Research Projects:
Robots:
-
Robot
soccer
player -- Info on a small robot that will be fascinated by
a red soccer ball--if only it could see.
-
Le Cockroach
-- An experimental six legged robot cockroach with aspirations of learning
to walk.
-
The Brass Bug -- Another experiment in walking robots --
this time with muscle wires. Smallish and classy is the goal.
-
K9 -- Sometimes
a robot, sometimes a coffee table...he has been a platform for designing
and testing various robotic whims.
Automation:
-
Low-cost Distributed Automation System -- Current industrial
control systems are complex to maintain and tedious to install.
The goal is to build extremely low cost sensors and actuators that are
all connected together by a single control wire. These sensors
are intelligent and can be programmed to emulate a traditional industrial
control system.
-
Rapid Prototyping Circuit Board System -- Is an alternative
to complex silk-screening, or photographic techniques that are currently
used for circuit board manufacture, can result in long turnaround times,
and buckets of hazardous waste. With our system, the computer
lays the resist on a piece of circuit board stock directly, which can then
be etched by traditional means. This allows us to to go from
concept to design to a programmed, debugged, working prototype for
moderate complexity microcontroller designs in as little as 6-8 hours.
The next step will be to automate the 'population' and assembly of the
boards.
Software:
-
EVA -- An evolutionary algorithm that works on grammars to
write it's own code.
Projects we are Sponsoring:
Prototypes of each of these devices were developed by OZY Robotics,
Figgins Machine Shop and small groups of Electrical and Computer Engineering
students from Western Michigan University
as part of their undergraduate senior design projects.
-
A small EDM Machine -- A small electronic discharge machine
used to disintigrate metals for advanced machining operations.
-
CNC Control System -- A low-cost motion control system to
be retrofitted to a mill or drill press to allow for automated manufacturing.
-
A Versatile Spindle Control -- A digital PID motor controller
for use on a small to medium size metal lathe.