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Keng-Yu Lin

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PhD Student and Research Assistant

Dept. of Computer Engineering

Jack Baskin School of Engineering

University of California Santa Cruz

1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Education

University of California, Santa Cruz

Current PhD student: Computer Engineering

University of Southern California

M.S: Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering

National Central University

B.S: Mechanical Engineering

Publication

Lin KY., Gupta S.K. 2017, “Soft Fingers with Controllable Compliance to Enable Realization of Low Cost Grippers”, Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems Living Machines 2017, Vol. 10384, pp.544-550. Springer, Cham. 10.1007/978-3-319-63537-8_48.

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Video Link

Academic Interests

I hope to focus on dynamic control and information processing, using my experience in mechanical design to develop various machines, including biomimetic machines. The primary topics I wish to survey are how to effectively use automated control methods and innovative mechanism design to make robotic motion more flexible and nimble and have it more precisely emulate natural human movement. Living organisms provide an excellent reference standard and indices when it comes to high freedom of movement complex systems operation mechanisms, a field of intense interest to me. Hence, in addition to studying everything from various grades and arrangements of materials on through to mechanical components, structures, and systems, I also have a keen desire to study the even more complicated issues of biological organism growth and evolution. Operating from the perspective of bio-inspired robotic systems, I would like to research how living organisms have evolved special body structures to facilitate high freedom of movement. I further wish to understand the underlying mechanical principles behind these evolutionary designs and how biological organisms coordinate and control their innately complex systems and thereby achieve a high level of physical mobility and a diverse range of motion behaviors. On accumulating this foundation of knowledge and expertise, I would like to then design robot chassis possessing motion modalities that reproduce biological organism nimbleness and speed (as opposed to being satisfied with a superficial exterior appearance of such attributes). The design of high freedom of motion systems and the development of control theory are two areas that need, and would greatly benefit from, developmental breakthroughs. As the expression goes, design is form, whereas control is function. Both, however, are imperative as far as bioinspired robotics is concerned. Uniting the two in operation is both challenging and fascinating and will permit humanity to advance one more key step closer to artificial intelligence and the opening of truly unlimited possibilities.

Projects

Five-DOF Model of Automobiles & Model of Coupled Vehicle-Bridge Systems Vibration Analysis

Analyzing multi-body dynamics and distributed linear time-varying vibrating systems. Drive and solve mathematical models of both systems by using Assumed-mode method, Rayleigh Ritz method, and Runge-Kutta method. Plot displacement of the car and beam by using Matlab.

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Stabilization Control for Motorcycle by Using Gyroscopes and Momentum Wheels

Gyroscopes and momentum wheels both of the models generate a torque to neutralize the torque acting on the motorcycle from the outside. These methods have been widely used in satellite attitude control and oceangoing vessels, etc., but have very limited applications in small-scale vehicles. Deriving the equations of motion for gyroscopes and momentum wheel implemented, respectively. Then linearize the system dynamics about a set of equilibrium points and develop a linearized model. Using the state space equations and show the simulation results. In the model with momentum wheel implemented, a linear control is added to the system to increase the relative stability. Compared the two models based on their performances in simulations, energy and economic efficiency and feasibility in real world configurations.

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Automatic Flipping Mechanism Design

Designing product while considering performance, reliability, lifetime, cost, potential market, etc.

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Skills

Computer skills (A-Z)

Altium.Designer, Arduino, ASAP Optical System Design, AutoCAD, C, FlashMagic, Inventor3D, Keil μVision, Kisssoft, Matlab, Python, SAM Mechanism Design, SolidWorks

Experience

USC Center for Advanced ManufacturingVolunteer Researcher

  • Built a soft robotic finger with controllable stiffness. The goal was to redesign a conventional soft finger by integrating a structural member that can be used to control its compliance. The main idea behind our soft robotic fingers lie in embedded sealed chamber which is made up of a non-stretchable polymer sheet. The chamber is filled with floating compliant sheets. When air is pumped out to create vacuum inside the sealed chamber, floating sheets inside the sealed chamber adhere to each other, increasing the friction due to an increase in the contact area. When the structural member is set in low stiffness mode, floating sheets can easily slide with respect to each other due to the sheet separation created by positive air pressure. If air is vacuumed out of the chamber, the sheets are stacked together. This prevents sheets from sliding over each other. This leads to the structural member appearing stiff under bending loads. By controlling the vacuum inside the chamber, we can control the stiffness of the structural member and the finger.

Machine Vision and Motion Control Lab Undergraduate Researcher

  • Circuit analysis fundamentals & Electronics debug and failure analysis.
  • Schematic capture and PCB layout design and ability to solder SMD PCB components with satisfactory qualification.
  • 8051 calculator: 4*4 keyboard scan input with key press detection interrupt for efficient CPU computing efficiency, data digits displayed by seven-segment modules with the bus time multiplicity controlled by transistor switches driven by an I/O Port.
  • 8051 Alarm Clock: In addition to use the calculator hardware, single-chip timer and alarm clock can be set in two time positions exist now staging time with the alarm time and can use 4*4 keyboard do setting, time setting other than maintaining the general time display mode and when now section seven tubes use LED flashes when the time is equal to the table instead of a buzzer alarm time is the alarm rang.
  • Stepper motor control: To drive a stepper motor to rotate in a desired direction at a desired speed. Darlington transistors are switched in a proper sequence to connect power supplies to the two sets of armature field windings for the motor to rotate, the four bit sequence control string is loaded to a 74LS194 shift register by 8051 through a parallel port of 8255, the shift direction control mode of 74LS194 upon clock trigger is set through the other 8255 port by 8051, while the trigger to determine the motor speed is generated by 8254 whose time up value is altered by 8051 to change the period of trigger, namely, the stepping time and inversely the speed of the motor. Digital voice recorder & player: The voice messages are picking up by microphone, and then each message can be individually triggered by an external signal. The input signal converted into sound waves filtered DC bias voltage operational amplifier after using the second order Butterworth filter the signal is amplified from analog to digital and control by ADC chip, the dates are catching saving in the external buffer and playback through DAC and smooth filter to speaker.
Hobbies
Ski, Deep Sea Diving, Swimming, Billiard ball, Travel ,