1. Customized Effectors for Grasping
Approach:
Customized effectors to adopt to complex shapes
Connect the effectors using reconfigurable modules
Customized shapes for modules
Planar effector
Concave effectors
Cylindrical effector
Spherical effector
Theorem 1. Every polyhedron can be immobilized by three concave effectors.
Theorem 2. Every general polyhedron can be immobilized by one planar and two concave effectors.

2. Electronics Blocks Library
Library of complete circuits for quick, reusable, reliable PCB design
15 Full, Tested Blocks
+3 on the way
EAGLE’s ULP
(User Language Program)
Combine Blocks
Connect Nets
Compile documentation
Multiple copies

3. Nicola Bezzo, Matthew Turpin, Radoslav Ivanov, Junkil Park, Insup Lee
PPR Meeting
Feb. 11th 2013
Nicola Bezzo, Matthew Turpin, Radoslav Ivanov, Junkil Park, Insup Lee
GUI- based Programming Language
Simplified programming language based on ROS
ROBOT
ACTUATORS
UBUNTU OS
ROS
2) Subscribe
1) Advertise
ROS Master
CONTROLLER
Cruise Control
Path Planning
Obstacle Avoidance …
CONTROLLER
Cruise Control
Path Planning
Obstacle Avoidance …
CONTROLLER
Cruise Control
Path Planning
Obstacle Avoidance …
3) Host + Port
4) Topic Request
Viewer Node
Odometry Node
5) Topic Stream
SENSOR 1
SENSOR n …
ACTUATORS
SENSORS

4. Synthesizing Robot Designs (Sanjeev and Tarik Tosun)
Design an algorithm that, given two robot designs, can synthesize an optimal new design that implements both.
Example:
Walker / Manipulator
Motivation: enabling a task-oriented modular robot design system that is novice-user friendly
Methodology:
Proceeding from a primarily topological perspective
The eventual goal is to enable a system incorporating many more real-world constraints
Robot designs represented as configuration graphs
Capturing two designs in a single design requires a notion of configuration graph embedding
Progress:
Dynamic programming algorithm to test embedding of one design into another
Currently working on an algorithm to synthesize an optimal new design.