According to CSranking, our CS robotics ranking is #21 in the US:
http://csrankings.org/#/fromyear/2007/toyear/2020/index?robotics
and #44 in the world:
http://csrankings.org/#/fromyear/2007/toyear/2020/index?robotics&world
Position 1:
About the project: We are building a magnetic climbing robot that traverses steel structures (bridges, towers, industrial frames) and inspects them for fatigue cracks, corrosion and other defects. The robot carries onboard cameras and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) sensing, builds a 3D map of the structure, and reports the location of every detected defect back into that map so inspections can be repeated and compared over time.The work sits at the point where the hard constraints bite: the robot has to hold itself onto a vertical or inverted steel surface with enough force margin to be safe, negotiate joints and transitions between flat and curved members, and still stay light enough and small enough to be useful – all while carrying sensors, compute and power. This is a design problem where mass, adhesion, torque and payload trade against each other directly, and getting it right requires someone who can do the analysis and then build the thing.You would own the physical robot end-to-end.
What you’ll do:Mechanical design and magnetic adhesion:
- Design the robot’s chassis, drivetrain and adhesion system in CAD, from concept sketches through to manufacturing drawings and assembly.
- Design the magnetic adhesion mechanism — permanent-magnet arrays, magnetic wheels, or magnetic roller-chain/track systems
- Analyse and document the failure modes that actually matter on a climbing robot: sliding, roll-over/tipping, peeling at the leading edge, and detachment during surface transitions. Establish safety factors and defend them.
- Size motors, gearing and transmission against worst-case climbing torque, including inverted operation and obstacle crossing.
- Design, lay out and bring up custom PCBs : motor control, power distribution, sensor interface, and main controller boards.
- Design the power system — battery pack selection and protection, DC-DC conversion, current sensing, e-stop and safe-shutdown behaviour, and the fall-safety implications of a power loss while the robot is on a vertical surface.
- Integrate and condition the sensor suite: IMU, hall-effect sensors, IR/ToF proximity, encoders, cameras, and NDE sensing.
- Write firmware for motor control, sensor acquisition and real-time safety behaviours on STM32 / ESP32 / Teensy-class microcontrollers.
- Build the communication layer between the low-level controller and the onboard computer (CAN, RS-485, UART, Ethernet) and expose it to ROS2
- Support field deployments on real steel structures, including transport, setup, operation, and recovery when something goes wrong at height.
- Contribute to publications, technical reports and grant/customer deliverables.
- Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Robotics or a related field — or equivalent 3 years+ experience.
- Strong 3D CAD skills (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape or similar) including design for manufacture across machining, 3D printing, sheet metal and laser cutting.
- Embedded C/C++ on microcontrollers, including peripheral-level work (timers, ADC, SPI/I2C, CAN, PWM).
- Comfortable with lab instrumentation: oscilloscope, logic analyser, power supply, multimeter, load cell.
- Hands-on fabrication and assembly ability.
- Publications in field robotics, or a portfolio of built robots.
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Position 2:
ARA Lab is looking for a postdoctoral position to work for the NSF and DOT funded projects at the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab (http://ara.cse.unr.edu), University of Nevada, Reno. This position will start as soon as possible. This position requires a good publication record, a good background in robotics, ROS and computer vision. Contact Dr. Hung La for more detail.
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Position 3:
ARA Lab is looking for a PhD student to work at the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab (http://ara.cse.unr.edu), University of Nevada, Reno, for the NSF funded project: CAREER: Less Obstructive Vital Evaluation-inspection Robots for Bridges (Bridge-LOVER). Starting salary is $2100/month plus other benefits (tuition+fee cover and health insurance). The total scholarship is upto $55K/year.
This position requires strong background in robotic hardware, software design, motion planning (mobile robot and drone). Experience with Robotics Operating System (ROS) is preferred.
If you are interested in this position, please follow the instructions here to apply: https://www.unr.edu/degrees/computer-science-and-engineering/phd
and also email Dr. Hung La the following documents:
1. CV
2. BS and/or MS transcripts
3. TOEFL or IELTS
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Position 4:
ARA Lab is looking for a PhD student to work at the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab (http://ara.cse.unr.edu), University of Nevada, Reno, for the US Department of Transportation funded project: Inspecting and Preserving Infrastructure through Robotic Exploration (INSPIRE). Starting salary is $2100/month plus other benefits (tuition+fee cover and health insurance). The total scholarship is upto $55K/year.
This position requires strong background in robotic hardware and software design (mobile robot and drone). Experience with Robotics Operating System (ROS) is preferred.
If you are interested in this position, please follow the instructions here to apply: https://www.unr.edu/degrees/computer-science-and-engineering/phd
and also email Dr. Hung La the following documents:
1. CV
2. BS and/or MS transcripts
3. TOEFL or IELTS
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Position 5:
ARA Lab is looking for a PhD student to work for an industry funded project at the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab (http://ara.cse.unr.edu), University of Nevada, Reno. This position will start in Spring semester 2019 or Fall semester 2019. Starting salary is $2100/month plus other benefits (tuition+fee cover and health insurance). The total scholarship is upto $55K/year. This position requires background in robotic manipulator programming, ROS, and/or computer vision.
If you are interested in this position, please follow the instructions here to apply: https://www.unr.edu/degrees/computer-science-and-engineering/phd
and also email Dr. Hung La the following documents:
1. CV
2. BS and/or MS transcripts
3. TOEFL or IELTS
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(This position has been filled)
Position 6:
ARA Lab is also looking for highly self-motivated MS students starting at Summer and Fall 2017. If you are interested in the robotics and mobile sensor networks areas please send your CV with indications of GPA (>3.3), TOEFL (>87), GRE-Q(>155) to hla [at=@] unr [dot=.] edu. Students with Cpp, Matlab and ROS (Robotic Operating System) programming experiences and good paper publications are preferred. Please see the admission requirements from our department here:
http://www.unr.edu/cse/academics/degrees/phd?view=apply#admissions
(This position has been filled)
Position 7:
Dr. Hung La is looking for a graduate student to work as a grader for CPE201-Digital Design class. This position can be started in November to December of Fall 2018 and the full semester of Spring 2019 with up to 20hours/week. If you are interested please email Dr. Hung La (prefer to graduate students who want to do MS/PhD thesis at ARA lab.)
(This position has been filled)
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Contact Information
Dr. Hung La
- Email:hla [at=@] unr [dot=.] edu.
- Phone: (775) 682-6862
- Office: Scrugham Engineering and Mines, SEM 214
- Mail Stop: 0171
