Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Nevada, Reno,
USA
Abstract:
This talk presents recent developments of the climbing robotic systems for automated inspection of bridges and steel structures. These robots have been developed by the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab at the University of Nevada, Reno in the past 7 years. Five different designs of the climbing robots ranging from light to heavy payload for the purpose of the integration of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) sensors. These robots can climb on flat and/or curving steel surfaces and transit from one surface to another smoothly. Deployments of these robots on real steel bridges and structures have been demonstrated. In collaboration with Nevada Department of Transportation these robots have been deployed on a Highway 80 bridge in Lovelock, Nevada.
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Hung (Jim) La is an associate professor and director of the Advanced Robotics and Automation Lab, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), United States of America. He is an expert in Robotics and Control Systems. He has authored/co-authored 2 patents and 133 papers in major journals and international conferences. Nine of his papers have won best conference paper awards and best paper finalists in the top ranked robotics conferences (IROS2022, IROS2019, SSRR2018, ICRA2017, ISARC2015, etc.) He was a key member of the CAIT team (Rutgers University) who successfully developed the Robotic Assisted Bridge Inspection Tool (RABIT) for the Federal Highway Administration in 2013. He has managed 21 Federal and Industry funded projects (NSF, NASA, US-DOT, Japan Penta-Ocean Construction) with over $4.7 Million as the role of PI, Co-PI, and SP. Dr. La received prestigious awards including the 2019 NSF CAREER, the 2014 ASCE’s Charles Pankow for Innovation, and the 2017 and 2019 Best CSE Researcher Awards. Dr. La has served as an Associate Editor of several journals and conferences in robotics such as IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Cambridge Core - Robotica, and IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
