{"id":6613,"date":"2024-05-01T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=6613"},"modified":"2025-05-08T22:09:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T02:09:56","slug":"ranzani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2024\/05\/01\/ranzani\/","title":{"rendered":"User Interface for Electronic Control of a Biospired Soft Robot"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Mentors<\/h3>\n<table width=\"357\" height=\"42\" style=\"border: 2px solid white; margin-bottom: 0;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid white;\">\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-basic has-title post-4525 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-bme departments-mse-dept departments-me affiliation-faculty program-year-yr-2021 program-year-yr-2022 program-year-yr-2023 program-year-yr-2024 program-year-186\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/tommaso-ranzani\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-basic\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/09\/ranzani_HS-600x600-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-basic\">Tommaso Ranzani<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-basic\">Assistant Professor (ME, MSE, BME)<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid white;\">\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-basic has-title post-6765 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-me affiliation-graduate-student program-year-yr-2024\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/vi-vo\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-basic\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/04\/vi_vo-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-basic\">Vi Vo<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-basic\">PhD Candidate<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Project Description<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The project will involve developing a graphical user interface for controlling electro-permanent magnets (EPMs)- based valves. To select the fluid lines that will activate the channel of our soft actuators, we configure electro-permanent magnets as electronically activated pinch valves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">These <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">are used<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> to control an octopus-inspired soft robot for underwater exploration. The project will focus on creating a graphical user interface that allows us to select the EPMs to turn on\/off in real time and to create a sequence of actuation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\" bu-callout alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240801_REU-Lab-Headshots-CJ-1-636x424.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"424\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-7626 size-medium\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240801_REU-Lab-Headshots-CJ-1-636x424.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240801_REU-Lab-Headshots-CJ-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240801_REU-Lab-Headshots-CJ-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240801_REU-Lab-Headshots-CJ-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/05\/20240801_REU-Lab-Headshots-CJ-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Research Participant<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Program: INM REU\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Hear what Courtney (CJ) Chavez is taking with her from her time at BU.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href='https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2025\/05\/08\/courtney-chavez\/' class='button button'>Learn More<\/a><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Research Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Understand the use of EPM valves for control of multi-Dof soft robots.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Enable users to control the robot.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Allow programming of bioinspired control sequences of actuation to investigate their implementation on a robotic platform.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Learning Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">EPM design and manufacturing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">EPM control (electronic boards design and programming).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Control of soft robotic devices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Design and manufacturing of soft robots.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Timeline<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 1-4:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">\u00a0<\/span>Training, learning to manufacture and design.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 5-8:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Work on <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the development of the interface and implementation of<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> control algorithms.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 9-10:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Wrap up of results and validation of the robot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentors Project Description The project will involve developing a graphical user interface for controlling electro-permanent magnets (EPMs)- based valves. To select the fluid lines that will activate the channel of our soft actuators, we configure electro-permanent magnets as electronically activated pinch valves. These are used to control an octopus-inspired soft robot for underwater exploration. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118],"tags":[125,127,67],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6613"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7780,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6613\/revisions\/7780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}