We’ve written before about the fluid power research projects coming out of the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power. Ten new research projects have recently been selected for funding. One student benefiting from the funding is Gaurav Singh, a student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign who is working on the Portable Pneumatically Powered Orthoses project.
Education and Career
Gaurav received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal in 2012 and his Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2016. He is currently a PhD candidate in Systems Engineering at UIUC. At UIUC, he is a research assistant in the Monolithic Systems Laboratory. After completing his PhD, he would like to join the industry. He would like to continue his research in the field of design, analysis, and controls of soft robots, specifically robots designed for human assistive and rehabilitative applications.
Current Research
His current research is in the area of design and analysis of fiber-reinforced soft pneumatic actuators (FREEs), also commonly known as pneumatic artificial muscles. Through the CCEFP, he is working on the design of a soft pneumatic orthosis for crutch users. The orthosis uses FREE actuators and reduces wrist loading in crutch users.
Motivation for Choosing Engineering
Gaurav is pursuing engineering because he is interested in making devices that help people. He believes there is a need for robots that can assist people with their day-to-day tasks by acting in an assistive role or a rehabilitative role. In addition, robots can also be used to enhance our performance by providing extra sources of power without adding a lot of weight. Conventional robots are not suitable for these applications, and he believes that fluid-powered soft robots can be used to fill this need due to their advantage of being soft, adaptive, and lightweight.
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