Curriculum Vitae

Mitch Pryor, PhD

mpryor@mail.utexas.edu

Introduction

I am currently a Research Scientist and Program Manager in the Robotics Research Group (RRG) at The University of Texas at Austin and a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT.

I completed my undergraduate studies at Southern Methodist University in 1993. After spending 2 years teaching at St. James School in St. James Maryland, I was accepted to the PhD program at UT. I earned my doctorate in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 with an emphasis on the modeling, simulation, and operation of redundant serial chain manipulators. I since earning my Ph.D, I have been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and performing research in the area of robotics.

My complete CV is available here (pdf).

Research Overview

Robots are no longer the industrial monoliths we carefully segregate from ourselves behind laser curtains or in metal cages. They are increasingly sophisticated devices found in a multitude of geometric configurations working in complex (compact, unstructured, dynamic, etc.) environments, often interacting with humans and/or other manipulators. I have a background that is well suited to contributing in this domain and have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of pioneering projects. As the Program Manager of a research group that averages more than $1M in funding per year, I have had the opportunity to participate in every phase of research from proposal writing to deployment. This experience has helped me to develop a broad technical foundation, a larger view of the research trends, and a leadership approach that allows a program to succeed in a competitive (and growing) area....

{Click here to download a .pdf file of my complete research statement.}

Teaching Philosophy

In 10+ years of teaching, my philosophy has evolved from a list of lofty ideals - and implementation guesswork - to a set of pragmatic principles that have led to success in the classroom. My personal enjoyment I get out of teaching has led me to accept a wide variety of teaching experiences, ranging from coaching junior high students, teaching high school science to many semesters at the University of Texas at Austin teaching courses at all levels. Through these diverse experiences, I have cultivated a teaching philosophy based on a core set of principles detailed below - principles that guide me each semester as I strive to help students understand, communicate, evaluate, apply, and make a positive impact on their communities...

{Click here to download a .pdf file of my complete teaching philosophy.}

Research Background

My research background has given me a skill set that impacts a variety of robotic and related domains. My graduate research focused on real-time, task-based resource allocation for redundancy resolution of high Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) manipulators. The objective was to develop a general decision making strategy for modular, reconfigurable systems where tasks were not predetermined. To describe the manipulator's environmental interactions, I considered multiple task representations including constraint-based, impedance, and ellipsoidal models. Additionally, I implemented and tested over 30 criteria derived from kinematic, dynamic, compliance, and obstacle models to evaluate and improve performance.

I developed the critical boundaries concept to determine which criteria were relevant in a given operational state. The resulting algorithm selected (and weighed) a subset of criteria used to determine locally optimal joint-space configurations. For example, if a system is at payload capacity, I include a minimize joint torque criterion. I then explored a variety of potentially real-time optimization techniques, including gradient projection and direct search methods. Finally, I simulated the developed algorithms - known as a Decision Making System - on a 10-DOF chain, completing a set of random and dexterously challenging activities.

Thesis/Dissertation

[PDF] "Task-Based Resource Allocation for Improving the Reusability of Redundant Manipulators," University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D. Dissertation, May, 2002.

"Complex Task Completion with Redundant Serial Manipulators," University of Texas at Austin, Master's Thesis, December, 1999.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.