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The OpenMutt project is an innovative open-source initiative aimed at creating an educational quadruped robot, designed as a multidisciplinary research platform for students and faculty. Powered by 12 brushless motors, each equipped with a custom 3D-printed cycloidal gearbox featuring a 13:1 gear ratio and an O-Drive S1 motor controller, it offers powerful actuation and precise control. With the assembly now complete, the project's focus has shifted to software development, leveraging a Raspberry Pi for motor control via CAN communication and utilizing ROS gazebo simulations for gait testing. 85% of OpenMutt's components are manufactured using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Stereolithography (SLA) printers, with materials such as Polylactic Acid (PLA), Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), and Formlabs Rigid resin. This choice of manufacturing techniques underscores the project's dedication to accessibility, ease of construction, and rapid design iteration. OpenMutt emphasizes these principles, significantly lowering the barriers to robotics research and offering a practical learning experience that merges theoretical knowledge with hands-on application, thereby advancing the fields of robotics education and control research.

Utilizing small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) in mapping and cartography applications holds transformative potential, particularly in challenging and GPS-denied environments. Traditionally, mapping involved manual efforts using diverse tools, but there has been a fundamental shift towards autonomous vehicles capable of achieving efficient results in less time and with reduced human effort. Autonomous mapping typically relies on single a UAV employing Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) or photogrammetry alongside GPS. This research project seeks to leverage swarm robotics to map intricate landscapes and rugged terrains using SUASs with a faster, more accurate, and precise approach, eliminating dependence on GPS for global positioning. The mapping scope encompasses hard-to-access locations like cliffs, abandoned structures, and forests, as well as areas impractical for manual surveying, such as construction sites and expansive indoor spaces like warehouses, factories, or historical buildings resistant to modifications for survey purposes. The swarm will exhibit an emergent-like behavior to map any location efficiently, ensuring collision-free navigation among sUAS and ground objects.

The overarching concept of the Omni-usability Soft Robotic Exoskeleton (OSRE) phase 2 is to still create a safe exoskeleton platform that can be used in various fields by simply changing the programming based on the desires or needs of the user. The OSRE in phase 2 will use Mckibben muscles in conjunction with Origami soft muscles to mimic the body's natural muscle groups more effectively than in phase 1. Two strategies are being used to achieve this to control the more complex movement. The first is to rebase the controls in a quaternion coordinate system using the sliding mode controller we have currently developed. This will be done to simplify the controls and account for the rotations added by the Origami muscles. The other strategy is to design a controller to determine the movement is stimulated by reading the electromyographical signals given off by the user's muscles, but it can also be used by having preset programs. This platform also acts as a testing bed for control algorithms concerning soft robotics with the planes to implement non-linear control on the soft robotic exoskeleton.

The overarching concept of the Omni-usability Soft Robotic Exoskeleton (OSRE) is to create a safe exoskeleton platform that has a potential for use in a variety of fields by changing the programming based on the desires or needs of the user. This exoskeleton platform has potential usage in several fields of various applications. Within the medical field, the OSRE acts as a safe full-body physical therapy device. The aerospace field can utilize the OSRE platform as a way to train pilots through muscle memory generated using programs built for the platform. A further application of the OSRE is in the aerospace physiology field, where its ability to act as a resistive device can help prevent muscle atrophy in low gravity. The OSRE uses McKibben muscles to mimic the body's natural muscle groups and their movements. The use of this style of pneumatic muscles allows for seamless integration once a user puts on the OSRE by reading the electrical signals from the user's muscles with small electrodes, and can also utilize preset programs to aid in muscle memory development. Due to the utilization of McKibben muscles, the OSRE platform can be used as either a resistive or assistive device. The OSRE's adaptability stems from the placement of soft robotic muscles at flex point anchors along the body. To achieve these goals in the research, we will be controlling the length of the muscles based on the pneumatic flow rate into each muscle. Additionally, we will be creating an interface utilizing input electromyography data, which is then interpreted by the system to generate the corresponding movement based on control algorithms, which will then control the release of air into the Mckibben muscles from the solenoids. To maintain safety due to the human factor involved in this system, the soft robotic muscles on the OSRE will operate between 10 PSI and 60 PSI, based on the size of the muscle.