Automated Disassembly of Electronic Waste - Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing global challenge as the number of electronic devices continues to increase while their service lifespans decline. Despite the growing need for sustainable recycling and reuse, efficient methods for automated, non-destructive e-waste disassembly remain limited. Our initial work in this area focused on the design and characterization of a prototype […]
Development of a Device for Proprioception Training - As medical technology continues to evolve, there is a growing demand for affordable and effective rehabilitation devices, particularly for proprioception training. This project, funded by a Rhode Island Innovation Voucher Grant from RI Commerce, focused on the design, modeling, and control of a prototype device for proprioception training. The device consists of two ball-screw linear stages, each […]
Automated Nut Threading - This project developed a novel robotic system designed to automate the initial mating of nuts on threaded studs by integrating convolutional neural networks, image processing, and force sensing. The YOLO architecture was employed to develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify studs and studs with threaded nuts. Visual servoing that combines CNN with traditional […]
On the Observability of Visual-Place-Recognition-Based Localization in Mobile Robots - Our latest paper has been accepted for presentation at ECC 2026. In this paper we study the observability properties of visual-place-recognition (VPR)-based localization systems for mobile robots. In our setup, the environment is split into discrete cells and the robot’s camera, through a VPR module, provides a discrete place label together with probabilistic distribution over […]
Design, Modeling and Control of a H-Frame Type XY Positioning System - XY positioning systems are widely used in industry to position a part or a tool within a two dimensional rectangular area. These systems are typically used for cutting, welding, marking or for pick-and-place applications. Current implementations of XY positioning systems typically consist of two linear guides, each with their own independent timing belts or ball/lead […]
Automation of a Brick-Joining Operation - The project, funded by a Rhode Island Innovation Voucher Grant from RI Commerce, focused on developing a semi-automated system to create corner bricks formed by joining two individual bricks. The corner bricks are used for exterior corners of buildings and window trims, and are made from two flat bricks cut at 45° angles such that […]- Small Fault Detection of Discrete-Time Nonlinear Uncertain Systems - This article investigates the problem of small fault detection (sFD) for discrete-time nonlinear systems with uncertain dynamics. The faults are considered to be “small” in the sense that the system trajectories in the faulty mode always remain close to those in the normal mode, and the magnitude of fault can be smaller than that of […]
- A Low-cost Spectral Camera for Online Vegetation and Water Identification - In general, each material reflects a different percentage of electro-magnetic (EM) radiation in each wavelength. By plotting those values with respect to the wavelength, it is possible to obtain what is called the “reflectance” of the inspected material. The reflectance is unique for each material and constitutes what can be considered a sort of spectral […]
