News & Events
22 August 2016: Lab Research Presented at CASE 2016
Dylan Schwesinger presented our work on infrastructure free localization for AGVs at CASE 2016.
27 July 2016: Dr. Schwesinger, I Presume
Congratulations to Dylan Schwesinger on successfully defending his dissertation today.
13-15 July 2016: Robotic Course at SEI
Our lab instructed the Robotics & Programming short course at the Lehigh Summer Engineering Institute (SEI).
23 May 2016: Congratulations Graduates!
Congratulations to Jack Keller who completed his Master’s degree in Computer Science this Spring.
22 May 2016: Lab Welcomes “Smart Spaces” REU Students
REU researchers Jeff Bulick (Lehigh), Y Nguyen (San Jose State), and Josh Wolper (Swarthmore College) will be working in the VADER Laboratory this summer as part of the NSF CISE Smart Spaces REU Site.
1 May 2016: NSF Grant for AGV-3D Project
Our AGV-3D project to develop natural feature-based localization for large-scale warehouse environments has been funded by NSF. You can find more details in the award abstract.
26 Feb 2016: Smart Wheelchair Research Featured in AURO
Our research towards a smart wheelchair ecosystem in urban environments is currently featured in Autonomous Robots.
20 Oct 2015: USV Research Presented at SSRR2015
Jack Keller presented our development work with the LORCA USV at SSRR2015. You can download the paper here.
12 Aug 2015: USV Testing in the Atlantic Ocean
Field tests of the LORCA USV off the coast of Brigantine, NJ. You can check out this and other videos on the lab’s YouTube Channel.
3 Jul 2015: Robotics Programming @ PGSET
Our group instructed a Robotics Programming block at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Engineering and Technology (PGSET) at Lehigh. You can view some of the students’ highlights here.
25 Jun 2015: Smart Wheelchair Research Presented at FSR 2015
Dylan Schwesinger presented our work on CoPilot at FSR2015. You can find the paper here.
18 Jun 2015: USV Testing on the Lehigh River
A joint project with Prof. Grenestedt and the LU Composites Laboratory. Check out the highlights video here.
18 May 2015: Congratulations Graduates!
Congratulations to new lab alumni Armon Shariati and Tyler Trephan. Armon completed his B.S. degree and will be pursuing his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Tyler completed his M.S. degree, and has taken a position at Lockheed Martin.
5 Dec 2014: Matthew Kilgore wins Outstanding Senior Project Award.
Congratulations to Matthew Kilgore who won the Outstanding Senior Project Award in Computer Science for “PyRo – The Python Robotics Framework.” Matthew was advised by Prof. Spletzer
16 Sep 2014: UAV Research Presented at IROS 2014
Corey Montella presented his paper on RL applied to dynamic soaring at IROS2014.
25 Aug 2014: The lab welcomes Jack Keller as a new PhD Research Assistant.
Jack will be working with Tyler Trephan on our new USV project.
16 Jun 2014 2014: RoSCAR Project Featured at MobiSys 2014
REU Armon Shariati presented our RoSCAR project at the MobiSys 2014 Mobile Augmented Reality and Robotic Technology-based Systems (MARS) workshop. You can download the paper here.
19 May 2014: Congratulations Graduates!
Congratulations to new lab alumni Tashwin Khurana and Tyler Trephan. Tashwin has completed her M.S. degree, and will be interning with Bosch Research. Tyler completed his B.S. degreem, and will be staying as a graduate research assistant to head up our new USV project.
24 Apr 2014: Lab supports New NSF REU Site
Our group is heading up the new NSF CISE Smart Spaces REU Site at Lehigh University.
13 Jan 2014: Dynamic Soaring Paper in AIAA Conference
HiL test results were presented at the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, National Harbor, Maryland. You can download this and other papers from our new Dynamic Soaring project page
1 Jan 2014: Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) Grant
We received a grant from PITA to continue commercialization efforts of lab-developed smart wheelchair technologies. We are grateful for their support.
17 Dec 2013: Tashwin Khurana and Tyler Trephan win our first Robot NASCAR competition.
You can see the video of the final competition here.
26 Aug 2013: The lab welcomes Jim O’Connor as a new PhD Research Assistant.
Jim will be heading up our new USV project.
