Inoculation Machine I. (March 2003~February 2004, at CAU in China)

During my undergraduate study at China Agricultural University (CAU) in Beijing, one of my projects was on designing and prototyping the inoculation machine. Thanks to the sponsorship from CAU's Technology & Innovation Fundation, I independently designed, prototyped and controlled the inoculation machine by applying computer aided design, 3d simulation and programmable logical controller to replace the time-consuming, highly repetitive inoculation operation in microbial research lab where my twin sister was conducting her research. Physically based on air siphon, the machine is able to run consecutively and can reduce the operation time from three minutes of conventional handwork to less than twenty seconds with high quality spray. The design brought me not only the top honor in national competition (2005) together with an invention patent (No.ZL200410042879.2I), but also a great opportunity to realize the importance of being open-minded on other fields and areas.

What to know more about the inoculation machine? Detailed information is here.

Inverted Pendulum. (February 2004~June 2004, at CAU in China)

In addition to a long-standing interest in research, I also have a strong interest in teaching. I designed and prototyped an inverted pendulum system with simple PLC control for helping undergraduates to better understand dynamics and control theory (e.g. Xu and Zhang, Journal of China Agricultural University, 2005).

Inoculation Machine II.(January 2005~July 2005, at CAU in China)

During designing and prototyping of new machine, I used to enjoy over 18 hours in the lab, absent only for essential needs for human living. As one of my roommates described, the only signs signifying I was alive were the occasional encounters in the student's cafeteria.

The successful experience on designing inoculation machine made me strongly fascinated with the interdisciplinary area of applying mechatronics into the field of bio-technology. At the same time, In order to design the robots and machines that can really meet the needs of biological requirement, I strongly felt that it is important to collect first-hand materials in person at biological labs. Holding this belief, I chose to study in bioengineering MS-program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa(UHM), since August 2005.

El-E Healthcare Robot (August 2007 ~ February 2008, at Gatech in the U.S.)

The 2-year study in bioengineering enables me a special perspective to observe and solve problems both from biological and mechanical ways, therefore I believed then it comes the right time for me to continue my interests in bio-mechatronics. After completing my thesis, I came to Georgia Tech as a visiting researcher under Prof. Charles C. Kemp's advising, focusing on the research of healthcare robotics. The visiting provided me a great opportunity to expand my knowledge by exposuring myself to computer vision, autonomous robot manipulation and human-robot interaction. On this project, I was mainly responsible for designing and prototyping of several mechanical component.

Dust Pan. (December 2007~August 2008, at Gatech in the U.S.)

This project is an inexpensive, nonprehensile, mechanical mechanism mounted atop a Roomba Create designed to explicitly take advantage of the planar nature of human environments in order to robustly grasp a wide variety of objects in a manner inspired by the human fingernail. We enumerate a set of 34 commonly dropped, everyday objects with immediate practical implications for ALS patient quality-of-life. The mechanism design is tested by performing 1096 total grasp attempts with a success rate of 94.71% across the 34 objects and 4 floor types. This picture shows the redesign of the original Dust Pan.