CAN Kong and Terminal Tower
CANstruction, Inc. is a non-profit organization that holds annual design and build competitions to benefit local food banks. The sculpture consists of approximately 6,000 tuna cans wrapped in black trash bags and trace paper in the form of CAN Kong and Terminal Tower. The team cut the pieces stabilizing the sculpture on the ShopBot.
Intubot
Intubot is a novel robotic intubation device that deploys an endotracheal tube between a patient’s vocal cords to protect and ventilate the lungs during a respiratory failure or distress. Intubation is one of the most common procedures performed worldwide in emergency departments but requires a high level of skill. Doctors will also experience difficulties during the procedure such as short necks, arthritic spines, etc. These issues motivated Ph.D. student Xiangyi Cheng to design a device that facilitated the procedure. The automation of this complicated procedure signifies another step towards improving medical practices by obtaining higher accuracy and efficiency.
Dynamic Rocket Stability Control Module
Vincent Cozza, Benjamin Fruitman and Richard Offhaus created this simple, lightweight and dynamic 3D printed rocket active stabilization system. Their design uses cheaper components and materials making it easier to produce than current stabilizers on the market, which in turn gives novice rocketeers access to rocket stabilization technology. Onboard electronics track a variety of environmental inputs and guide the rocket along the correct path.
Perceiving Art Through Sculpture Models
The Perceiving Arts Through Sculpture (PATS) program helps visually impaired people interact with art and illustration. Leslie Humez, a sculptor, works with other artists to create these representations of 2D illustrations in sculpture in her studio and 3D printed prototype models at think[box]. PATS not only opens up museums to people who are visually impaired but also improves the experiences of sighted people with hands-on, interactive exhibits.
Next Generation MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) creates anatomical images by detecting magnetization in the human body. Prior to being detected, the magnetization must be "excited," which is typically done by applying a powerful radio-frequency magnetic field, referred to as the RF transmit field. However, the RF transmit field is potentially harmful to certain patients, especially those with implanted devices. By separating the RF transmit system into an array of smaller antennas and amplifiers working in parallel, the hazard is reduced, making it possible for millions of patients with implants to benefit from high field MRI.
The Read Read
The Read Read device assists in braille and phonics learning. Designed and built by Alex Tavares, the Read Read consists of tiles with raised braille and phonic letters that also contain a playable audio track. Each individual tile can be pressed to play the audio representation of that letter and the tiles can be positioned on a conductive grid to form words. This device allows blind or visually impaired individuals to easily and independently learn to read without the need of a personal tutor.
Alula
The Alula phone case conveniently stores and dispenses daily birth control pills. Missed doses can reduce birth control’s effectiveness by as much as 8% per day so Alula’s phone application and case tracks the pills and reminds the owner to take their pills at optimal times.
Philos-R
Social robots interact and communicate with humans by following social behaviors and rules attached to their roles. This friendly robot continues a line of research projects that study human-robot interaction. Although commercially-available social robots now exist in the markplace, this project demonstrates a more affordable solution that offloads intensive computer processes to a cloud server to achieve low-cost yet real-time interaction with humans. Graduate students Xiao Liu and Tao Liu developed these systems in Professor Kiju Lee's Distributed Intelligence and Robotics Lab (dirLAB).
Autonomous Welder
The AW-1 by Path Robotics is an autonomous robotic welder. It uses proprietary image processing techniques to automatically find and weld seams. There is no programming involved - the machine is capable of operating automatically with zero prior knowledge of the part to be welded.
Smart Glove
Embedded electronics in this glove allow it to function as an innovative remote control device. Data from flexible resistive sensors in four fingers along with a force-sensing resistor in the thumb are transmitted using an XBee radio communication module to the receiving equipment. To test this technology, the glove was used to remotely control a small research robot in Professor Kiju Lee's Distributed Intelligence & Robotics Laboratory.