15 May 2013: Out with the Old, in with the New!
Congratulations to Kyle Hart on completing his M.S. studies. Kyle was the lead researcher on the MapMobile – Lehigh’s Mapping Trike project. We also welcome Tashwin Khurana as a new research assistant. Tashwin will be taking over the MapMobile project.
4 Apr 2013: NSF SBIR Phase II Project
We continue our collaboration with Love Park Robotics (LPR) to commercialize smart wheelchair technologies. LPR was just awarded a Phase II SBIR by NSF.
18 Jan 2013: Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) Grant
We received a grant from PITA to support commercialization of our smart wheelchair technologies. Our project was also featured in the PITA Newsletter.
15 Dec 2012: Congratulations Mike!
Research assistant Michael Pollock completed his M.S. studies. Mike made significant contributions to the Smart Wheelchair Project during his tenure.
12 Oct 2012: Lab Research Presented at IROS 2012
Our work on terrain classification was presented at the IROS 2012 Workshop on Progress, Challenges and Future Perspectives in Navigation and Manipulation Assistance for Robotic Wheelchairs. You can watch a video demonstration here.
18 July 2012: Lab Research Presented at FSR 2012
Our work on smart wheelchair navigation in urban environments was presented at FSR 2012. You can watch a sample video of a bookstore run here.
15 May 2012: Lab Research Presented at ICRA 2012
Our team’s work on UAV Wind Field Estimation was presented at ICRA 2012.
25 Apr 2012: A Robot Torchbearer
See one of our robots carry the torch for the LVHN Robotic Surgery Simulation Olympics opening cermonies.
10 Jan 2012: New Faces
The lab welcomes Mike Pollock as a new research assistant. Mike will be working on the Smart Wheelchair Project.
1 Jan 2012: New Collaboration Partner
We’ve begun a collaboration with Love Park Robotics to develop driving aids for independent living.
9 Nov 2011: VADER Lab YouTube Channel
We’ve just created a Lab YouTube Channel. Expect new content to appear regularly.
29 Aug 2011: New Faces
The lab welcomes Dylan Schwesinger as a new research assistant. Dylan will be leading up the Smart Wheelchair Project.
23 May 2011: Congratulations Graduates!
Congratulations to Tim Perkins and Constantin Savtchenko who were awarded their M.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science, respectively.
1 Mar 2011: NSF IIS-Medium Collaborative Research
We’re beginning a NSF collaborative research project with Prof. Joachim Grenestedt and Prof. Jack Langelaan (PSU) to investigate dynamic soaring with UAVs.
18 Oct 2010: ATRS Project Featured by NSF
The ATRS Project was featured in the National Science Foundation’s October Newsletter. The project was supported through NSF’s Partnership for Innovation program.
4 May 2010: Lab research presented at ICRA2010
Ms. Chao Gao presented her work on mobile LIDAR calibration at ICRA2010.
4 Jan 2010: Lab research highlighted in ACM TechNews
ACM TechNews featured our work on smart wheelchair systems.
14 Dec 2009: Lab research featured by Scientific American and Fast Company
Scientific American and on-line business periodical Fast Company have highlighted our work on smart wheelchair systems.
11 Nov 2009: Lab research highlighted on Engadget
Popular technology weblog Engadget has picked up our work on smart wheelchair systems.
16 July 2009: Lab research presented at FSR 2009
Ms. Chao Gao and Mr. Thomas Miller presented technical papers at the 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics held at MIT on 14-16 July.
9 June 2009: John Spletzer receives NSF CAREER Award
Professor John Spletzer received a NSF Faculty Early CAREER Development Award to investigate smart wheelchair technologies for navigating urban environments.
17 May 2009: Jason Derenick wins Stout Dissertation Award
Congratulations to Jason Derenick, who was awarded the 2009 Elizabeth V. Stout Dissertation Award for the the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Jason is now a post-doctoral researcher at the GRASP Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania.
12 Nov 2008: VADER Lab funded to develop smart wheelchair technologies
Freedom Sciences, LLC and Prof. Spletzer have been awarded a Phase 1 SBIR by the National Science Foundation, as well as a grant from The Technology Collaborative to support the development of smart wheelchair technologies.
22 Jul 2008: ATRS project awarded NSF supplement
Our ATRS project was awarded a 1 year supplement by the NSF Partnerships for Innovation Program.
