Industrial Robotics Undergrad Research
Alex Nistor is a third year COF EFC scholar majoring in CSE with a minor in robotics and autonomous systems. At the start of this past summer, he started working as an undergrad researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing Systems (AIMS) lab at the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) here at The Ohio State University. The AIMS lab specializes in industrial robotics and developing new manufacturing technologies around them. Alex worked on a research project called the Research Alliance for Metal Processing (RAMP), which is meant to foster collaboration on automating processing in foundries between multiple universities, private research companies, and end consumer foundries.
The pilot project for RAMP involved students from OSU, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, and the Steel Founders Society of America. This pilot was primarily student developed and involved remote collaboration in software development on a Universal Robotics system and developing new technologies using open source tools. The primary development of this pilot program was the tool pathing software which would allow a robot arm with a camera equipped to scan in molds used in steel foundries. This experience taught the students involved many concepts integral to automation, such as kinematics, behavior trees, camera calibration, external controls, and end effector design. Alex is continuing his work at AIMS and building off of his experience in the RAMP project to continue developing robotics software.
Impact of the Choose Ohio First Scholarship Program
"The COF scholarship has helped me immensely in my undergrad career. It’s focus on assisting students academically and professionally has helped me directly in applying to jobs and reaching out to professors. It also helps in less direct ways, such as the incentive to go to professors office hours and extracurriculars to fulfill the service hours requirement.".