CAMPUS NEWS
Introducing the Master’s in Robotics Program at The Georgia Institute of Technology
According to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, automation and robotics is expected to be a primary area of growth in Georgia over the next decade. This increasing demand drives a need for experienced, educated, and qualified professionals to serve and lead in these increasingly automated industrial and service-oriented environments. To meet this growing demand, the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a new interdisciplinary master’s Program in Robotics.
This 36 credit-hour, cohort-based program is a professional Master of Science in Robotics over four semesters designed to produce industry-ready engineers and scientists with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to meet the challenges of rapidly growing interdisciplinary technologies in professional careers related to designing and developing robotics and automation solutions. Such a program is in high demand by not only students but also a growing list of local and global companies interested in robotics and factory automation.
Offered collaboratively by six schools in the Colleges of Computing, Engineering and Sciences:
- Aerospace Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Interactive Computing
- Mechanical Engineering
- Physics
Find out How to Apply and View the Detailed Curriculum Requirements Here
Introducing IRIM's Newest Faculty Member:
Dr. Harish Ravichandar
 Dr. Harish Ravichandar is currently a Research Scientist in the School of Interactive Computing and a faculty member of the Institute of Intelligent Robots and Machines (IRIM) at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he joined as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2018. He received his M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida in 2014 and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 2018. His current research interests span the areas of robot learning, human-robot interaction, and multi-agent systems. His work has been recognized by the ASME DSCC Best Student Robotics Paper Award (2015), IEEE CSS Video Contest Award (2015), UTC Institute for Advanced System Engineering Graduate Fellowship (2016-2018), and Georgia Tech's College of Computing Outstanding Post-Doctoral
Research Award (2019) and Outstanding Research Scientist Award (2020).
Representative Selection of Work:
- H. Ravichandar, K. Shaw, S. Chernova, “STRATA: Unified Framework for Task Assignments in Large Teams of Heterogeneous Agents”, Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (J-AAMAS), vol. 34, no. 38, 2020.
- H. Ravichandar, A. P. Dani, “Learning Pose Dynamics from Demonstrations via Contraction Analysis”, Autonomous Robots, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 897–912, 2019.
- H. Ravichandar, A. P. Dani, “Human Intention Inference using E-M Algorithm with Online Learning”, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (TASE), vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 855-868, 2017.
Welcome to IRIM Dr. Ravichandar!
Visit Dr. Rachandar's Website Here
 August 31 | Topic: Mechanics and Control
Design and Control of a Quadruped Robot Panther for Highly Dynamic Motions
Yanran Ding | Mechanical Engineering; University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
User State Adaptive Assistance Strategy to Enhance Human Locomotion Using a Robotic Hip Exoskeleton
Inseung Kang | Mechanical Engineering; Georgia Institute of Technology
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Awards & Accolades
Dellaert Wins Test of Time Award for a Second Time This Year
For the second time this summer, Frank Dellaert has been awarded a Test of Time Award. This time, the award comes from Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) and recognizes Dellaert’s papers, Square Root SAM and Square Root SAM: Simultaneous localization and mapping via square root information smoothing.
“Receiving a test of time award is amazing and humbling. Being recognized for the RSS paper is special to me because it recognizes work Michael and I have done at Georgia Tech, after I joined as an assistant professor back in 2001..." said Dellaert, a professor in the School of Interactive Computing and Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech. Dellaert is also affiliated with the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and the GVU Center.
Coogan Receives Eckman Award
Sam Coogan received the 2020 Donald P. Eckman Award at the American Control Conference, which was held July 1-3 in an online format. Coogan serves as the Demetrius T. Paris Assistant Professor, an endowed position in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he holds a joint appointment.
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3 IRIM Faculty Selected for the 2020-21 Emerging Leaders Program Cohort
Starting in Fall 2020 and continuing through Spring 2021, the 16 participants will take part in leadership development workshops, a fall weekend activity, small-group work, self-assessments, and 360-degree assessments.
Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair states, “Since 2016, the program has supported faculty who are passionate about continuing their leadership journey and, in so doing, has promoted a growing culture of leadership at Georgia Tech.”
