Research Focuses

The Bio-inspired Robotics and Controls Lab is focused on bio-inspired robotics, smart material artificial muscles and sensors, renewable energy systems, dynamic systems and controls. The projects have been funded by NSF, Baker Hughes, Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Wichita State University, and the University of Houston.

1. Dielectric elastomer based artificial muscles

Many soldiers and civilians lose their hands, arms, and legs in the battle fields, accidents, and natural disasters. Research has been conducted to develop robotic assistive devices to help those disabled people. The first challenge comes from developing a power efficient and lightweight actuator. Dielectric elastomer (DE) has highest energy density, which is very close to that of human muscles. In this research, we will develop a novel artificial muscle structure, which uses a dielectric elastomer as artificial muscle and carbon fibers as artificial tendon. The challenges will come from coating compliant electrode and achieving strong adhesion between the muscle and tendons. The success of this research will lead to a high efficient, lightweight, and compliant actuator for prosthetic arm applications. This research was funded by Wichita State University and is currently funded by NSF CAREER Award.

Journal Publications

  1. S. Wang, T. Kaaya, and Z. Chen, "Self-Sensing of Dielectric Elastomer Tubular Actuator with Feedback Control Validation", Smart Materials and Structures, Vol 28, No 7, p. 075037, 2020.
  2. Z. Ye and Z. Chen, "Modeling and Control of 2-DOF Dielectric Elastomer Diaphragm Actuator ", IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, Vol. 23, Issue 1, pp 218 - 227, 2019.
  3. Z. Ye and Z. Chen, "Self-Sensing of Dielectric Elastomer Actuator Enhanced By Artificial Neural Network", Smart Materials and Structures, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp 095056(1-10).  2017.
  4. Z. Ye, Z. Chen, R.  Asmatulu, and H. Chan, "Robust Control of Dielectric Elastomer Diaphragm Actuator For Human Pulse Signal Tracking", Smart Materials and Structures, Vol. 26, No. 8, pp. 085043(1-12), 2017.

Conference Publications

  1. S. Wang, K. Theophilus, Z. Chen, "Self-sensing of Dielectric Tubular Actuator and Its Validation in Feedback Control", Proc. of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, pp. 1712-1717, Boston, MA, July 6-10, 2020.
  2. Z. Ye and Z. Chen, "Robust Control of 2-DOF Dielectric Elastomer Actuator", Proc. of American Control Conference, Milwaukee, WI, pp. 3690-3695, 2018.
  3. Z. Ye and Z. Chen, "Integrated Sensing and Actuation of Dielectric Elastomer Actuator", Proc. of the SPIE Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuator Device (EPAD), pp. 101630C-101630C, 2017.
  4. Z. Ye, Z. Chen, K.W. Kong, and H. Chan, "Robust Control of Dielectric Elastomer Diaphragm Actuator for Replicating Human Pulse" Proc. of the 12th IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2016), Dallas, TX, pp. 188-193, 2016.
  5. S. S. Faisal, Z. Ye, Z. Chen, and R. Asmatulu, “Electrical Properties of Nanoscale Metallic Thin Film Coatings on Dielectric Elastomer”, Proc. Of the SPIE Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuator and Device, Vol. 9430, pp. 943031:1-7, 2015.
  6. Z. Ye, S. S. Faisal, R. Asmatulu, and Z. Chen, “Bio-inspired Artificial Muscle Structure for Integrated Sensing and Actuation”, Proc. Of the SPIE Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuator and Device, Vol. 9430, pp. 943024:1-10, 2015.
  7. Z. Ye, M. Faisal, R. Asmatulu, Z. Chen, "Artificial Muscles of Dielectric Elastomers Attached to Artificial Tendons of Functionalized Carbon Fibers", Proc. of the SPIE Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices, Vol. 9056, pp 905616:1-9, 2014.

2. Bio-inspired 3D manuverable underwater robots

Biomimetic underwater robots are capable of operating in confined spaces and forming a stealth swarm to accomplish distributed sensing tasks, such as environmental monitoring, underwater oil pipe line inspection, and intelligence collection. However, developing a successful 3D maneuverable underwater bio-robot is still facing some challenges, coming from fabrication of 3D actuating membrane, hydrodynamic modeling of flexible fin interacting with fluid, stabilizing the bio-robots in 3D underwater maneuvering space. We will leverage our strength in modeling, control, smart materials, and bio-inspired design to develop 3D maneuverable robotic fish powered by smart materials. The research was funded by Wichita State University and is currently funded by NSF Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) program.

Journal Publications

  1. W. Zuo, K. Dhal, A. Keow, A. Chakravarthy, Z Chen, "Model-based Control of a Robotic Fish to Enable 3D Maneuvering Through a Moving Orifice", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 4719-4726, doi: doi: 10.1109/LRA.2020.3003862, July 2020.

  2. A. Keow, Z. Chen, and H. Bart-Smith, "PIDA Control of Buoyancy Device Enabled by Water Electrolysis", IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 1202 - 1210, 2020.

