Academia

Research Projects

Modular Active Cell Robots (MACROs)

This project revolves around the design of small-scale robots that are both structural and actuating, and can be used in ensembles to create scalable robotic systems. Our work has been in the design and fabrication of these "Active cells", with small ensembles performing simple actuation tasks. I worked with Dr. John Swensen on the early years of this project. I was supervised over the duration of my PhD by Dr. Aaron Dollar at Yale University.

2xE Expedition Outreach in Social Robotics

This was a project to create an outreach project in museums around the country showcasing the progress of the NSF Social Robotics Expedition that Yale University is a part of. I worked with Henny Admoni and Dr. Iolanda Leite, and was supervised by Dr. Brian Scassellati at Yale University.

Conductive polymers

I attempted to enhance the conductivity of an insulating polymer (Silicone) by embedding highly conductive macroscopic (copper) elements. The process altered the mechanical properties of the polymer minimally while providing over 11 orders of magnitude increase in the conductivity of the polymer. The process was independent of the choice of polymer or metal, and thus may be useful in the design of large swaths of bulk-conductive polymeric material. I was supervised by Dr. Aaron Dollar and Dr. John Swensen at Yale University.

Brain-Computer Interface development

I created a BCI system that connected to a wandering rover over wireless, allowing a human participant to choose (from a grid of options) the motions the robot makes. The rover was placed far from the participant, while a virtual robot model was placed on the screen to provide feedback to the user. The BCI system used EEG signals analysed and filtered in the time-domain to obtain correlations as flashing stimuli was applied. I extended an open source BCI filter, set up stimuli for the participant, the communication protocol with the robot, and the robot's motion software. The system was tested on a few individuals as part of my undergraduate honors thesis. I was supervised by Dr. Yih-Choung Yu and Dr. Lisa Gabel at Lafayette College.

Ultrasonic eye-scanner prototyping

Together with fellow student Shailesh Shreshtha in the ECE department, I worked on a project supervised by Dr. Yih-Choung Yu and Dr. Richard Koplin in prototyping a patent-pending ultrasonic eye scanner. I identified the physical system's parameters, configured and calibrated sensor readings, prototyped and tested the mechanical device and developed control software for the scanner.

Publications

My list of publications is listed below in some general categories. The entries are listed in reverse-chronological order for each category. My Google Scholar Profile can be accessed here.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

  1. A. I. Nawroj and A. M. Dollar, "Shape Control of Compliant, Articulated Meshes: Towards Modular Active-Cell Robots (MACROs)," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2017 (in press).

  2. A. I. Nawroj, J. P. Swensen, A. M. Dollar, "Towards Modular Active-Cell Robots (MACROs): SMA Cell Design and Modeling of Compliant, Articulated Meshes," IEEE Transactions in Robotics, 2017.

  3. J. P. Swensen, A. I. Nawroj, P. E. Pounds, and A. M. Dollar, "Active cells for redundant and configurable articulated structures," Journal of Smart Materials and Structures, 2014.

  4. L. F. Schettino, A. Pallottie, C. Borland, S. Nessa, A. I. Nawroj, and Y.-C. Yu, “The organization of digit contact timing during grasping,” Experimental Brain Research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale, vol. 227, no.4, pp. 477–86, Jun. 2013.

  5. A. I. Nawroj, J. P. Swensen, and A. M. Dollar. "Electrically conductive bulk composites through a contact-connected aggregate". PLoS ONE, 2013.

Peer-reviewed Conference Articles

  1. A. I. Nawroj and A. M. Dollar, "Shape Control of Compliant, Articulated Meshes: Towards Modular Active-Cell Robots (MACROs)," Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)), 2017 (accepted for presentation in September 2017- with IEEE RA-L co-submission (above)).

  2. A. I. Nawroj and A. M. Dollar, “Evaluation of Regular Planar Meshes for Modular Active Cell Robots (MACROs),” Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2017 (accepted for presentation in September 2017).

  3. A. I. Nawroj, J. P. Swensen, and A. M. Dollar, “Design of Mesoscale Active Cells for Networked, Compliant Robotic Structures,” Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015.

  4. J. P. Swensen, A. I. Nawroj, P. E. I. Pounds, and A. M. Dollar, “Simple, scalable active cells for articulated robot structures,” in 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014, pp. 1241–1246.

  5. A. I. Nawroj, M. Toneva, H. Admoni, B. Scassellati. "An Exploration of Social Grouping in Robots: Effects of Behavioral Mimicry, Appearance, and Eye Gaze". Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci), 2014.

  6. Y-C Yu, S. Shrestha, A. I. Nawroj, M. Sotomayor, R. Koplin. "Microprocessor control of an ultrasonic scanning device". 11th IFAC Conference on Programmable Devices and Embedded Systems (2012, Jointly with the IEEE).

Contributed Abstracts and Posters

  1. A. I. Nawroj, J. P. Swensen, and A. M. Dollar. "Development of Active-Cells for Macroscopically Deformable Structures". ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Inteligent Systems (SMASIS), 2014.

  2. A. I. Nawroj, J. P. Swensen, and A. M. Dollar. "Design of a Bulk Conductive Polymer Using Embedded Macroscopic Copper Cells". ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Inteligent Systems (SMASIS), 2013.

  3. A. I. Nawroj, S. Wang, Y.-C. Yu, and L. Gabel, “A brain-computer interface for robot navigation,” 2012 38th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC), 2012, pp. 15–16, 2012.

  4. A. I. Nawroj, S. Wang, I. Jouny, Y-C Yu, L. Gabel., "An event classifier using EEG signals: An artificial neural network approach". 38th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC), 2012.

  5. Y. Yu, A. I. Nawroj, S. Wang, and L. Gabel, “Mobile robot navigation through a brain computer interface,” in 2012 IEEE Signal Processing in Medicine and Biology Symposium (SPMB), 2012, pp. 1–5.

Patents

  1. "ULTRASONIC SCANNING PROBE WITH A TUNING FORK-TYPE OSCILLATOR AND FEEDBACK CONTROL THEREOF". United States Patent Application US 2012/0236258 A1. Filed September 20, 2012. Inventors: Ahsan Nawroj, Shailesh Shrestha, Yih-Choung Yu, Marcos Sotomayor, Richard Koplin, MD.