Paul Evans, P.E.

Paul Evans, P.E.

San Antonio, Texas, United States
2K followers 500+ connections

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About

I work diligently to connect customers with expertise. I am focused on linking…

Articles by Paul

  • SwRI/ROS-I at Automate 2017
    Apr 4, 2017

    SwRI/ROS-I at Automate 2017

    Stop by and and say hello to the SwRI and ROS-Industrial team at Automate 2017!

    1 Comment

Activity

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Experience

Education

  • Iowa State University Graphic

    Iowa State University

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    Activities and Societies: Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technologies, American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  • -

    Activities and Societies: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Represenative - Student Senate

Licenses & Certifications

Publications

  • ASME Robotics Roadmap

    ASME Press

    ASME Robotics Technology Group (RTG) and its Working Groups, edited by Gloria J. Wiens, produced this ASME Robotics Roadmap. The official ASME description is as follows: "The ASME Robotics Technology Group (RTG) and its Working Groups present, herein a robotics roadmap written with the aim 1) to embody mechanical and physical necessities and bridge the gaps between AI and integration challenges; 2) to identify critical trends, top-of-market challenges, and knowledge gaps; and 3) to identify…

    ASME Robotics Technology Group (RTG) and its Working Groups, edited by Gloria J. Wiens, produced this ASME Robotics Roadmap. The official ASME description is as follows: "The ASME Robotics Technology Group (RTG) and its Working Groups present, herein a robotics roadmap written with the aim 1) to embody mechanical and physical necessities and bridge the gaps between AI and integration challenges; 2) to identify critical trends, top-of-market challenges, and knowledge gaps; and 3) to identify opportunities in the journey – path to get there and in strengthening the mechanical engineering footprint in robotics technology."

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  • An Industrial Robotics Application with Cloud Computing and High-Speed Networking

    2017 First IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing (IRC)

    This paper describes an industrial cloud robotics distributed application that was executed across a high-speed wide-area network. The application was implemented using ROS libraries and packages. The purpose of the application is to enable an industrial robot to perform surface blending. A Kinect sensor, a surface blending tool and a laser scanner are mounted on the robot arm. The arm is moved under software control to scan a work bench on which metal parts of variable size can be laid out at…

    This paper describes an industrial cloud robotics distributed application that was executed across a high-speed wide-area network. The application was implemented using ROS libraries and packages. The purpose of the application is to enable an industrial robot to perform surface blending. A Kinect sensor, a surface blending tool and a laser scanner are mounted on the robot arm. The arm is moved under software control to scan a work bench on which metal parts of variable size can be laid out at any orientation. The collected point cloud data is processed by a segmentation algorithm to find the surface boundaries. A Cartesian path planning algorithm is executed to determine paths for the robot arm to execute the blending action and a laser scan on a selected surface. A new ROS package was implemented to collect CPU, memory and bandwidth usage for each significant ROS node in this distributed application. To emulate a scenario in which computing resources at a remote datacenter can be used for the segmentation and path planning algorithms in conjunction with the robots located on a factory floor, a software-defined network testbed called GENI was used to distribute compute-heavy ROS nodes. Measurements show that with TCP tuning, and high-speed end-to-end paths, the total execution time in the Cloud scenario can be reasonably close to a local scenario in which computing is collocated with the robot.

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  • Technologies Guiding the Future of Robotics in Manufacturing

    24th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Machines (FAIM) Conference Proceedings

    Industrial robots, both stationary and mobile, have been used in manufacturing applications for decades and are most often employed based on requirements for dedicated and repetitive manufacturing operations. Industrial robot capabilities have continued to advance in areas such as payload, accuracy and speed. Looking to the near-future, the use of robots must also transition to operate in dynamic environments for high-mix low-volume production. A variety of affordable technologies are emerging…

    Industrial robots, both stationary and mobile, have been used in manufacturing applications for decades and are most often employed based on requirements for dedicated and repetitive manufacturing operations. Industrial robot capabilities have continued to advance in areas such as payload, accuracy and speed. Looking to the near-future, the use of robots must also transition to operate in dynamic environments for high-mix low-volume production. A variety of affordable technologies are emerging and blending to bridge the gap between the traditional use of industrial robotics and the future where robots react to consumer-driven customized product demands. This paper is intended to be informational in nature and will present applied technology development to overcome some of the historical limitations in the use of automation for complex industrial tasks. Additionally, this paper will describe internal and industry sponsored research efforts that are giving robots greater intelligence, more flexibility and greater ability to work collaboratively with humans.

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  • Novel Cam Mechanism for Core Sampling of Variable Density Materials

    ASME Proceedings Paper from the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information Engineering Conference

    Project critical mission requirements often drive design decisions and processes. This was the case for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) funded DEep Phreatic THermal eXplorer (DepthX), an underwater robot designed to autonomously map, navigate, and acquire biological samples. Mission requirements led the authors to develop a novel core sampling mechanism for variable density materials. Preliminary testing was conducted on variable density materials simulating real world…

    Project critical mission requirements often drive design decisions and processes. This was the case for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) funded DEep Phreatic THermal eXplorer (DepthX), an underwater robot designed to autonomously map, navigate, and acquire biological samples. Mission requirements led the authors to develop a novel core sampling mechanism for variable density materials. Preliminary testing was conducted on variable density materials simulating real world specimens to identify the series of motions to acquire an acceptable core and optimize the geometry of the coring tube. A geometric modeling approach with configuration functions was employed to design the overall mechanism and establish the cam profile. The design was tested and evaluated during multiple field expeditions to cenotes (sinkholes) in Mexico. The culmination of the preliminary testing and the selected design methodology resulted in a core sampling mechanism that is compact, has minimal operational torque requirements, and utilizes a single motor to complete a series of complex functions. Future applications are envisioned for space expeditions, underwater exploration, and medical sampling.

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  • Assessing the Effectiveness of Traditional and Virtual Reality Interfaces in Spherical Mechanism Design

    ASME Journal of Mechanical Design

    Virtual reality (VR) interfaces have the potential to enhance the engineering design process, but before industry embraces them, the benefits must be understood and documented. The current research compared two software applications, one which uses a traditional human-computer interface (HCI) and one which uses a virtual reality HCI, that were developed to aid engineers in designing complex three-dimensional spherical mechanisms. Participants used each system to design a spherical mechanism and…

    Virtual reality (VR) interfaces have the potential to enhance the engineering design process, but before industry embraces them, the benefits must be understood and documented. The current research compared two software applications, one which uses a traditional human-computer interface (HCI) and one which uses a virtual reality HCI, that were developed to aid engineers in designing complex three-dimensional spherical mechanisms. Participants used each system to design a spherical mechanism and then evaluated the different interfaces. Participants rated their ability to interact with the computer images, their feelings about each interface, and their preferences for which interface device to use for certain tasks. The results indicated that participants preferred a traditional interface for interaction tasks and a VR interface for visual tasks. These results provide information about how to improve implementation of VR technology, specifically for complex three-dimensional design applications.

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Patents

Honors & Awards

  • 2020 R&D 100 Awards Winner

    R&D 100 Awards

    Laser coating removal robot wins R&D 100 award.

Organizations

  • ASME

    -

  • IEEE

    Senior Member

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