Chen, Wenjie

Research Overview

Research Interests
Theory and application of dynamic systems and control; robotic/mechatronic systems. Applications to industrial robots, wearable assistive robotics, robots for advanced manufacturing.

Research Experiences

• EFRI-M3C: A Hybrid Control Systems Approach to Brain-Machine Interfaces for Exoskeleton Control
  
• Intelligent Control of Robot Manipulators for Performance Enhancement
  
• Development of Design/Analysis and Evaluation Technologies for Vibration Reduction of LCD Substrate Transfer Robot
  
• Real Time Drawing Robot
  
• High-Speed / High-Precision Motion Control of Biaxial Linear Motor
  
• 3D Virtual Reality Software Design for Underwater Manipulator
  
• Mechanical Design of Football Robot in RoboCup Small-Sized League
  
• Bio-inspired In-Pipe Moving WormBot
  
• CAD Software - IG-541 Fire Protection Piping System Design
  

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EFRI-M3C: A Hybrid Control Systems Approach to Brain-Machine Interfaces for Exoskeleton Control

01/2012 - 10/2013, Postdoc Scholar (as Graduate Student Researcher prior to 08/2012)
PIs: Prof. Jose M. Carmena, Prof. Masayoshi Tomizuka, Prof. Claire J. Tomlin, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: National Science Foundation - Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI)

• Multi-degree of freedom (e.g., 6-DOF) upper-limb (passive and actuated) exoskeleton design for macaque monkeys in the brain-machine interface (BMI) study.
• Control scheme (e.g., position control, torque control, impedance control) design for the upper-limb exoskeleton actuation.
• Exoskeleton kinematic and dynamic calibration, as well as motion and torque sensing/estimation.
• Collaboration on BMI experiments to address the central research question: Does the brain use motor programs to help it control a highly redundant multi-degree of freedom biomechanical plant such as the arm?

Some Progress on Passive Exoskeleton (Powered Exoskeleton Forthcoming ...)



Singularity Reachable Set Analysis/Computation

Joint Limit Reachable Set Analysis/Computation

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Intelligent Control of Robot Manipulators for Performance Enhancement

08/2007 - 10/2013, Postdoc Scholar (as Graduate Student Researcher prior to 08/2012)
Supervisor: Prof. Masayoshi Tomizuka, Mechanical Systems Control Lab, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: FANUC, Ltd., Japan

• Sensor fusion for load side (end-effector) state estimation in robots with joint elasticity.
• Dual-stage iterative learning control in robots with joint elasticity.
• Disturbance rejection controller design, e.g., disturbance observer (DOB) and adaptive robust controller (ARC), in robots with joint elasticity.
• Friction force identification and compensation in robots with joint elasticity.
• Dynamic modeling and system identification of multi-joint robots.
• Automatic gain tuning using iterative feedback tuning in indirect drive trains.
• Real-time system implementation with MATLAB & xPC Target for FANUC M-16iB-20 robot, and NI LabVIEW Real-time & FPGA modules for single-joint robot testbed.

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Development of Design/Analysis and Evaluation Technologies for Vibration Reduction of LCD Substrate Transfer Robot

01/2011 - 03/2012, Graduate Student Researcher
Supervisor: Prof. Masayoshi Tomizuka, Mechanical Systems Control Lab, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: Hyundai Heavy Industry, South Korea

• Dynamic modeling and simulation of the LCD substrate transfer robot considering end-effector vibration behavior induced by flexible links.
• Sensor-based learning control and disturbance observer (DOB) design for vibration reduction.

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Real Time Drawing Robot

08/2007 - 12/2007, ME230 Project
Supervisor: Prof. David Auslander, UC Berkeley

• Control the Scorbot to reproduce user defined drawings onto an arbitrary drawing plane.
• Algorithm design includes: state machine, controller design, inverse kinematics, etc.
• Implementation on a 6 degrees of freedom Scorbot interfaced with LabVIEW/CVI.

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High-Speed / High-Precision Motion Control of Biaxial Linear Motor

09/2006 - 06/2007, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Supervisor: Prof. Bin Yao, Precision Mechatronic System Lab, Purdue University & Zhejiang University

• Friction force identification and compensation in the biaxial linear motor stage.
• Adaptive robust control (ARC) for biaxial linear motor high-speed / high-precision motion.
• Coordinated motion controller design and comparative study for the biaxial linear motor stage.

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3D Virtual Reality Software Design for Underwater Manipulator

08/2004 - 09/2006, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Supervisor: Prof. Linyi Gu, Inst. of Mechatronic Control Engineering, Zhejiang University

• Software design for 3D virtual reality interactive control of the underwater manipulator.
• Independent software system development using Visual C++ & OpenGL.

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Mechanical Design of Football Robot in RoboCup Small-Sized League

09/2004 - 10/2005, Research Member, Mechanical Group of RoboCup Small-Sized League
State Key Lab of Industrial Control Technology, Zhejiang University

• Roller design improvement of the dribbling system in the RoboCup small-sized football robots.
• Theoretical calculations and experimental validation of the roller design (material, shape and position).
• Ball-shooting system design for the fifth version of RoboCup small-sized football robots.

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Bio-inspired In-Pipe Moving WormBot

12/2004 - 05/2005, Team Leader, the Tenth Mechanical Design Contest (3rd prize)
Supervisor: Prof. Xiangyong Qian, Zhejiang University

• Design & fabrication of a bio-inspired robot that can move through small bent pipes of certain diameters less than 50cm, based on the principle of worm movement.

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CAD Software - IG-541 Fire Protection Piping System Design

07/2004 - 06/2005, Team Leader, Student Research Training Program
Supervisor: Associate Prof. Yingjun Xie, Zhejiang University

• Design of the algorithm and structure of a cad software - IG-541 fire protection piping system design.
• Software development using Visual Basic and AutoLisp language.
• Successful software test in Zhejiang Yongan Fire Protection Company, China.

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