Robotic Sensors for Emergency Response and Industry
Alice Agogino, Professor
Mechanical Engineering
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Squishy robots are rapidly deployable mobile sensing robots for disaster rescue, remote monitoring and space exploration. Our emergent technologies are at the fusion of robotics, mobile sensing, machine learning, big data fusion and smart IoT (Internet of Things).
This semester we will focus on smart sensor robots for early detection of wildfires and methane leaks, enabling life-saving maneuvers and securing the safety of first responders by providing situational awareness and sensor data in uncharted terrain. This product can be deployed with multiple – even swarms – of collaborative squishy robots, equipped with visual, audio, chemical, biological, radiological and GPS sensors, that can traverse rough environments and be quickly deployed by ground or aerial vehicle to inform first responders, and assist in the rescue of victims until human first responders can arrive.
In this project, you will be collaborating with a team of academic researchers - M.Eng and M.DevEng students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty - along with the Squishy Robotics Team. Your responsibility will involve investigation, adaptation and application of machine learning models to classify and ultimately predict the presence, occurrence, and dynamics of methane leaks and wildfire events. Your work will involve combining multiple scales and sources of data, demonstrating the improvement in model performance based on additional sensors (which would be deployed by Squishy Robots in field applications), and writing scholarly research reports related to your technical work (see below).
Students will develop a new version of a pre-existing sensor robot which currently used for hazardous response applications. Beta tests will be conducted in controlled lab environments, followed by field tests if this technology is proved to be useful. Work on this project is expected to focus on sensors, mechanical design, and communications infrastructure. Product design of the sensors for tight mechanical / electrical will be required, and user feedback on prototypes will be solicited.
Sensors will be tightly integrated with the Squishy Robotics platform: instead of on “breadboards”, the goal will be to implement a higher-fidelity project: the sensors will integrate with, communicate through, and rely on current Squishy Robotics infrastructure.
Work with Squishy Robotics, who is developing Life-saving, cost-saving mobile sensor robots for disaster response that have been successfully dropped from an aerial vehicle at 1,000, feet and survived. Applying this core technology to the new use cases means developing new mission-relevant sensor payloads for these robots. Goal will be to build a proof-of-concept of new sensor payload: mechanical design for the sensor enclosure, mechatronics for data collection, electronics for signal conditioning, and software for data transmission and analysis.
Role: Experience in developing integrated robotic with sensor and AI capabilities. The focus this semester will be on designing printed circuit boards (PCB) for the new sensor capabilities, testing them in the field, and redesigning as needed.
Qualifications: As this is a broad project, individual students’ can bring their unique skills to the table. The team should have a collective mix of mechatronics, electronics, machine design and product design students. Specifically, these skills will be useful: CAD (Inventor, Solidworks, etc); Basic Coding (Python / C++ preferred); Mechatronics / PCB design. The biggest need this semester will be on mechatronics and PCB design for the new sensor payloads.
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: This project will meet primarily remotely. Weekly mandatory, remote, and synchronous meetings will form the basis of collaboration, and students are expected to collaborate and meet among themselves more frequently. Although much of the work will be to work with a graduate student team in the BEST (Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities) Lab on campus, Squishy Robotics, Inc. also has space as a start-up in West Berkeley in new offices.
Related website: http://squishy-robotics.com/
Related website: http://squishy-robotics.com/