(keine Einträge)
Career and Jobs
For Graduates & Professionals
Student Projects & Jobs
Multifingered Robot Hand Simulation and Control
Human-Robot Interaction
Robot Control
Telepresence
Human modeling
Brain Computer Interface Systems
Robot Learning
Electronics
Pos-type: Forschungspraxis/Internship, possible thesis extention. New application deadline: November 15, 2024
Brushless motors are growing in popularity for Robotics applications. In particular, due to their high power density, these motors can be used with smaller gear ratios to deliver the torque and speed requirements. For example, the key to MIT mini cheetah's success was BLDC adaptation within the Proprioceptive Actuator concept [1]. You haven't seen its performance, check it here.
Interesting part of using BLDC actuators is the versatility of its electronics, since it requires a logic unit (usually a microcontroller) for its control. It requires 3 phases to be coordinated in a specific manner to supply needed power. This concept is not new, one of the most popular mainstream approaches is FOC control for BLDC. Underlying system design is quite important, which in this case consists of the custom PCB controller and the motor itself. At the end of the internship, one will gain knowledge and understanding of the power PCB design and improve current design to better handle more extreme working conditions: high power loads, high speeds, etc.
Having in mind the challenge, the person should be familiar with the PCB design. Willing to do the signal hacking, debugging, working with the oscilloscope, understand logic of different components, etc. Brushless motors are commonly used in the hobby project, thus experiance can provide great foundation for "build your own things" mindset. At least we do expect the hands-on and genuine curiosity in the engineering & design aspects from the students joining us.
What you will gain:
- Hands-on experience and in-depth understanding of Brushless Motors, and their control
- Best practices for PCB Design and Project Collaboration
- Experience building, prototyping
- Hacking electronic signals (via oscilloscope, etc.)
- Insights in our System Development and access to our community
Requirements from candidates:
- Knowledge of Electronics/Power electronics
- Experience with PCB design and soldering
- Knowledge of one of the popular PCB Design software
- Basic Matlab skills
- Plus are:
- Understanding how Motors work
- Familiarity with GIT
- Embedded system programming, knowledge of C language
- Working skills in Ubuntu operating system
To apply, you can send your CV, and short motivation to:
Supervisor
M.Sc. Vasilije Rakcevic
[1] P. M. Wensing, A. Wang, S. Seok, D. Otten, J. Lang and S. Kim, "Proprioceptive Actuator Design in the MIT Cheetah: Impact Mitigation and High-Bandwidth Physical Interaction for Dynamic Legged Robots," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 509-522, June 2017, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2016.2640183.
Mechatronics System Developement
Application deadline: October 20, 2024
Robotic solutions recently have been largely getting accustomed to the Direct-Drive actuation, involving lower gear ratios and BLDC motors. These solutions offer several advantages:
- Good back-drivability
- Joint torque sensing based on the motor currents
- Good torque density, due to the specificity of BLDC motor
An article introducing as they call “Proprioceptive” concept for actuation (Direct-Drive using BLDC) [1] (MIT Mini Cheetah-like robots have become a popular choice for a legged locomotion research system.)
However, Direct-Drive actuators have not become so popular for the Manipulator applications:
- Consuming big amount of power to compensate for gravitational loads when stationary
- Nature of manipulator control is not impact driven (as is the case for the legged robot walking), thus more traditional designs with additional torque sensors have good enough bandwidth for common manipulation tasks)
- Torque sensing is not required for adopted industry level manipulator applications
There are examples of the Manipulator robots that adopt direct drive actuators (of similar design to cheetah) https://rsl.ethz.ch/robots-media/dynaarm.html For example, to overcome overheating problems (power consumed constantly due to active gravity compensation), they adopt the active cooling methods.
Parallel elastic Actuator
Since the manipulator/or legs often require just relatively small operational range, idea is to utilize parallel spring in order to alleviate some of the load from the motor. Drawback is that for certain motion, beside overcoming the load required to move the robot, actuator needs to “fight” also spring force. However, if due to the spring choice, one can mostly assume that the main goal of the spring is full or partial compensation of the static loads, this scenario offers more advantages (we argue).
Research question
Advantage of this topic is that it has high relevance for the research (contribution): Control of the parallel elastic actuation to overcome the negative spring properties such as oscillation. Explore damping capabilities of the actuator and utilization of the spring for passive control.
What you will gain:
- Hands-on experience and in-depth understanding of Classical Robotics and various control methods
- Best practices for software development and collaboration
- Experience building, prototyping
- Insights in our System Development and access to our community
Requirements from candidates:
- Mechanical Engineering background
- Matlab skills
- Any CAD software for the Part designs (such as Solidworks, Fusion 360,etc.)
- Basic experience in C (embedded) programming
- Basic skills in Electronics
- Plus are:
- Understanding how Motors work
- Familiarity with GIT
- Working skills in Ubuntu operating system
To apply, you can send your CV, and short motivation to:
Supervisor
M.Sc. Vasilije Rakcevic
[1] P. M. Wensing, A. Wang, S. Seok, D. Otten, J. Lang and S. Kim, "Proprioceptive Actuator Design in the MIT Cheetah: Impact Mitigation and High-Bandwidth Physical Interaction for Dynamic Legged Robots," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 509-522, June 2017, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2016.2640183.
Studentische Hilfskräfte (HiWi)
Andere Kategorien
Data Protection Information
When you apply for a position with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), you are submitting personal information. With regard to personal information, please take note of the Datenschutzhinweise gemäß Art. 13 Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) zur Erhebung und Verarbeitung von personenbezogenen Daten im Rahmen Ihrer Bewerbung. (data protection information on collecting and processing personal data contained in your application in accordance with Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). By submitting your application, you confirm that you have acknowledged the above data protection information of TUM.