Student-related news

New article published in ASME Letters in Dynamics Systems and Control

“Rapid Airborne Gas-plume Mapping and Source Localization with Feedforward Gas-sensor Dynamics Compensation” by K. C. Hoffman, J. A. Anderson and K. K. Leang, ASME Letters in Dynamic Systems and Control, Published Online: September 11, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4066513 Abstract This paper focuses on improving the speed, accuracy, and robustness of […]

New article published in ASME J. Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control

N. R. Olsen; S. M. McKee; O. S. Haddadin; S. M. Lyon; J. E. Campbell; K. K. Leang Information-Theoretic Bayesian Inference for Multi-Agent Localization and Tracking of an RF Target with Unknown Waveform ASME J. Dyn. Syst. Meas. and Cont., vol. 146, iss. 6, pp. 061104, 2024. ABSTRACT Information-theoretic motion planning […]

New article published in ASME J. of Autonomous Vehicles and Systems

S. K. McKee, O. Haddadin and K. K. Leang. Feedforward Mutual-Information Anomaly Detection: Application to Autonomous Vehicles, ASME J. of Autonomous Vehicles and Systems, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 041003 (7 pages), published online in Dec. 22, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4064519 ABASTRACT: This paper describes a mutual-information (MI)-based approach […]

Article published in Smart Material and Structures journal– Engineered IPMC sensors: modeling, characterization, and application towards wearable postural-tactile measurementNew article

W. S. Nagel, O. Fakharian, M. Aureli, and K.K. Leang, Engineered IPMC sensors: modeling, characterization, and application towards wearable postural-tactile measurement, Smart Materials and Structures, Vol. 33, pp. 015035 (12pp), 2024 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-665X/ad142b ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the modeling and development of engineered ionic polymer-metal composite (eIPMC) […]

Nathan Olsen receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Congratulations to Nathan Olsen B.S. ’20 for receiving the 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship will support Nathan during his Ph.D. studies. The focus of his project is to study/develop robotics-based algorithms for static/mobile sensor networks with application in agriculture and environmental monitoring. The […]

Dejun Guo wins 2018 Outstanding Robotics Graduate Student of the Year Award

Dejun Guo, Ph.D. student advised by associate professor Kam K. Leang, and member of the DARC Lab, and the University of Utah Robotics Center. Guo received the B.Eng. from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2012 and the M.S. degree in the Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China in 2015. […]

Erik’s and Greg’s 2018 ICRA paper was accepted. Congrats Erik and Greg!

2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) paper entitled, “Design, Modeling, and Analysis of Inductive Resonant Coupling Wireless Power Transfer for Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs)” by Gregory M. Plaizier, Erik Andersen, Binh Truong, Xiang He, Shad Roundy and Kam K. Leang The video below summaries […]

Jim Carrico and Tom Tyler publish new comprehensive invited review paper in the Special Issue on Active Materials and Soft Mechatronics, International Journal of Smart and Nano Materials

Congratulations to Jim and Tom for publishing their 70-page review paper in the Special Issue on Active Materials and Soft Mechatronics, International Journal of Smart and Nano Materials!  The paper is titled, “A comprehensive review of select smart polymeric and gel actuators for soft mechatronics and robotics […]

Dejun Guo, Wins 2017 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSCC) Best Student Paper Award

DARC Lab Ph.D. student, Dejun Guo (pictured on the right), advised by associate professor Kam K. Leang (pictured on the left), won the 2017 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSCC) Best Student Paper Award, held October 11-13, 2017 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This conference and competition represent […]

New research paper on visual-servo control for aerial robots published in J. Nonlinear Science

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Dejun Guo for publishing his work on visual-servo control for aerial robots in the special issue “Robotics: mechanics and control of locomotion” of the Journal of Nonlinear Science.

