Dr. Maciejewski

The vast majority of robots in use today operate in very structured environments, e.g., in factory assembly lines, and possess only those limited motion capabilities required to perform specific tasks. While these robots can outperform humans in terms of speed, strength, and accuracy for these tasks, they are no match for the dexterity of human motion. Part of a human's inherent advantage over industrial robots is due to the large number of degrees of freedom in the human body. Articulated, i.e., jointed, motion systems that possess more degrees of freedom than the minimum required to perform a specified task are referred to as kinematically redundant. In an effort to mimic the dexterity of biological systems, researchers have built a number of kinematically redundant robotic systems, e.g., anthropomorphic arms, multi-fingered hands, dual-arm manipulators, and walking machines. While these systems vary in their appearance and intended applications, they all require motion control strategies that coordinate large numbers of joints to achieve the high degree of dexterity possible with redundant systems. This talk will discuss the issues that arise when designing such strategies, frequently drawing on the use of the singular value decomposition, including the characterization of redundancy, the quantification of dexterity, and the development of efficient and numerically stable motion control algorithms that simultaneously optimize multiple criteria.

Biography:

Anthony A. Maciejewski received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1982, 1984, and 1987, respectively, all from The Ohio State University under the support of a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowship. From October of 1985 to September of 1986 he was an American Electronics Association Japan Research Fellow at the Hitachi Central Research Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan. In 1988, Prof. Maciejewski joined the faculty of Purdue University, West Lafayette and was promoted to Full Professor in 1998. In August of 2001 he joined Colorado State University where he is currently a Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research and teaching interests center on the analysis, simulation, and control of kinematically redundant robotic systems. He has 300 publications (39 h-index), directs a research laboratory, and has developed multiple undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas. His commitment to education resulted in his receiving four teaching awards and a $2M NSF RED award. His research has been supported by NSF, DARPA, NASA, Sandia Nat'l Lab, Oak Ridge Nat'l Lab, Nat'l Imagery and Mapping Agency, Missile Defense Agency, Non-lethal Technology Innovation Center, the NEC Corporation, Caterpillar, AT&T, H-P, Intel, Wolf Robotics, and the TRW Foundation. Prof. Maciejewski has served on nine editorial boards including the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Part A) and IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers "for contributions to the design and control of kinematically redundant robots," and has served on the Board of Governors for its Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, Education Society, and Robotics and Automation Society. He was Technical Program Chair for the 2002 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the IROS Conference Editorial Board, and has served on over 100 other conference program committees.

Email:

Address:Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States, 80523-1373