Multiple New Ph.D. Positions!

The Interactive Robotics Laboratory - IRL (http://www2.statler.wvu.edu/~irl/) at West Virginia University (WVU) has multiple openings for fully funded Ph.D. positions. Research areas include robot perception, manipulation, autonomy, multi-agent interaction, and robot/UAV design.

Prospective candidates should hold a master’s or bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, computer science/engineering, automatic controls, applied mathematics, or other related disciplines. She/he should have a strong background and interest in one or several of the following areas: systems and controls, stochastic estimation, mathematics, instrumentation, programing, and hardware design and testing. The candidates should also have excellent verbal and writing skills in English, should be motivated and capable of creatively working in a team environment.

Interested candidates should apply to WVU Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering or Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering online. Questions about the position may be sent to Dr. Yu Gu at Yu.Gu(at)mail.wvu.edu.

About IRL: IRL provides a free thinking environment that allows students to reach their full potential. At IRL, students are encouraged to develop their own research ideas, supported by resource provided internally and from external sponsors. Many students at IRL have won prestigious fellowships and awards. As a group, IRL won the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge in 2014 (level-1 prize), 2015 ($100,000 level-2 prize), and 2016 ($750,000 final prize).

About WVU: WVU is designated as an "R1" Research University (Very High Research Activity) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

About Morgantown: Morgantown is an attractive college town located within easy traveling distance of Pittsburgh (~1 hr. drive) and Washington, D.C. (~3 hr. drive). Morgantown was rated “No. 1 Small City in America” by BizJournals. Business Insider also named Morgantown the ninth best college town in America. Being in a mountainous area, there are many outdoor sports opportunities such as hiking, biking, rock climbing, white water rafting, and skiing.

NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge

Sorry for not reporting anything for a few years... That's because we were busy! We spent three years building an autonomous rover, named Cataglyphis, that can go around, find samples, and bring them back!

Here is how Cataglyphis looks like in 2014 (photo: NASA):

We built it in 7 months and it completed Level-1 challenge in the first year.
In 2015, we made many updates (photo: NASA):

It completed Level-2 challenge and won us a $100,000 prize
In 2016, we changed a few more things:

Cataglyphis won the final challenge with a $750,000 prize (photo: NASA)!

See our website for more information: http://www2.statler.wvu.edu/~irl/index.html
or you can watch a video on YouTube:

IRL Visited by the Mountaineer Area Robotics (MARS) Team Last Night

Around 40 high school students and their teachers toured lab and saw the quadrotor flight demonstrations.

IRL hosted the first Open House!

Our open house today is very successful! We showed the close formation flight video, the teaching robots, among many other things. Of course the most interesting part is the quadrotor demonstration. It automatically followed a ground rover as it drives around.

Presenting Engineering Data Using MATLAB Figures

Research ideas can be effectively communicated using visual representations of data.  Computer software, such as MATLAB, provides many useful tools which can be used to aid in the preparation of illustrative figures.  Some general recommendations are provided in this article in order to generate quality figures for various technical works.  Additionally, more detailed examples are offered to provide examples of these techniques in practice. 

Read the Article Here

Understanding Nonlinear Kalman Filters, Part II: An Implementation Guide

Kalman filters provide an important technique for estimating the states of engineering systems.  With several variations of nonlinear Kalman filters, there is a lack of guidelines for filter selection with respect to a specific research or engineering application.  This creates a need for an in-depth discussion of the intricacies of different nonlinear Kalman filters.  Particularly of interest for practical state estimation applications are the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF).  This tutorial is divided into three self-contained articles. Part II presents detailed information about the implementation of EKF and UKF, including equations, tips, and example codes.    

Read the Article Here

Understanding Nonlinear Kalman Filters, Part I: Selection between EKF and UKF

Kalman filters provide an important technique for estimating the states of engineering systems.  With several variations of nonlinear Kalman filters, there is a lack of guidelines for filter selection with respect to a specific research or engineering application.  This creates a need for an in-depth discussion of the intricacies of different nonlinear Kalman filters.  Particularly of interest for practical state estimation applications are the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF).  This tutorial is divided into three self-contained articles.  Part I gives a general comparison of EKF and UKF, and offers a guide to the selection of a filter.  

Read the Article Here