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| Brief history of the Robotics Research Group, The University of Texas At Austin. |
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| Background |
| Professor Tesar assumed the chair position on January 1, 1985. Previously, at the University of Florida, he was the founder and director of the Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics (CIMAR) established through the Florida Board of Regents in 1978 with the annual Center of Excellence state funding. |
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| Foundation |
From this base, an interdisciplinary center of 10 faculty and approximately 50 students was created in conjuction with a $1,250,000 robotics laboratory attracting $3,600,000 of external funding from 1978 to 1984.
The mission at The University of Texas at Austin has been to establish a similar program with applications in robotics, manufacturing, and logistics.
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| Evolution |
 The level of funding for 1994 has reached $1,850,000 per year. In January 1993, the laboratory moved into 16,000 ft² of space in the new research building at the Pickle Research Campus. |
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| RRG:UT Today |
 Today the RRG involves 30 graduate students supported by a staff of seven, in 16,000 square feet of modern laboratory space containing $3,500,000 of the most recent research equipment (an Intergraph workstation, Silicon Graphics simulation workstations, a 17-DOF Robotics Research Inc. dual arm systems with two manual controllers, an advanced software development environment supported by two Sun workstations and Vx Works, seven industrial robotics, etc.) forming the basis for six experimental test-beds.
The program funding is now at $1,800,000/year involving projects from DOE (nuclear facilities operation), NASA (fault-tolerance and remote space operations), ARPA (medium duty lightweight modular 7 DOF precision manipulator system), and the State of Texas (advanced software for fault-tolerant manufacturing systems).
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| Achievements |
Since 1985, the program has received $16,500,000 of funding, produced 48 position papers, 90 major reports, 96 publications, 180 invited presentations, 30 major lectures, 45 M.Sc. graduates with thesis, and 16 Ph.D. graduates.
An actuator prototype which is 200x better than standard practice has been built and tested. In-depth metrology shows that improvement in accuracy (by 18.5x) and load disturbance rejection (by 10x) can dramatically enhance the operation of industrial robots.
Modularity is now the key architectural feature of the program at all levels of development (software, design, test, metrology, etc.). This leads to a concentration on actuator modules (including brakes, motors, gear trains, sensors, electronic controllers, etc.) as fundamental to the integration of advanced component technologies.
Generalized real time (and modular) operational software including the requirements for fault tolerance, criteria based task performance and condition-based maintenance is a second concentration of the program to ensure applicability to all future manipulator systems.
Given this level of modularity (actuators, links, interfaces, communications, object oriented software packages, etc.) it becomes feasible to develop an architecture for 40 DOF (or more) manufacturing cells (for welding, airframe assembly, automotive die finishing, etc.) which can be fully integrated and assembled to meet a customer's requirements on demand as has been achieved for computers over the past two decades.
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