Combat Robotics — Warlock V2

Warlock

Warlock's back! Now with an improved weapon motor mounting scheme, strengthened wheel guard attachment, repacked electronics, and a welded AR400 front wedge, Warlock made its return to Norwalk in March with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss. One of the matches, in which we faced Northwestern University Robotics Club's "Jade", ended in a knockout 12 seconds into the match, after Warlock scored a devastating hit, ripping off Jade's weapon and disabling the bot. However, the forces involved in the hit were so great, that they also snapped Warlock's 3/4 in hardened steel weapon shaft.

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Combat Robotics — Warlock

Warlock

While at the University of Maryland, I took a leading role in Leatherbacks, the school's fledgling combat robotics team. Warlock, a 30 pound combat robot, is the largest bot I have built to date with Leatherbacks. I took primary design responsibility for the drive system, and was also the chief machinist, making intricate parts for the drive, chassis, and weapon systems, employing CNC mills, a CNC lathe, a waterjet, multiple 3D printing technologies, and rubber casting. For the project I made use of Solidworks for CAD, and Autodesk Fusion 360 for CAM.

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Autocycle — Printed Circuit Board

Autocycle Shield PCB

While at the University of Maryland, I was a part of and helped lead Team Autocycle, a student research team working to design and build a self-driving bicycle. The Autocycle required custom electronics to supply the microcontroller with necessary sensor information, power, actuator interfaces, and communication lines. To that end, I designed a custom PCB shield in Autodesk Fusion 360, using both through-hole and surface mount technology, soldered, and verified it.

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Autocycle — Design and Manufacturing

Autocycle Steel Tensioner

While at the University of Maryland, I was a part of and helped lead Team Autocycle, a student research team working to design and build a self-driving bicycle. The Autocycle, as we referred to the bike, needed many custom parts made. As the only member of the team with significant additive and subtractive manufacturing experience, I took on responsibility for DFM review and production of the needed parts, working primarily in Solidworks/HSMWorks for CAD/CAM.

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Research — Teleoperation of ICU Ventilators

Remote Ventilator Control

After the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, I was unable to access the lab to continue my DALK work. As such, I pivoted to design and prototype a device that could help combat the pandemic: a tele-operated robot for remotely controlling Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ventilators. The project involved rapid design, prototyping, and coding, and eventually won the Innovation Award in the UK-RAS Medical Robotics for Contagious Diseases Challenge.

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Combat Robotics — Hubris

Hubris

While at the University of Maryland, I took a leading role in Leatherbacks, the school's combat robotics team. Hubris was the second combat robot I was involved with, a 12 pounder, and the first in which I handled a significant portion of the manufacturing, doing the majority of both the design work and milling for the two drive pods that propel the bot, working in Solidworks/HSMWorks.

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Combat Robotics — Professor Hex

Professor Hex

While at the University of Maryland, I took a leading role in Leatherbacks, the school's combat robotics team. Professor Hex, a 3 pound machine, was the first combat robot I built with the team. I worked primarily on weapon system design, and learned a great deal in terms of mechanical design and manufacturing. Through the process I significantly expanded my Solidworks CAD skillset and was able to apply my classroom mechanical design and analysis knowledge to real system.

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Class Project — Over Sand Walker

OSV

As part of Introduction to Engineering, students at the University of Maryland are expected to build a wheeled robotic vehicle to traverse sandy terrain and measure some objective. Feeling the need to challenge ourselves, my team instead decided to build a quadruped walker. I pushed the idea in its initial stages and spearheaded the development of the chassis, walking mechanism, and robotic gait. The resulting robot successfully completed the mission, and our team was awarded Most Innovative by a panel of outside judges at the final course presentation.

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