Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Robotics and Spatial Systems

Director Pierre Larochelle, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Overview

The Robotics and Spatial Systems Laboratory (RASSL) is dedicated to the development of robotic mechanical systems that generate spatial (i.e. three-dimensional) motion and force transmission. The Lab seeks to advance the design methodologies for these challenging systems as well as techniques for their utilization in industrial and consumer applications. The Robotics and Spatial Systems Laboratory at the Florida Institute of Technology was established by Dr. Larochelle in Fall 1995. Under his direction, the Laboratory coordinates and supports the research of three faculty and several graduate and undergraduate students. Since its inception, the Laboratory has achieved its primary goal -- to establish a research environment devoted to the development of systems which generate spatial motion and force transmission. Moreover, the Laboratory has also achieved its second goal -- to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with industry (e.g. NASA-KSC, Accuray, GSMA Systems, Zygo, AMTI-ZZevatech, and ICS). The Laboratory has also been successful in motivating local K-12 youth towards engineering, science, and technology through its active involvement in the local community, and in robotics competitions such as FIRST ad BattleBots. To date, the Laboratory has received over $1.5 million in research funding and equipment donations, has generated more than 50 technical publications, and has graduated many students.

Big Fan Kit

This is the spherical four-bar mechanism that generates the motion of the Infinity Fan (US Patent #6213715). The motion that the spherical mechanism produces makes the fan head move in an "infinity", or sideways figure-eight pattern, upon a spherical surface.

Vachon Cube

Here is our Motoman SV3 solving the famous Rubik's cube. This group project was completed as part of the MAE-4090 Robotics & Automated Manufacturing course in summer 2004.

Links

For more information, visit my.fit.edu/~pierrel