  3. V. Sunkara1, A. Chakravarthy, X. Yi, W. Zuo, and Z. Chen, "Cooperative and Optimal Collision Avoidance Laws for a Hybrid-Tailed Robotic Fish", IEEE Transactions on Control System and Technology, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 1569-1578, 2020.

  4. Z. Chen, P. Hou, and Z. Ye, "Robotic Fish Propelled by Servo Motor and Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Hybrid Tail ", Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, Special Issue on Unmanned Mobile Systems, Vol. 141, Issue 7, pp  071001:1-11, July, 2019.

  5. X. Yi and Z. Chen, "A Robust Visual Tracking Method for Unmanned Mobile Systems", Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, Special Issue on Unmanned Mobile Systems, Vol. 141, Issue 7, pp  071005:1-8, July, 2019.

  6. Z. Chen, "A Review on Robotic Fish Enabled by Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Artificial Muscles", Robotics and Biomimetics, Vol. 4, No 24, pp.1-13, Dec. 16, 2017

  7. Z. Ye, P. Hou, and Z. Chen, "2D Maneuverable Robotic Fish Propelled by Multiple Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Artificial Fins", International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, Special Issue on Soft Robotics, Volume 1, No. 2, pp. 195–208, April 13, 2017

Conference Publications

  1. A. Keow, W. Zuo, F. Ghorbel, Z. Chen, "Underwater Buoyancy and Depth Control using Reversible PEM Fuel Cells", Proc. of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, pp. 54-59, Boston, MA, July 6-10, 2020.

  2. W. Zuo, X. Yi, F. Ghorbel, and Z. Chen, "Optimal Trajectory Planning and Control of Buoyancy Control Device Enabled by Water Electrolyzer", Proc. of 2019 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 2120-2125, Nice, France, Dec. 2019.

  3. X. Yi, Z. Chen, and A. Chakavarthy "Cooperative Collision Avoidance Control of Robotic Fish Propelled by a Servo/IPMC Driven Hybrid Tail", Proc. of  the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Park City, UT, DSCC2019-9228, 2019.

  4. J. Yazji, H. Zaidi, L. T. Torres, C. Leroy, A. Keow, and Z. Chen, "A Novel Buoyancy Control Device using Reversible PEM Fuel Cells", Proc. of  the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Park City, UT, DSCC2019-9155, 2019.

  5. W. Zuo, A. Keow, and Z. Chen, "Three-Dimensionally Maneuverable Robotic Fish Enabled by Servo Motorand Water Electrolyser", Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, CA, pp. 4667-4673, May 2019

  6. Z. Chen, P. Hou, and Z. Ye, "Modeling of Robotic Fish Propelled by A Servo/IPMC Hybrid Tail", Proc. of 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, pp. 8146-8151, 2018.

  7. W. Zuo and Z. Chen, "A Traveling Wave Model Guided Robotic Fish Design Using Double Slot-Crank Mechanism", Proc. of  the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Atlanta, GA, DSCC2018-9064, 2018.

  8. A. Keow and Z. Chen, "Modeling and Control of Artificial Swimming Bladder Enabled by IPMC Water Electrolysis", Proc. of  the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Atlanta, GA, DSCC2018-9076, 2018.

  9. X. Yi and Z. Chen, "A Robust and Optimal Visual Tracking with Blocking Obstacles and Reflection Noises", Proc. of  the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Atlanta, GA, DSCC2018-9162, 2018.

  10. V. R. Sunkara, Z. Ye, A. Chakravarthy, and Z. Chen, “Collision Avoidance by IPMC Actuated Robotic Fish using the Collision Cone Approach”, Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots, San Francisco, CA, pp. 238-245, 2016

  11. P. Hou, Z. Ye, and Z. Chen, "Bio-Inspired Robotic Fish Propelled by Multiple Artificial Fins", Proc. of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Minneapolis, MN, DSCC2016-9915 pp. 1-6, 2016

  12. T. Yang and Z. Chen, "Development of 2D Maneuverable Robotic Fish Propelled By Multiple Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Artificial Fins" Proc. of the 2015 IEEE Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, Zhuhai, China, pp. 256-260, 2015

  13. Z. Chen, "Bio-inspired Underwater Robot Enabled by Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Artificial Muscle", Proc. of the 2015 International Conference on Real-time Computing and Robotics, pp. A2-1:1-10, 2015

3. Renewable energy storage systems using smart materials

Smart materials are the materials that can transduce energy into different formats. For example, a dielectric elastomer can transduce mechanical energy to electricity when using it as sensor or energy harvester. An ionic polymer-metal composite can transduce electricity to chemical energy when using it as a water electrolysis generator. In this research, we will develop novel renewable energy systems, which employs smart materials as energy transducer to achieve high energy conversion efficiency with minimum impact on environment. The success of this research will result in new technologies, such as tidal energy harvester using dielectric elastomer and hydrogen producer using IPMC enhanced electrolysis, which essentially solves climate change issues. This research was funded by Wichita State University and Kansas NSF EPSCoR.

Journal Publications

  1. T. Nagpure and Z. Chen, "Control-Oriented Modeling of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Enabled Hydrogen Gas Production", International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 41, No. 16, pp 6619-6629, 2016.

  2. A. Abbaspour, A. Khalilnejad, and Z. Chen, "Robust Adaptive Neural Network Control for PEM Fuel Cell", International Journa of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 41, No. 44, pp 20385-20395, Oct, 2016.

Conference Publications

  1. A. Keow and Z. Chen, "Auto-tuning Control of PEM Water Electrolyzer", Proc. of  the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Park City, UT, DSCC2019-9156, 2019.

  2. Hanie Baayoun and Z. Chen, "Controlling Solar Photovoltaic Cells Utilizing Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal Technology", Proc. of the ASME Conference on Dynamic Systems and Control, Tysons Corner, VA, DSCC2017-5078 pp. 1-8, 2017.

  3. A. Keow and Z. Chen, "A study of water electrolysis using ionic polymer-metal composite for solar energy storage", Proc. of the SPIE Conference on Smart Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation for Energy Systems, pp. 1017104-1017104, 2017.

  4. T. Nagpure and Z. Chen, "Modeling of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Enabled Hydrogen Gas Production", Proc. of the ASME 2015 Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Columbus, Ohio, Paper Number: DSCC2015-9922, pp. 1-8, 2015.

4. Autonomous Underwater Oil Pipeline Inspection

One of the fundamental building blocks of the subsea oil and gas industry are the thousands of miles of pipelines installed across the seabed, such as in the Gulf of Mexico. The pipelines serve to carry valuable fluids from subterranean reservoirs to the topside, and thus must be able to withstand years of high pressure, high temperature conditions. While subsea pipelines may be engineered to withstand such harsh conditions, unexpected events can prematurely cause failure of pipeline structures, including bolted flanges, welding, etc. Such events are ideally mitigated by timely maintenance and inspection of subsea pipeline structures. The goal of this project is to develop transformative robotic and SmartTouch sensing technology, that will lead to a time efficient and cost effective system for underwater pipeline inspection. This project is collaborated with Dr. Gangbing Song's group at the University of Houston. Dr. Chen's research is focused on autonmous underwater vehicles and robotic manipulation. This project is currently funded by Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Journal Publications

  1. F. Wang, Z. Chen, and G. Song, "Smart Crawfish: A Concept of Underwater Multi-bolt Looseness Identification Using Entropy-enhanced Active Sensing and Ensemble Learning",  Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, to appear, 2020.

  2. J. Jiang, S. C. Ho, T. Tippitt, Z. Chen, and G. Song, "Feasibility Study of a Touch-enabled Active Sensing Approach to Inspecting Subsea Bolted Connections Using Piezoceramic Transducers", Smart Materials and Structures, Vol. 29, No. 8, p.085038, 2020

  3. F. Wang, Z. Chen, and G. Song, “Monitoring of Multi-bolt Connection Looseness Using Entropy-based Active Sensing and Genetic Algorithm-based Least Square Support Vector Machine”, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 136, p. 106507, 2020

Conference Publications

  1. W. Zuo, G. Song, and Z. Chen, "Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Grasping Force Tracking ", Proc. of 2020 American Control Conference, pp. 2611-2616, Denver, CO, July 2-3, 2020.

    5. Hydraulic facturing automation

    Hydraulic fracturing has been recognized as one of key technologies that enable shale oil and gas production. Adaptive and robust control is critical to ensure hydraulic fracturing equipment to provide high temperature and high pressure fluid for fracturing underground rocks. As the first step, a research project funded by Baker Hughes aims to develop an auto-tuning PID control algorithm for blender equipment which is robust to uncertain disturbances and dynamics variations. The developed control algorithm can be used for other equipment in hydraulic fracturing as well. The final goal of this research is to automate all the equipment to make hydraulic fracturing with low risk and low cost. This research was funded by Baker Hughes.

    Journal Publications:

    1. Z. Chen, B. Naizer, and Y. Kang, "Proppant Conveyer Automation System with Cascade Control in Hydraulic Fracturing" SPE Prodution & Operation, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 310-317, 2016

 Conference Publications:

    1. Z. Chen, L. Cargile, and B. Naizer, "Auto-Tuning Tub-Level Control of Blender in Hydraulic Fracturing", Proc. of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Minneapolis, MN, DSCC2016-9848, pp. 1-6, 2016

    2. Z. Chen and B. Naizer, "Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Sander Automation System", Proc. of the ASME Hydraulic Fracturing Conference, paper number: HydraFrac2015-3873, Houston, TX, 2015

    3. Z. Chen and B. Naizer, "A Cascade Control for Sander Automation System", Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, Gothenburg, Sweden, pp 894-899, 2015