Current and Recent Research
Intelligent Systems and Automation Laboratory
Terry N. Faddis, Director
The Intelligent Systems and Automation Laboratory (ISAL) encompasses programs and projects involved with the application of microprocessors and sensors to advanced electromechanical systems. Major programs in computer integrated manufacturing, industrial innovation and augmented telerobotics are in progress. All involve technology transfer to regional industry through cooperative efforts involving personnel, financial resources and expertise from the laboratory, industry and government.
Significant experience in technology transfer began in 1965 with the initiation of a program to assist regional industries obtain the latest technology and scientific research results for use in productivity improvement projects. In 1980 NASA’s Office of Technology Utilization funded establishment of the Industrial Innovation Laboratory (IIL). IIL Personnel have since completed several significant projects involving the application of microprocessors to intelligent mechanical systems with funding from industry and supporting technologies from NASA research centers.
In 1983 a Computer Integrated Manufacturing (KU CIM) Laboratory was established. Faculty and students in this laboratory have conducted research on a number of topics related to automation and robotic technologies for the "factory of the future" with industry, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, with funding from the U.S. Navy.
In 1988 a long-term augmented telerobotics research and technology transfer program was begun in cooperation with the Automation Technology Branch and Technology Utilization Office of NASA-Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) and local industry. Researchers are exploring the application of NASA technology in shared control of telerobotic devices and hierarchical control and microprocessor-based mechanical systems to improve space station assembly and operations.
Personnel who are engaged in the ISAL programs include four faculty members with extensive industrial and academic experience in instrumentation, robotics, automation, machine design and project management, and research assistants who are pursuing graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. Topics and areas of research in progress, or recently completed, include automated process planning, adaptive control, expert systems, artificial intelligence, versatile fixturing, CAD and CAM, computer integrated manufacturing, shared control, voice control, tactile augmentation of telerobotic systems, automated joining of fiber optics cables, and the utilization of sensors to determine depth of burn in humans.
State-of-the-art computer, robotic, and automation equipment worth approximately one and one-half million dollars is utilized in the ISAL programs located in the Mechanical Engineering Department (Learned Hall). Major items include computer workstations and software for development of microprocessor system applications. A completely integrated and operational robot-tended vertical machining workstation equipped with an ISAL-developed versatile fixturing system controlled in real time by a minicomputer is located in the KU CIM Laboratory in Learned Hall. Researchers in this laboratory are conducting cooperative research with the Automated Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF) of NIST.
An augmented telerobotic system which includes a dual-arm master-slave robotic system with bilateral force-feedback is operational in the Kansas Augmented Telerobotics (KAT) Laboratory in Learned Hall. This system is capable of operating under the shared control of a computer and human operator in a hierarchical network incorporating augmented sensory inputs.
