Amrita Schools of Engineering (ASE)   »   ASE Amritapuri   »   Dept. of ME   »   Research

 

Important areas of research for faculty members in the department include Nanotechnology, Nano Fabrication and Nano Precision Optics. In addition, research is ongoing in the areas of Mechatronics including Robotics, Automation and Computer Integrated Manufacturing.

In addition to research in the areas mentioned above, the following research projects are also currently underway in the department.

1. A Study of Robotic Gripper Driven by Flexible Micro-actuator based on an Innovative Technique

 

Micro Actuator This project involves the development of an adoptable gripper with flexibility, dexterousness and load capacity analogous to the human hand for robotics and medical application. However the principle can be applied to various other applications such as micro robots, pipeline inspection robots, underwater robots and walking robots.

Experiments were conducted using various materials, rubber, plastic, neoprene, nitrile etc, The neoprene tubes (synthetic materials) were found to be more effective than natural rubber tubes during experiments. However, nitrile rubber is used for manufacturing the FMA for the robot gripper.

The humanoid multi-fingered gripper can be fitted to the amputated hand or those who have lost their hand in accident or in war. This artificial hand can also be fitted to the chair or cot using an arm and can be used to work like a servant to feed the patient.

 

2. Study of Tribiological Behavior of Aluminium Matrix Composites in Disc Brake Applications

 

Disc Brake This project involves the development of aluminium/SiC Discontinuously Reinforced Metal Matrix Composites (DRMMC) through liquid route and the study of their tribological properties.

The tribo pair selected for the system is commercially available brake pad. Experiments were planned based on Central Composite Design for Surface Response Method. The wear rate and coefficient of friction were analyzed using ANOVA techniques.

The objective of the project was to estimate the effects and interactions of the tribological parameters like Load, Temperature and Sliding Velocity. Different characterization studies like OM, SEM, EDX, etc. were used for characterizing the materials before and after the tests.

 

3. High Temperature Wear Studies on C/C Composites and Development of Coating Towards Better Wear Resistance

 

High temperature wear properties of C/C composites were studied through tests conducted on a High Temperature Wear Test Bed.

A composite of Fe-Cu was used as the friction material for the tests. A coating of SiC was developed on the surface of the C/C composite by using heat provided by SHS reaction between Ti and C.

Characterization studies like OM, SEM, EDX, etc. were done before and after the wear tests.

Recent Publications

  1. Aditya K., Ganesha Udupa and Yongkwun Lee, Development of Bio-Machine based on the Plant Response to External Stimuli, Journal of Robotics, vol. 2011, ID 124314, 7 pages, 2011.


Recent Conference Presentations

  1. K. N. Surendran, Shanmugam Murugappan, Vijayan, Ramesh Babu and Ganesha Udupa, “Investigation on form error evaluation by an electronic height gauge" Proceedings of the 7th International conference on Precision, Meso, Micro and Nano Engineering, Pune, Dec 10-11, 2011.

  2. Aditya K. Ganesha Udupa, and YongKwun Lee, Development of Bio-Machine based on the Plant Response to External Stimuli, Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE international conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, pp 1218-1223, December 7-11, 2011, Phuket, Thailand.

  3. C. P. Sankar Menon, Pramod Sreedharan and Ganesha Udupa, Design and Analysis of Multi-fingered Dexterous Hand Based on an Innovative Asymmetric Flexible Pneumatic Actuator, Proceedings of the 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SIMULATION MODELING AND ANALYSIS, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, 14-16 Dec 2011,Coimbatore, India.

  4. Sai Dinesh P., Aditya K., Roshin R., Pramod Sreedharan, Ganesha Udupa, “Innovative micro-walking robot using flexible microactuator,” 28th International symposium on Automation and Robotics construction (ISARC), Seoul, Korea, June 30-July 1, 2011.

  5. Aditya K., Ganesha Udupa, Joshua Freeman and Maneesha V Ramesh, Intelligent Plant Information System: Wireless Electromyograph for Pre-detection of Environmental Hazards, paper ID 306, International Conference on Wireless Technologies for Humanitarian Relief (ACWR), 6 pages, Dec 18-21, 2011, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, India. [Received best paper(poster) Award].