Master of Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 0, EECS - Computer and Information Sciences

Humanity is expanding its reach into space, underseas, and hostile environments through robotics. It is desired that remote, robotic workers are competent at increasingly sophisticated tasks, including servicing, assembly and manufacturing. A key ingredient in this pursuit is for machines to sense, interpret and respond effectively to contact forces and torques. The present research describes the development and testing of low-level, compliant-motion behaviors for robots performing contact tasks. The behaviors are evaluated in a variety of useful tasks, commanded by a human operator invoking supervisory controls. The approach is shown to be tolerant of communication latencies, and makes the robotic operations inherently safe for the robot and its environment. It is further shown that the human interface is easy to master, and that low-level behaviors can be combined to achieve higher levels of robot autonomy.

Committee: Wyatt Newman (Advisor) Subjects: Computer Science; Robotics; Robots; Systems Design; Technology

Master of Science, University of Akron, 2016, Polymer Science

Organic semiconductors have attracted increasing attention because of their potential in making low cost, flexible and large area electronic devices. For organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), the charge transport in the semiconductor materials is not only affected by their intrinsic electronic properties, but also by their intermolecular packing mode in the solid states. Intermolecular hydrogen-bond is one of the strategy to provide extra intermolecular interaction and enhance packing of polymer chains. Inspired by our previous work1, an novel conjugated structure dithieno[3,2-b:2,3-d]Pyridin-5(4H)-one (DTP) has been synthesized and characterized. The DTP structure possesses two fused thiophene units,which can be good electron donor ,and a d-lactam unit in which can be functionalized with alkyl or t-Boc groups to provide sufficient solubility for solution processing. Originally published as a blue pigment2, Diimidazo[4,5-¿b:4',5'-m]triphenodioxazine-2,10-dione,6,14-dichloro-1,3,9,11-tetrahydro, also named Pigment Blue 80 (P.B 80) is believed to have good potential as organic electronics. The pigment molecule has big conjugated triphenodioxazine structure with two imdazo-2-one rings as hydrogen-bonding sites, as well as two chlorine atoms to provide potential in polymerization. Different routes has been tried in order to synthesis the P.B 80 molecule, an important intermediate 5-amino-6-methoxy-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-one has been synthesized and characterized, and the reaction condition in critical steps has been studied.

Committee: Yu Zhu Dr. (Advisor); Coleen Pugh Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Chemistry; Polymer Chemistry