By changing the consistency of silicone rubber, John Morrow, a graduate student in robotics, enabled a 3D printer to assemble silicone into complex shapes. The breakthrough could hold the key to 3D printing of silicone soft-bodied robots.
Morrow and his colleague, Osman Dogan Yirmibesoglu, a Ph.D. student in robotics, presented their findings at the 2017 Graduate Research Showcase.
Oregon State University will participate in a new research institute that will develop artificial intelligence solutions to tackle some of agriculture’s biggest challenges related to labor, water, weather, and climate change.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office recently announced support of up to $22 million for 10 marine energy research projects, including three represented by researchers from Oregon State University’s College of Engineering. (The award amounts for each project are under negotiation.)
A majority of mobile robots that operate in the world around us either use wheels or legs for locomotion. The reason for this is the inherent simplicity of operation in the case of wheels and easy access to environments of societal interests like buildings, stores, and warehouses in the case of legs. These modes of locomotion generally perform poorly in environments with either heterogeneous ground or deformable substrates like sand, mud, and soil.
In “Star Wars,” R2-D2 is the perfect example of a likable and effective robot. Though he looks and sounds nothing like a human — with no face or hands, and communicating with only whistles and beeps — he clearly has a connection to his human co-workers.
“R2-D2 does a good job of illustrating that he’s paying attention. That’s important for people, especially in a collaborative scenario where you really want to understand what the other person needs,” said Heather Knight, an assistant professor of computer science at Oregon State University’s College of Engineering.
Anthony Le took a leap of faith when he came to Oregon State.
He started working on his doctorate in bioengineering in the fall of 2016 — before the university had officially begun to offer that degree, while the bioengineering graduate program was in its final stages of approval. So, he entered as a chemical engineering major and transferred into the bioengineering program a year later, as one of the program’s first two students.
Le says his decision has paid off.
The National Science Foundation has awarded $1 million to five Oregon State University researchers to study the operation of autonomous marine vehicles.
The grant further enlarges the university’s robotics footprint three months after the College of Engineering established CoRIS—the Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute — to advance the theory, design, development, and deployment of robots and intelligent systems able to collaborate seamlessly with people.
