Robotics Realization Lab gives UMD students space to build robots

About 50 university students, faculty members and researchers came together Friday afternoon to observe futuristic machinery and student-led studies during the opening celebration of the Robotics Realization Lab.

Sarah Bergbreiter, a mechanical engineering professor, came up with the idea to create the lab to give students and professors space and equipment to build the next generation of robots. The grand opening celebration took place inside the Engineering Annex Building.

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Bregbreiter said Dean Darryll Pines raised about $1 million to fund the lab.

“The Robotics Realization Laboratory is [an] Open Laboratory Environment that allows students, faculty and staff an environment to work on some of the most interdisciplinary challenges facing autonomy and robotics,” Pines said in a statement. “Our investment will ensure that Maryland will be at the forefront of robotics innovation.”

Friday’s ceremony began with introductory speeches from Bergbreiter, S.K. Gupta, a mechanical engineering professor, and Reza Ghodssi, the Institute for Systems Research director. Gupta addressed how robots were primarily used to do work that was dull, dangerous or dirty, but now they have to be engineered to safely work with human beings and do the things that “people can truly not do.”

There are several work stations in the two-room lab space for students to conduct studies. The lab also contains robots that can help people working in the lab handle delicate equipment, such as a Baxter, a packaging and handling robot, and KUKA arms, industrial, assembly robotic arms. The lab also has motion-capture systems and 3-D printers.

The opening also attracted about 15 experts from across the state, including industry representatives at Hillcrest Labs, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation.

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Following speeches, spectators watched as RRL graduate students ran simulations that demonstrated the robot capabilities.

Ryan St. Pierre, a graduate student who investigates small-scale robots, performed demos of his cockroach-sized micro-robots — which he said he built from 3-D-printed materials — that harness magnets to move across rocky terrain.

The centimeter-long robots mimic insect locomotion and are recorded using four motion-capture cameras that typically sell for $4,000 apiece, but the bots themselves are not expensive, St. Pierre said.

“Materials are pretty cheap nowadays,” he said. “[Micro-]robots cost less than 10 dollars to make with the 3-D printer.”

Alexi Charalambides, another graduate student who works at the lab, just entered his sixth semester with Bergbreiter. He is working on giving robots the sense of touch by using clear, flexible rubber that emulates human skin.

“As robots become more prolific and they interact with their environment, they need to interact in a way that’s safe using sensors,” Charalambides said.

The mechanical engineering student said he foresees his research being used in small-scale robots and human prosthetics.

Luke Roberts, a student working with Gupta, displayed the RoboRaven, a robot that simulates the aerial acuteness of a raven. One application for the flying robot is in the agricultural industry, which Roberts said “loses 10 to 20 percent of their crops to other birds.”

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“If they could get one of these to autonomously fly over an area and dive — essentially being like a bird of prey — that would work really well,” Roberts said.

A robot like this could also be used in the Army, he said.

“It was [Dean Pines’] support that made this [lab] happen,” Bergbreiter said to students at the opening. “This equipment isn’t mine, it isn’t S.K.’s or Reza’s or Dean Pines’ — it’s your equipment. You are responsible and this is what’s really going to make this lab shine.”