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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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  • WPI: First in Robotics Engineering

    A robotics revolution is underway, and a new breed of engineers will be needed to face the challenges that this exciting field represents. WPI, the leader in project-based education, continues its pioneering tradition by developing the nation's first bachelor's degree program in robotics engineering. In 2009, WPI also announced the introduction of the Robotics Engineering master's program.
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  • Robotics Engineering at WPI

  • The greatest inventions begin with a little imagination...

    - You know that robots will make a difference in the world
    - You want to be part of this new and exciting field of study
    - Your imagination knows no limits

    If this sounds like you, the Robotics Engineering program at WPI is for you.
    Robotics Engineering at WPI is a multi-disciplinary program involving the fields of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science.

    Your classes in Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering will help you learn to construct the robot. Your classes in Computer Science will teach you how to control the robot's behavior. You'll graduate from the program with a well-rounded education and a promising future in the rapidly growing Robotics industry.

    • A Well Rounded Education

    • WPI has established the nation's first undergraduate Robotics Engineering degree program to teach people like you. This unique, innovative program was built from the ground-up with future Robotics professionals in mind. In this program, you'll develop a proficiency for mechanical, electrical and computer engineering which will teach you to build the robot's body. You'll also become proficient in computer science, which will help you control the robot's behavior. In this program, you will be building robots during your first year of study. You will not find this hands-on approach to Robotics anywhere else but WPI.

      Our new Master of Science program in Robotics Engineering serves to provide students a similar well-rounded education through diverse classes in a variety of topics engineering professionals need. It includes a thesis and non-thesis option. Visit our graduate program page to see a sample class schedule and offerings.

    • An Exciting Future

    • Students graduating from the Robotics Engineering program will have many options for future employment across a wide range of industries including national defense and security, elder care, automation of household tasks, customized manufacturing, and interactive entertainment.

      New England is home to a strong and growing Robotics industry. Massachusetts alone boasts over 150 companies, institutions and research labs in the Robotics sector, employing more than 1,500 people.

    • A History of Leadership in Robotics

    • WPI has a long history in Robotics. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national program founded by Dean Kamen '73 that engages high school students in a competition modeled after athletic contests. Working with scientists and engineers from industry and academic partners, students design and build robots to complete specific tasks. WPI sponsors a FIRST team at the Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science and also organizes annual pre-season and post-season competitions on campus.

      If you have participated in FIRST or WPI's very own BattleCry, RoboNautica, or Savage Soccer competitions, you're already familiar with the principles of sensing, computation and actuation that Robotics is based upon. At WPI, you can turn your hobby into a very exciting career.

  • RIVer Lab

  • The Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory (RIVeR Lab) at WPI was founded in 2010. Our research is aimed at advancing the capabilities of autonomous robots and intelligent vehicles. Research activities in the RIVeR Lab focus on design, analysis, implementation and control of intelligent vehicles, mobile robots, walking robots, manipulators and adaptive systems. Aligned with WPI's core values, Lehr and Kunst, excellence, close faculty/student interaction, collaborative learning and research, respect for all members of the WPI community, our projects bring science and technology together with real-world problems.

  • Ongoing Projects

    • Hermes Project
       

    • This project started in late August of 2010 and Ben has been designing for several months. The project focuses on designing an omni-directional robotic platform that will be used to test localization and mapping using an infrared laser and low cost camera. Click here to check out the project.

    • Robust Algorithms for Vehicle Lane Detection

    • This project began in September 2010. Dan is working on machine vision algorithms that can effectively detect lanes on a road for autonomous vehicles. The project focuses on developing methods that are effective in challenging conditions such as varying illumination, fog, and rain.

    • Reconfigurable Legged Robot
       

    • This robot started as an MQP design, and KG plans to teach it to walk. The robot has a base and 12 ports on which to plug in any number of modular three jointed legs. KG is putting together a simulation of the robot in Matlab which includes the transformation matricies, forward and inverse kinematics, and single leg dynamics. Currently KG is setting a gait and stepping movements for the legs, which will have independent controllers. The simulation also includes a strange stick figure model shown in the figure.

  • WPI Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM) Laboratory

  • The main focus of the WPI RAM Lab is to study and develop enabling technologies for the collaborative control of multi-robot systems. Our work focuses on collaborative multi-robot systems from a systems level with emphasis in system reconfigurability, rapid deployment, mission-based task allocation, and evolutionary social robotics.

  • Past Research

    • Mobile-R: A Multi-Robot Control Architecture
       

    • Morphologically Reconfigurable Modular Robots

    • Dynamic Motion Control by Robot Pose Manipulation

    • Task-Level Control of a Heterogeneous Robot Workcell

    • Development of a Laser-Based Vehicle Detection System