For more advice from Morozovsky, you can attend an upcoming meetup of San Diego's Robotics Club at 6 p.m. March 17:

http://www.meetup.com/San-Diego-Robotics-Club/events/220104955/
You can also follow him on Twitter at @DrNickMo: https://twitter.com/DrNickMo

Nick’s Rules of Robotics

1. Never disassemble a working robot.

2. If it works the first time, you’re testing it wrong.

3. When in doubt, lubricate.

4. Never underestimate the estimation problem.

5. If specs for a part are listed differently in two places, they’re both wrong.

6. Glue, tape, and zip-ties are not engineering solutions (though they might work in a pinch).

7. Do not leave lithium polymer batteries charging unattended.

8. Always have a complete CAD model, including screws and fasteners, before constructing your robot.

9. Avoid using slip rings if at all possible.

10.  Always check polarity before plugging a component into a power source.

This robot designed by UC San Diego engineers won an Innovative Toy of the Year award

MiP, the little robot created in partnership between UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee, does it again! It received the Innovative Toy of the Year award this past week at the New York Toy Fair--the Oscars of the toy industry. The award recognizes "an outstanding toy that combines innovation and play value."

MiP, short for Mobile Inverted Pendulum, can balance itself and drive around on two wheels.  ``Its organic nature is particularly engaging: when it stands, it gently sways back and forth; when pushed, it takes a step back to regain its balance.  In a very real way, the dynamics of MiP mimic life,’’ said Professor Thomas Bewley, director of the Coordinated Robotics Lab at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, who worked closely with WowWee to bring MiP to market.

Users can play with MiP right out of the box in several engaging modes of play.  You can interact with MiP immediately using intuitive hand gestures.  Install the tray that MiP can carry and test your skill at stacking games.  Or, put a full soda can on MiP’s tray, and drive it to a friend across the room via Bluetooth and a free smart phone app.  And, of course, MiP can dance—either to the beat of its own (built-in) tunes, or to any tunes on the user’s smartphone or tablet.

More about MiP's origin story here. More info on MiP here. 

You can see MiP in action here http://youtu.be/i_zXARfIIcs

Some recent media coverage here and here. 

Watch Jacobs School student pitch toy with UC San Diego tech at New York Toy Fair

Ph.D. student Saam Ostovari can add a new skill to his resume: pitching toys to bloggers and reporters. Ostovari is getting pretty good at it too, judging by the Yahoo Tech video above, which was shot at the New York Toy Fair this month.
He was touting MiP, a robotic toy that is the brainchild of toymaker WowWee and the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab. Ostovari led the efforts in the lab to scale the lab's prototypes to toy size, among other tasks.
The toy fair wasn't Ostovari's first turn in the spotlight. He was at the WowWee booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where he talked himself hoarse.

More MiP media coverage from the toy fair:

CNN

MSN

ABC's Good Morning America

CNET

Bootcamp.com

Robot World

Jacobs School engineers help create robot with perfect balance--and it dances too!

A toy robot created by Jacobs School engineers and Hong Kong-based toymaker WowWee was all the talk at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

MiP (short for mobile inverted pendulum) was named a Product of the Future for 2014 for Popular Mechanics. It also earned an award for Envisioneering, Innovation and Design and was a finalist at CES' Last Gadget Standing Competition.

MiP garnered a fair bit of press, including stories in Engadget and Popular Science.Popular Science gushed:

The WowWee MiP is a charming, two-wheeled Segway 'bot that has some impressive balance.

The robot is the brain child of toy designers at WowWee and a group of graduate students in the Coordinated Robotics Lab here at the Jacobs School, which is led by mechanical and engineering professor Tom Bewley. 

"It was a bit overwhelming at first but an exciting experience, at least for me personally, to be a part of the release and to help promote MiP at the WowWee booth," said Saam Ostovari, who was the lead graduate student on the MiP design. "It was a non-stop flux of press, suppliers and consumers wanting to learn about MiP. I still haven't recovered my voice from all the talking I did."

See below for a video of MiP in action.

Vote for MiP!

MiP, a robot designed by the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab and toymaker WowWee is up for a Last Gadget Standing Award and you can help it win!
You can vote here: http://lastgadgetstanding.com/voting/
And watch a fun video preview for the robot here:  http://bit.ly/1cbQx0K
MiP balances on two wheels and is fully interactive with its surroundings. It responds to gesture commands and can be linked via Bluetooth to smart phones and other devices. It can dance to your iTunes playlists and play simple games with your kids. 
Oh, and it can hold a tray with objects on it (including another MiP).

Chancellor Khosla Visits TIP Team

From left: Graduate students Nick Morozovsky and Daniel Yang, TIP team members Kaylee Feigum, Parry Wilcox, Victor Balcer, Kevin Katz, Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and  graduate student Yuncong Chen.

Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla visited Aug. 22 with students who are part of the Jacobs School's Team Internship Program and work at the Sorrento-Valley-based Brain Corporation. TIP brings together teams of students from different majors who get real-world engineering experiences at companies around the world. The Brain Corp. interns got to build a drone and experimented with various robot prototypes.

Brain Corporation is a pioneer in developing novel algorithms that model the functionality of the nervous system and can be applied to robotics, computer vision, motor control and autonomous navigation. The TIP team aren't the only Jacobs School employees at the company. It also employs part-time two Jacobs School graduate students, Daniel Yang and Nick Morozovsky, who are part of the research group of Thomas Bewley, a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering. The group connected with Brain Corporation via Jacobs School alum Marius Buibas, who is a scientist at the company.

Bewley, Morozovsky and Yang are household names here at the Jacobs School. In Bewley's lab, Morozovsky designed SkySweeper, a robot for power line inspection, and Switchblade, an agile robot that can balance and climb stairs. Yang is the designer of a fire-fighting robot known as FFR. Both robots have received ample media coverage and FFR's technology was recognized at this year's Student Infrared Imaging Competition, bringing $10,000 home for the Bewley lab.