Faculty and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are involved in a variety of high-impact robotics research projects. This list is but a small fraction of current / past projects; and is typically not kept up to date. For more complete information, please visit the websites of individual labs and faculty members.
Autonomous Driving Partnership with AutonomouStuff
Researchers: Minh Do, Katherine Driggs-Campbell, Geir Dellerud, David Forsyth, Sayan Mitra
As part of a partnership between the Center for Autonomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering and AutonomouStuff, professors and students have long-term access to an automated Polaris GEM. Projects involving the AutonomouStuff Automated Research Development Platform began in the spring of 2019 with a focus on autonomous software. Additional projects and courses already are planned, and the GEM’s availability for other research initiatives on campus will expand.
Ag Robot Speeds Data Collection, Analysis of Crops as They Grow
PI: Girish Chowdhary
A new lightweight, low-cost agricultural robot could transform data collection and field scouting for agronomists, seed companies and farmers. Traveling autonomously between crop rows, the robot measures the traits of individual plants using a variety of sensors, including cameras, transmitting the data in real time to the operator’s phone or laptop computer. A custom app and tablet computer that come with the robot enable the operator to steer the robot using virtual reality and GPS.
Developing VirtualDrone Technology
Researchers: Man-Ki Yoon, Bo Liu, Naira Hovakimyan, Lui Sha
This team of IRL researchers developed VirtualDrone, UAS technology that can fly safely and return home on its own in the event of a cyber-attack on the flight controller. This technology was presented at the 2017 International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems.
Bringing robotics technology to sports
Researchers: Mahanth Gowda, Sheng Shen, Ashutosh Dhekne, Romit Roy Choudhury
The iBall system was developed by this team of IRL researchers to track the 3D trajectory and spin of a sports ball (i.e. cricket ball) with low-cost sensors and radios built into the ball itself. This research was accepted for publication at the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation in 2017.