Education
Teaching
I am passionate about teaching. I am particularly interested in facilitating learning through class projects and discussions. Class projects help students understand how the course content can be useful in practical scenarios. Discussions help students stay focused and motivated. Over the past few years, I am fortunate to teach three courses and work with numerous students.
ME410: Introduction to System Control
ME 410 is a required course for undergraduate students in Mechanical Engineering. It covers Modeling, Analysis, and Design of control systems. In Modeling, the students will learn how to model a system using both transfer functions and state space representations. In Analysis, students will understand first and second-order system responses, and will be able to analyze the stability and steady-state errors of a system. In Design, students will be able to design control systems using root locus methods and frequency response methods. This class also features a group project, where student groups will come up with a system of interest, and conduct modeling and control analysis.
ME422/622: Introduction to Robotics
ME 422/622 is an elective course for undergraduate students and graduate students in Mechanical Engineering. It covers Kinematics, Motion Planning, and Dynamics and Controls. In Kinematics, students will learn how to quantitatively describe the motion of a robot consists of rigid links, and the velocity relationship between the end effector velocities and the joint velocities. In Motion Planning, students will learn the configuration space of a robot, and algorithms for sensor-based motion planning. In Dynamics and Control, students will derive the Euler-Lagrange equation to describe the robot dynamics between force and motion, and learn joint-level and task-level robot control. The course is highlighted with a group project, where each team will receive monetary support to build and analyze a robot.
ME712: Adaptive Control
ME 712 is a graduate-level control course offered in Mechanical Engineering. It covers recursive parameter estimation, stability and convergence analysis, model reference adaptive control, adaptive pole-placement control, robust adaptive control, and adaptive control of nonlinear systems. Students will also complete a research-oriented class project. In Fall 2021, two groups out of five groups in the class reported findings from their projects in peer-reviewed conferences (below).
[1] T. Tsabedze, F. McLelland, F. van Breugel, and J. Zhang, "Parameter estimation and adaptive control of super-coiled polymer artificial muscles," 2022 Modeling, Estimation, and Control Conference (MECC), Jersey City, NJ, USA
[2] R. Konda, D. Bombara, and J. Zhang, "Parameter estimation and adaptive control of twisted string actuators," 2022 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Funding
We acknowledge the following funding support for our educational activities:
1. PI, "Robotics curriculum development for College of Engineering at UNR," NASA Nevada Space Grant Consortium (NVSGC), $25,000, 9/1/2021 - 5/30/2023
2. PI, "Enhancing system dynamics, control, and robotics education and research with robot manipulators," College of Engineering Differential Fee Committee, UNR, $54,000, 4/1/2020 - 3/31/2021
Capstone Projects
UNR Mechanical Engineering Capstone 2019
The Exo Tech team worked on the usage of artificial muscles into exoskeletal applications. They developed a wearable device that assists the user by augmenting their grip strength. The glove effectively reduces the force needed to grasp objects such as tools. An intuitive control system is integrated into the back of the glove with a series of flex sensors. These sensors are activated as the user starts to grasp an object which then signals the actuators to begin contracting. More details about this project can be found here.
Photo: Exo Tech team at the Innovation Day. From left to right:Clayton Frieders, Silvio Reggiardo, Anthony Johnson, Christopher Mullen, Aaron Wiese.
UNR Mechanical Engineering Capstone 2020
The Soft Robotic Grasper team worked on the usage of artificial muscles into grasping applications. They developed a grasper that possessed high strength and power efficiency. More details about this project can be found here.
Team members: Jacob Dumovich, Steven Fowzer, David Bombara, Doug Helmonds, Lyndie Munson.
Outreach
The Smart Robotics Lab is committed to reaching out, educating, and disseminating our research outcomes to underrepresented groups, females students, and the general public. We are dedicated to demonstrating our research projects to various outreach programs such as Nevada Bound, Summer Camps, Engineering Mobile Lab, and K-12 Outreach.
Lab Tour for visiting students from Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, Nevada.
Revanth presenting supercoiled polymer artificial muscles
Lab Tour for visiting students from Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, Nevada.
David talking about twisted string actuators
Lab Tour for visiting students from Drake Elementary School, Sparks, Nevada
Chris showing dielectric elastomer artificial muscles
Lab Tour for visiting students from Drake Elementary School, Sparks, Nevada
Thulani showing muscle-driven robotic graspers.