Research

• During my time as a research engineer at UTS, I have contributed engineering work towards several research projects. To view more details, have a look at my professional projects section.

I am in the early stages of my honours thesis, which is focusing on the question: "How can we emulate the characteristics of a direct drive actuator with a high reduction gearbox?". During the period of my thesis, I will be developing a custom actuator which aims to achieve high performance for legged robotics applications. Along with this, I will be developing a test bench which may be used to benchmark my actuator, and other commercially available robotic actuators.

My proposed design is based on a capstan, a device used to generate mechanical advantage by wrapping rope around a drum. This design is advantageous over traditional geartrains as it is significantly lighter and has zero backlash. The only major downside to the actuator is that it is incapable of continuous rotation, which is a non-issue for legged robotic applications.