Jim Carrico and Dejun Guo ICRA 2017 papers accepted

Jim Carrico’s and Dejun Guo’s ICRA 2017 papers were recently accepted. The papers are: J. D. Carrico, K. J. Kim and K. K. Leang, “3D-Printed Ionic Polymer Metal Composite Soft Crawling Robot”, IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, 2017, to appear. D. Guo, H. Wang, W. Chen, […]

William Nagel wins Best Session Presentation Award at ACC 2016

William Nagel wins Best Session Presentation Award for paper entitled, “Master- Slave Control with Hysteresis Inversion for Dual-Stage Nanopositioning Systems”, at the American Control Conference in Boston, MA, July 6-8, 2016. ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on motion control of a piezo-based dual-stage nanopositioner where hysteresis and dynamic effects dominate […]

Daman Bareiss successfully defended his Ph.D.! Congrats Daman!

Daman Bareiss successfully defended his Ph.D.!  Congrats Daman! Daman is now off to work with Omron Adept Technologies, Inc. Model-Based Collision Avoidance for Dynamic Single- and Multi-Robot Systems: Theory and Application in Ground and Aerial Robots Committee Members: Dr. Kam K. Leang (Chair), Dr. Jur van den Berg, Dr. Jake […]

Chris Pratt’s ICRA paper and video make the final cut of ICRA 2016 Video Trailer Episode I — Flying Robots!

Chris Pratt and Prof. Kam Leang’s ICRA paper and video make the final cut of ICRA 2016 Video Trailer Episode I — Flying Robots! Paper is entitled, “Dynamic Underactuated Flying-Walking (DUCK) Robot”.  The work will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), which […]

Matthew Givens receives UU’s UROP grant to work on ground effects for micro UAVs

Congratulations to DARC Lab undergraduate researcher Matthew Givens who recently received funding from the University of Utah’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) to work on project entitled, “Sensorless Obstacle Detection using Ground Effects for Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles”.  The UROP will provide Matthew with $1200 to support his work […]

Congratulations to Jim Carrico and Nick Traeden who are winners of the 2015 SMASIS Conf. Best Student Paper Award!

Congratulations to Jim Carrico and Nick Traeden, winners of 2015 ASME SMASIS (Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems) Conference Student Best Paper Award, held September 21-23, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Jim and Nick’s work describes a new 3D printing technique for fabricating ionic polymer-metal composite actuators […]

Joseph Melville receives DoD SMART Scholarship for graduate studies

Congratulations to Joseph Melville for receiving the Department of Defense Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship. The scholarship will fully support Joseph for two years as he pursues his graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at the DARC Lab. The program aims to increase the number […]

Photos of DARC Lab featured in Deseret News

Photos of students working the DARC Lab featured in a Deseret News article on Sunday, April 4, 2015.   Link to the full article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865625733/Patching-the-pipeline-Educators-businesses-call-for-Utah-tech-talent.html

DARC Lab graduate student Daman Bareiss interviewed by dronesandsociety.org

DARC Lab graduate student Daman Bareiss interviewed by dronesandsociety.org. Read the full interview here: http://www.dronesandsociety.org/?p=203

DARC Lab featured in Engineering Day video

The new DARC Lab opened its doors for the first time on Saturday, Oct. 11 to offer tours to local high school students and their parents. About 500 high school students and their parents attended the University of Utah College Engineering Day to learn about engineering and […]

New graduate students join the lab

The lab welcomes four new graduate students starting Fall 2014 semester: Daman Bareiss Christopher Pratt Balakumar Sundaralingam Nick Traeden Rajat Tyagi

Monolithic IPMC Fins for Propulsion and Maneuvering in Bioinspired Underwater Robotics

Joel J. Hubbard, Maxwell Fleming, Viljar Palmre, David Pugal, Kwang J. Kim, and Kam K. Leang* IEEE JOURNAL OF OCEANIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 39, NO. 3, JULY 2014 ABSTRACT: Emerging bioinspired underwater systems, such as autonomous ocean mapping and surveillance vehicles, that maneuver through their environment by mimicking […]

Range-based control of dual-stage nanopositioning systems

G. C. Clayton, C. J. Dudley, K. K. Leang (2014), Review of Scientific Instruments, 85 (4), pp. 045003 (6 pages). ABSTRACT: A novel dual-stage nanopositioner control framework is presented that considers range constraints. Dual-stage nanopositioners are becoming increasingly popular in applications such as scanning probe microscopy due to […]