Education:

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. May 1995.
  Ranked #4 out of 150 in PhD qualifying examination.
• M.S., Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. June 1991.
• M.S., Computer Science, Stanford University. June 1990.
• B.S., Applied Physics, University of Granada, Spain, June 1987.

Employment Experience:

• [10/90 - present] Aerospace Robotics Laboratory, Stanford University., Stanford, CA.
  FFFDeveloped an intelligent, dual-arm robotic workcell. The system combines a high-level graphical user interface, an on-line motion planner, real-time vision, and an on-line simulator to control a dual-arm robotic system. Developed several software tools currently used by most other projects in the laboratory including underwater and space robotic vehicles.

• [6/93 - 6/94] Senior Applications Engineer, Real-Time Innovations Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.
  Directed the complete design and development of the ``Network Data-delivery System'' a new, commercially available, subscription-based, network-data-sharing system. This system supports Sun, HP, SGI, DEC and VxWorks platforms. Also provided consulting services for real-time software applications.

• [6/90 - 9/90] SEED internship, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA.
  Designed and implemented a system to provide real-time collision avoidance, path planning and multi task scheduling for a multi-robot work-cell.

• [10/87 - 9/88] Officer, Spanish Air Force, Manises, Valencia, Spain.
  Responsible for the training and command of a 40 person troop.

• [6/87 - 9/87] Researcher, European Center for Particle Physics (CERN), Geneva Switzerland.
  Designed and conducted a viability study on the application of scintillating X-ray detector technology used in particle-physics experiments to medical radiometry.

• [6/86 - 9/86] Summer Intern, CERN, Geneva Switzerland.
  Developed real-time software for Data Acquisition and Processing in the context of a particle physics experiment. Developed simulation software to guide design of new particle detectors.

Awards / Accomplishments:

• National Academic Award in Physics. Spanish Ministry of Education, 1988.
  (Ranked #1 in the country among graduates from all the Spanish Universities).
• National Program for Studies Abroad Scholar, 1988-92
  (NSF-like Fellowship awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education).
• Fulbright Scholarship (Awarded by the USA-Spain Committee for Cultural Cooperation, 1988).
• Award of Academic Achievement. University of Granada Science Academy, 1987.
  (Ranked #1 in the School of Science).
• Military Award: #1 ranking officer candidate (of 500) in the Spanish Air Force entrance examination, 1987.
• CERN Scholarship, European Institute for Particle Physics, 1986.

Foreign Languages: Spanish, French

References available on request

Dissertation abstract:

This thesis comprises the development of an intelligent, dual-arm robotic workcell. The system combines a high-level graphical user interface, an on-line motion planner, real-time vision, and an on-line simulator to control a dual-arm robotic system. The graphical user interface provides high-level user direction. The motion planner generates complete on-line plans to carry out these directives, specifying both single and dual-armed motion and manipulation. This work focuses on the individual subsystems as well as on their interfaces. Specifically, the following research contributions have been made:

1. System design and interfaces. The system is based on a novel "interface-first" design technique. This technique structures the complex command and data flow as combinations of three fundamental robotic interface components: world-model, robot-command, and task-level direction.

2. Network architecture. Complex distributed robotic systems require very complex data flow. A powerful new subscription-based, network-data-sharing system was developed (and is being comercialized). This enables transparent connectivity.

3. Path time-parameterization. A fast (linear-time, proximate-optimal) solution to the fundamental problem of time-parameterization of robot paths was also developed.

4. Implementation. Architecture and design of the hierarchical control system and interfaces for the experimental dual-arm assembly workcell.

The experimental results presented show that the system is capable of performing complex, multi-step tasks autonomously (under human task-level supervision) , including dual-arm object acquisitions from a moving conveyor, object motion among obstacles, re-grasps, and hand-overs. The system can also react to environmental changes on-line.

Publications