Collegiate Times

snakeCenter

A student-led design team facilitated by Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory Director Dennis Hong has created a lifesaving robotic invention that has thrust the university into the forefront of robotics research and education.

Students Gabriel Goldman and Nick Thayer developed a trio of serpentine robots that can be used to climb support beams or poles on a construction site. The robots can then inspect scaffoldings, inspect the beams themselves, or accomplish other tasks that would otherwise put humans in harm's way.

"Each year approximately 1,200 people die in construction-related accidents in the U.S. alone," said Thomas Mills, an associate professor of building construction at Tech. "That's about four or five people every day."

The research and development of these robots has been going on for two years.

"I wanted to use my senior design project to put people out of harm's way," Goldman said. "I brought the idea to Professor Hong, and we were able to figure out a way to use his serpentine application in construction safety."

The robots operate as a series of joints that can move freely and wrap around various objects as they swivel up and down, creating a snake-like motion. The use of this kind of technology in the world of construction has been a revolutionary experience for the world of robotics.

"There really is no construction equipment used for climbing structures effectively," Hong said. "There are some mechanisms that can climb using tracks, but they are unable to adapt to any kinds of obstacles. This robot can change course, adapt to impediments, or even branch off onto other beams."

The team designed a total of three robots: the HyDRAS and the HyDRAS II, which operate on electric motors, and the CIRCA, which operates with the use of a compressed air muscle.

"The uses for these robots are very diverse and provide cost-efficiency as well as safety," Thayer said. "For example, you could pay a diver $80,000 a year to inspect the support beams under a bridge, or you could manufacture the CIRCA for around $1,000 and also take the injury risk out of the equation."

The trio of robots has seen a great deal of success internationally. The robots have garnered awards at the 2008 International Capstone Design Fair in South Korea, 2008 ASME Student Safety Engineering Design Competition, and were granted the CAGI Innovation Award by the Compressed Air and Gas Institute.

"These robots have given Virginia Tech and our department a lot of publicity," Goldman said. "It brings Tech to the grand stage in the robotics industry and may even help attract future students to our university."

Those future students may have the opportunity to expand upon these machines too. Hong and his team are not looking to stop the development of these machines, but rather are beginning to look into the next generation of these robots.

"Think of a robotic-type tube the size of a piece of licorice," Hong said. "Something small that moves in a continuous manner through Whole Skin Locomotion (WSL) and needs no mechanical parts. We're developing a robot like this that can be put to a variety of uses, even medical ones."

The HyDRAS and CIRCA programs are only two of several projects that Hong has seen success in. Hong led a team of students to a third-place finish in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, and he also headed the only team from the United States ever to qualify for the RoboCup competition.

The success Hong and the university's robotics have seen in these international competitions has established Virginia Tech as a leader in the robotics education field.

"The advancements we've seen in robotics are incredible," Mills said. "We're still in the infancy stages of robotics development, but any chance we get to replace humans in dangerous situations is a huge step forward."