Research in Purdue SMART Lab

A Directional Antenna-based Leader-follower Robotic Convoy System (2013 - 18)

   In this research, we present a directional antenna-based leader-follower robotic relay system capable of building end-to-end communication in complicated and dynamically changing environments. The proposed system consists of multiple networked robots - one is a mobile end node and the others are leaders or followers acting as radio relays. Every follower uses directional antennas to relay a communication radio and to estimate the location of the leader robot as a sensory device. For bearing estimation, we employ a weight centroid algorithm (WCA) and present a theoretical analysis of the use of WCA for this work. Using a robotic convoy method, we develop online, distributed control strategies that satisfy the scalability requirements of robotic network systems and enable cooperating robots to work independently. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated by conducting extensive real-world experiments that successfully build actual communication between two end nodes.

Learn Braille Device (2015 - 16)

   Braille is a language that was developed with the sole intention of providing a medium for users who are blind or have low-vision to understand text the same way humans read and write text. Due to the loss of at least one sensory input, this language systems relies on a user’s ability to touch and feel. However, historically, in order to learn braille, the user must rely on additional help to understand how to obtain information from braille. Especially in this era when there are less teaching professionals qualified to teach braille. Therefore, we present a novel approach that provides an alternative to helping users who are blind or low-blind disabilities to learn braille by use of affordable technologies.

Adaptive Learning System in Language based Environment for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015 - 16)

   Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most significant public health concerns in the United States and also worldwide. Children with ASD are often lack in verbal ability. Even though early interventions can improve it greatly, high cost and difficult access to special education services challenge families with a child with ASD. This research study proposes a technical methodology that can be easily deployed in a daily environment of children with ASD and teach language to them with low cost, based on embedded devices and semantic information which can be extended to a cyber-physical system in the future. This method will provide verbal descriptions of objects and also adapt the level of descriptions to the child's learning achievements.

This project is collaborated with the M2M Lab at Purdue University.

Establishment of End-to-End Wireless Network with Mobile Robots (2013 - 16)

   In this research we tackle the fundamental problem of finding the optimal location and allocation of mobile robots in an application of the establishment of an immediate end-to-end communication. Often this is called the multi-robot deployment problem in networked robotics. To this end, we formulate an end-to-end communication problem, in a general optimization form, with constraints that consider the operation of robots and the types of antennas. Additionally, constraints on the propagation of radio signals and infeasible locations of robots within physical obstacles are also taken into consideration for a dense space. To solve the optimization problem we explore the use of evolutionary optimization techniques such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO).