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Associate Professor Pinhas Ben-Tzvi , Director of The Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory , has earned $ 200,000 of a $ 1 million Small Business Innovation Research grant through the U . S . Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center .
The lab is working with robotics company RE2 Inc ., which leads the Phase II SBIR grant , and defense partner Lockheed Martin . The three groups will help develop a system designed to assist combat medics by evacuating wounded service members under hostile conditions . news and notes Ben-Tzvi part of team working as part of collaboration to develop casualty assistance robot for United States Army
Ben-Tzvi
Wasson , Hurtado attend SHPE conference in Seattle
Mechanical engineering graduate students , Mark Pastor Hurtado and Elisa Wasson , attended the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers ( SHPE ) conference in Seattle in November thanks in part to support from the ME department .
The SHPE is an organization dedicated to empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness , access , support and development .
According to Hurtado and Wasson , there is a strong network of members from the professional and academic level to the undergraduate and high school level .
About 7,000 attend the annual conference consisting of workshops aimed to help students develop both professionally and academically and concludes with a career fair with more than 200 exhibitors from
Ben-Tzvi , the principal investigator for the university , will lead research and development of a novel ‘ marsupial ’ robotic technology that will move into hostile areas , load a wounded person onto the robot and remove them from the area to be transported to a field medical facility or other treatment area .
“ The task of the Robotics and Mechatronics lab is to develop a mobile robot to interface with Lockheed Martin ’ s Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport unmanned ground vehicle ,” said Ben-Tzvi . “ Our mobile robot will safely retrieve , secure , and transport a casualty to the S-MET where the injured service member can be transported to a hospital or air evacuation location .”
industry and academic institutions .
The project , signed with RE2 Inc . Oct . 13 , will run for 18 months , during which time Ben-Tzvi and his team will focus on the design and development of the overall robotic system and related test components .
“ It ’ s a very difficult problem ,” Ben-Tzvi said . “ Coordinating the motion of the robot to be able to manipulate a person and move them into the robot safely for transport will take some time , but we believe that after the initial research and development stages and testing process , we will be able to meet or perhaps even exceed the expectations required by the U . S . Army , and provide results showing an effective system .”
Graduate students Andres Pico , Computer Science ; Juan Lopez-Marcano , Electrical Engineering ; and Mark Pastor Hurtado , Mechanical Engineering .
While at the conference , Wasson and Hurtado assisted in recruiting over 40 undergraduate students to apply to graduate engineering programs at Virginia Tech . They also attended workshops dedicated to graduate student success such as “ Developing a vision for your research program ,” “ Valuable strategies to get the most from your advanced degree ,” and “ Call to action : the need for diverse STEM faculty ."