23 Jun 2008: ATRS receives FDA Approval
Our industry partner Freedom Sciences received FDA approval to market ATRS. The ATRS-Lite system is expected to go on sale later this summer.
30 Apr 2008: ATRS appears on New Scientist, engadget, and the current issue of the Journal of Field Robotics.
You can read the New Scientist article and see the video here.
20 Mar 2008: Sick LIDAR Matlab/C++ Toolbox Released!
We are proud to release the Sick LIDAR Matlab/C++ Toolbox for the Sick LMS2xx and LD LIDAR families.
4 Nov 2007: Little Ben completes DARPA Urban Challenge
“Little Ben”, the Ben Franklin Racing Team’s entry into the 2007 DARPA Urban Grand Challenge, was one of only six robots to successfully complete the 55 mile course. The race was held on November 3, 2007 at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, California. To learn more about Ben and the team click here.
9 Aug 2007: BFRT continues toward Urban Challenge glory
BFRT makes the NQE! We’ve been chosen as a semi-finalist to the DARPA Urban Challenge. See the official DARPA press release, with the complete list of semi-finalists, here.
2 Aug 2007: ATRS appears in Advance magazine
ATRS was featured in Advance, a magazine for Physical Therapists and PT Assistants.
11 May 2007: BFRT moves to next round in the DARPA Urban Challenge
Our team qualified for the next round of the DUC. Our site visit will be at Goodman Campus, Lehigh University, on 8 July 07. Wish us luck! The complete list of qualifying teams can be found on the DARPA website.
15 April 2007: Chao Gao wins in Lehigh CSE Poster Contest
VADER Lab graduate student Chao Gao won the “Best Poster for a Non-technical Audience” award for her ATRS poster.
12 Feb 07: Lehigh awarded NSF PFI Grant
The National Science Foundation has awarded a 2-year grant to Lehigh University in support of the development of ATRS. The ATRS PFI Partnership is being lead by Professor John Spletzer (PI, VADER Lab), Tom Panzarella (co-PI, Freedom Sciences) and Professor Sanjiv Singh (co-PI, Sensible Machines).
14 Dec 06: ATRS appears on Engadget/Physorg/Science Daily
Popular science and technology websites Engadget, Physorg, and Science Daily have picked up our article on the ATRS.
05 Dec 06: Thales sponsors Lehigh’s DUC entry
Thales Communications is sponsoring Lehigh and the Ben Franklin Racing Team entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge. We are grateful for their support.
17-19 Nov 06: ATRS demonstrated at WCD
The ATRS was demonstrated live for three days at the World Congress Exposition on Disabilities in Philadelphia, PA. A video with Professor Spletzer demonstrating the beta ATRS-Lite at WCD is here (divx 31MB).
01 Oct 06: Lehigh joins the DARPA Urban Challenge
We’ve joined the Ben Franklin Racing Team, a collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and Lockheed Martin ATL to field an entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge.
30 June 06: Jason Derenick awarded NSF travel grant.
VADER graduate student Jason Derenick was awarded a travel grant by NSF to present his paper entitled “Efficient Motion Planning Strategies for Large-scale Sensor Networks” at WAFR 2006 in New York. You can download Jason’s paper here
25 April 06: VADER Lab Research Recognized in Lehigh CSE Poster Contest
VADER Laboratory projects won first place in both categories of the Lehigh CSE 2006 Research Poster contest. Jason Derenick’s poster on shape changes for robot teams won first place for professional presentation, while Chao Gao’s poster on the ATRS won first place for poster presentation to a non-technical audience. Congratulations to both.
21 April 06: Prof. Spletzer awarded P. C. Rossin Assistant Professorship
John Spletzer was selected to receive a P. C. Rossin Assistant Professorship for 2006-2007. These are awarded to individuals in the Engineering college who have demonstrated potential for a sucessful academic career at Lehigh and with a clear interest in participating in interdisciplinary programs.
13 April 06: Humberto Sermeno-Villalta awarded NSF travel grant
VADER alumnus Humberto Sermeno-Villalta was awarded a travel grant by NSF to present his paper on the ATRS at ICRA 2006 in Orlando. The ATRS is being developed by Freedom Sciences in conjunction with Lehigh University and Carnegie Mellon. You can learn more about the ATRS and download Humberto’s paper here.
VADER lab 