Education

• PhD, New York University, 1969

• MS, University of Wisconsin, 1960

• BE, University of Roorkee, India, 1957

• B.Sc., Agra University, Agra, India, 1954

Specialties
Robotics
Sensing and sensor systems
Design
Ethics in Engineering
neural networks
Manufacturing

Research Interests

The main emphasis of research in the Robotics and Manufacturing Automation Laboratory is on the control of multiple robots that can work together. Multiple robotic control of the two ABB industrial robotic arms was sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The sensor modeling, data acquisition, data management, and sensor fusion research was being funded by the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation. We are currently exploring ways of using neural networks and fuzzy logic algorithms incorporated in the robot control strategies. In addition, we are emphasizing swarm intelligence and control in our research using a network of small-size mobile robots. The research is primarily inspired by the existence of very robust biological counterparts such as swarming in ants, flocking of birds, and schooling in fishes. The primary feature of these systems that has attracted researchers is that the intelligence associated with an individual agent (e.g., ant or bird) is very primitive, and it utilizes interactions at local level to arrive at very simple decisions. This behavior at local level emerges into a group behavior that appears to be very robust and complex. This observation in biological systems has led the interested scientists and engineers to investigate multiple agent cooperative controls problem using a bottom-up approach. We have developed a multiple mobile robot test bed equipped with a Cognex-5400 camera, 2 SICK LADAR sensors, and 8 KheperaII mobile robots. These mobile robots are controlled via a radio controller through a desk-top computer. We are also working on developing formation control algorithms and strategies. The next step will be to implement these algorithms on our test-bed. The control of robotic devices via the internet has become an increasingly important area of research in the last few years. We have created a web based interface for our ABB IRB 140 industrial arms that provided the user with various functionalities, such as moving the robot arms linearly to specified coordinate offsets, opening and closing the grippers, rotating the tool (gripper) about the three axes (x, y and z), accessing the F/T values, and moving the conveyor and the indexing table. The major emphasis of our research on work cell simulation is on machine tools and related hardware operating in flexible manufacturing work cells. Past problems and recent advances, and guidelines for work cell design were also looked at. Two flexible manufacturing work cell models were created, which are capable of manufacturing a certain part. The costs of each of the layouts were compared with the costs of manufacturing the part to determine the optimal layout. Our research work in sensor fusion involves development of formal approaches to capture uncertainties inherent in sensor measurements in the form of appropriate probabilistic and analytical sensor models, and use those models to fuse data from multiple sources. The uncertainties involved in sensor measurements can arise from each sensor’s limitations, change in environmental parameters, or performance of estimation/calibration algorithm (such as image processing algorithm in case of vision sensor). The research focuses on developing a unified approach to capture uncertainties arising from any possible source in the form of sensor models, and involves the use of multiple vision sensors, infra-red sensors, and sonar ranging sensors .