Month: September 2019

ECE Student, Evan Faulkner, Presents at NEWSDR’19 and Wins Best Poster

Earlier this summer, UMass Boston hosted the 2019 New England Workshop on Software Defined Radio (NEWSDR’19). The Boston SDR User Group (SDR-Boston) organizes an annual series of workshops and this was the ninth one held. These workshops allow individuals working on SDR-related projects in the New England area to collaborate and introduce SDR concepts to others interested in furthering their knowledge of SDR capabilities and available resources.

Evan Faulkner, an Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior at the University of Connecticut attended the event. During Spring 2019, he pursued an independent study with Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Shengli Zhou, Ph.D. Faulkner presented his work, “Comparison of Coherent and Noncoherent Receivers for IEEE 802.15.4 Modulation Based on SDR Platforms,” in a poster at the event. After briefly presenting his work to the audience, he displayed his poster to host visitors. Visitors voted for the best poster and Faulkner won the best poster award out of the twelve posters in competition.

To view the Poster Presenter Elevator Pitches / Lightning Talks of NEWSDR 2019, you can watch a video at the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmKkutC_jAE&feature=youtu.be

 

 

The CT4INSPIRE Seminar Series Hosts Dr. Ashwin Dani

On September 12th, Dr. Ashwin Dani spoke at the Industry 4.0 and Manufacturing Ingenuity course. The course, funded by CTNext, fosters innovation and entrepreneurship by providing students with exposure to emerging technologies in automation, cyber physical systems, and advanced manufacturing. The course is built upon seminars by invited industrial speakers to introduce cutting-edge technologies and challenges.

Dr. Dani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Prior to joining UConn, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune, India in 2005, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida in 2011. His current research interests include human-robot collaboration and safety issues in manufacturing environments, GPS-denied navigation of unmanned aerial systems, improved autonomy, and supervisory control of building systems.

In his talk entitled “Role of Robotics & Automation in Industry 4.0”, Dr. Dani discussed the first 3 industrial revolutions. Then, he gave the origin of Industry 4.0, and defined it as a transformation that makes it possible to gather and analyze data across machines, enabling faster, more flexible, and more efficient processes to produce higher-quality goods at reduced costs. Industry 4.0 increases productivity and includes 9 technologies: simulation, cyber security, cloud, IoT, horizontal and vertical system integration, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, autonomous robots, and big data analytics.

Dr. Dani then went into detail about the history of robots and types of robots. The three types of robots discussed were manufacturing robots, service robots, and humanoid/walking robots. These robots can be further classified into two groups: static base and mobile robots. Static base robots are typically robot arms for manufacturing. The challenge with static base robots is finding a way to make them more efficient. On the other hand, mobile robots are simply robots that move. Challenges with mobile robots include kinematics, dynamics, control, and navigation.

He explained that robots have sensors that collect data, and that data needs to be processed. This leads to mapping and localization ̶ the robot figures out where it is and where it wants to be. Next, the robot plans a path to get to where it needs to go ̶ this is called cognition and path planning. The final step in the process is motion control.
Additionally, Dr. Dani touched upon simultaneous localization and mapping, as well as vision based control, which is using vision in the loop to control the actions of the robot. The process involves feature extraction from images, and there are two types: image-based control and position-based control.

To finish his talk. Dr. Dani presented a video of a robot learning how to grate cheese, whip eggs, and cut ham. His final message was “in the context of industry, you can teach robots to perform various applications”.

This week, Dr. Kenneth Creasy will be the seminar speaker. Dr. Creasy is the Senior Director of Manufacturing Technology and Innovation for Johnson & Johnson. His presentation will focus on scouting and incubation technology for the healthcare supply chain.

Kevin Waugh Engages Students in CTIN4SPIRE

UConn welcomed Kevin Waugh to campus on Thursday, September 5, who presented at the Industry 4.0 and Manufacturing Ingenuity course. The course, funded by CTNext, fosters innovation and entrepreneurship by providing students with exposure to emerging technologies in automation, cyber physical systems, and advanced manufacturing. The course is built upon seminars by invited industrial speakers to introduce cutting-edge technologies and challenges.

UConn invited Kevin Waugh, who has 20 years of experience in digital product development across a variety of industry settings, from small businesses to large OEMs. At Sikorsky Aircraft, he provided support and methodology for digital tools used across the enterprise and collaborative supply chain for multiple aircraft programs.
Waugh received many questions at the end of his presentation entitled, “Generative Design and 3DExperience.” In his talk, Waugh defined 3DExperience, which, in short, are applications that enable industries, and spoke about product life cycle management and digital thread. Then, he discussed the importance of composites and methods of composite manufacturing. Later, he went into detail about generative design, an iterative process that involves a program that will generate a certain number of outputs that meet certain constraints, which the designer fine tunes in order to reduce or augment the number of outputs to choose from.

This week, Dr. Ashwin Dani will be the seminar speaker. Dani is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UConn. His presentation will focus on the role of robotics and automation in Industry 4.0.