Professor Karen Feigh, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
- Decision Support System Design
- Computational Cognitive Modeling for Engineering Design
Professor Facundo M. Fernández, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry
- Metabolomics
- Pharmaceutical Forensics
Professor Fumin Zhang, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Underwater and Marine Robotics
- Motion Planning in Complex Environments
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Robot Integrated Palletization System (RIPS) Project wins GTRI 2020 IRAD of the Year
 For the US armed forces, palletization, a process in which one or two soldiers retrieve boxes from manifest sheets, prepare a staging area, and then load supplies onto pallets for transportation, is tedious, prone to error, and most importantly, dangerous. The RIPS team, led by GTRI’s Chief of Robotic Systems and Technologies Branch, Dr. Stephen Balakirsky, participated in a challenge program to create an agile robotic palletization solution that can take custom orders and create a provably compact load-out of boxes ready for transportation.
For the IRAD competition, GTRI/GT junior personnel spearheaded each of the subcomponents, with the collaboration of a masters-level graduate student, several co-op students, and interns. By the completion of the project, this team had constructed a robotics cell within the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility that utilized two UR5 robotic arms, a three-meter long rail, and static hardware to demonstrate palletization. At the conclusion of this build, the entire system could work together to construct a made-to-order pallet using scaled-replica ammunition boxes in a timely manner.
The team made several technical innovations that led to their award including 1) developing a pallet optimization algorithm, 2) creating a task planning infrastructure, 3) formulating control and coordination algorithms for multi-DOF systems, and 4) utilizing mechanical intelligence to simplify control and increase robustness. The project culminated with a fully autonomous demonstration of custom pallet creation.
The success of the IRAD team was greatly assisted by collaboration with Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). IRIM helps connect researchers from throughout Georgia Tech, and enhances collaboration through funding mechanisms, seminars, and outreach events.
Congratulations to the GTRI RIPS Team Members
- Stephen Balakirsky (PI), Principal Research Scientist, GTRI
- Matthew Marcum, Research Engineer II, GTRI
- Konrad Ahlin, Research Engineer II, GTRI
- Donald Dole, Research Engineer I, GTRI
- Raymond Kim, MS Student, GT Mechanical Engineering
- Ani Mazumdar, Assistant Professor, GT Mechanical Engineering
EPIC Lab Robotics Team Wins the 2020 VIP Consortium Innovation Competition
 Under the advisement of Professor Aaron Young (GT-ME / IRIM), the Robotic Human Augmentation VIP Team, which focuses on improving mobility of people with lower limb motor impairments, highlighted their work on a robotic lower limb built by the team with components manufactured in the Woodruff School’s Montgomery Machining Mall.
The team won a campus-wide competition in December, and then advanced to win the United States- Southeast regional competition in May that earned them one of five berths in the global competition where they faced another American team from the northeast, one from Europe, one from Asia, and one from the southern hemisphere.
Read the Full Story & See the Winning Team's Video Here
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IRIM in the NEWS
Robots are getting personal during the pandemic..
A “Marketplace Tech” podcast & interview with Professor A. Howard
 This week on “Marketplace Tech,” we’re reporting on the innovations that will help us transition to a post-pandemic future. One of those innovations has been waiting in the wings for a long time: robots.
Robots can do jobs that are too dangerous for humans or just make life a little easier and offer some companionship during quarantine. I spoke with Ayanna Howard, a roboticist and professor at Georgia Tech. She said the pandemic has been a boost for robotics of all types.
Read the full story or listen to the podcast here.
Local Source: Public Broadcasting Atlanta 90.1 FM [http://www.wabe.org]
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IRIM Faculty Lab Highlight
The Adaptive Robotic Manipulation (ARM) Laboratory
PI | Frank L Hammond, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering & Mechanical Engineering
 MISSION: The Adaptation Robotic Manipulation Laboratory focuses on a variety of topics in robotic manipulation, including underactuated robotic grasping, kinematically redundant manipulation, teleoperative robotic surgery surgical training, and wearable human augmentation devices. The goal of this research is to leverage our knowledge of human and animal motion (locomotion, grasp synergies, robustness to uncertainty and variation), novel embedded sensing and actuation methods (soft sensors, biosensors, transformable structures), and computational design methods (machine learning, evolutionary optimization) to create robotic devices that boast the versatility and adaptability of biological organisms/manipulators while possessing the precision, strength and speed of man-made machines.
Access the ARM Lab Here
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