My Research
For the past four years I have worked as a research assistant in the Robotics Research Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno. I was the first researcher to join the group, and have watched the lab grow from "a handful of robots in a small lab" to "more robots than we can handle in a comfy lab". The lab is equipped with 11 ActiveMedia Pioneer 3-DXs, 10 iRobot Creates, and 10 WoWee RS-Media robots. (I've detailed each robot under their respective links below). I find the UNR Robotics lab to be an ideal learning environment for me because I'm freely able to pursue any research topic, I have more than enough hardware, and Dr. Monica Nicolescu is a great advisor. If you are interested in working in a small, well-equipped lab environment I suggest you consider the UNR Robotics lab as an option. Please contact me with any questions about the lab.
My master's research is focused on multi-robot control and coordination. I'm trying to mix elements of self-organizing networks, heterogeneous robot teams, auction-based task allocation, and human-robot interaction to produce cohesive and efficient multi-robot, multi-human teams. What does this mean? First, I want a bunch of dissimilar robots to autonomously work together as a team. The big goal here is robustly dealing with system failures caused by the environment. Second, I want to produce a human-robot interface for the control of multiple robots that is natural to the user. Finally, the two will be meshed. Robots and humans will work in harmony...
My research interests are much more diverse than what I am pursuing in fulfillment of my master's work. For more information on my interests and ideas please visit the links below. (This is mostly a list for the time being).
Active Media Pioneer 3-DX (content++)
The University of Nevada, Reno Robotics Research Laboratory (RRL) is "staffed" with 11 ActivMedia Pioneer 3-DX mobile robots. You can think of these robots as your PC on wheels. Each robot came standard with an on-board Intel Pentium III-based single board computer that runs Linux and sports a bttv-based video capture card, gripper, Sick LMS 200, and Sony EVI-D70 Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera. Due to the limited horsepower and our need for real-time image processing we added a mini-itx form factor Intel Core2 Duo computer with wifi and two-channel bttv-based capture card to the systems. Future hardware additions will include microphone, speakers, and more cameras.
I actively maintain six of these robots for my research -- Godel, Turing, Archimedes, Copernicus, Newton and von Neumann. With this section I would like to archive my techniques for upgrading and maintaining these robots. My primary motivation being my legacy to the RRL. In time, there will hopefully be many links describing different aspects of system maintenance (installing OSs to routing power for new hardware to efficient experimental setup). Please check back regularly.