Robotics consulting focusing in:- System architecture - Manipulator architecture and design- End effector design- Actuator design: motors, transmissions, sensors, brakes, structures etc- Product focused design strategies - Medical applications Current and past clients include:- Johnson & Johnson- Walt Disney Imagineering - Auris Health- SRI International - Intuitive Surgical- Verb Surgical- Harmonic Drive Systems Inc- Imperative Care / Telos Health - Neural Analytics / NovaSignal - Novanta / Celera Motion - Neptune Medical / Triton Robotics - Numerous stealth mode startups - Volunteer work for Cal Poly SLO

Contributed to the architecture and detailed design of a large automated system to mass produce millions of sterile male mosquitoes. Designed and executed novel laboratory experiments to quantify fundamental aspects of mosquito behavior to determine optimal design criteria for the mass production of mosquitoes.

Technical lead of a team designing robots for numerous applications. Provided detailed design guidance to a team designing a collaborative robot arm. Lead architectural design studies for robots used in domestic environments.

Technical lead of the team that designed the da Vinci Xi setup system.Designed actuators, kinematics and overall architecture, utilizing a deep understanding of surgical applications to optimize the design. Conceptualized an alternate architecture for half the joints which became the design that was released in the product. Designed/built/tested the new architecture, which had >20x higher stiffness and 4x less friction on a key axis. Invented a novel constant force spring actuator that can provide variable counterbalancing with very low friction. Developed unique components to enable the new setup joint architecture: custom motors, brakes and sensors. Technical lead of the team that designed the da Vinci Xi surgical manipulator.Focused on actuator designs, kinematics and machine architecture, utilizing a deep understanding of surgical applications to optimize machine design. Designed/built/evaluated full size articulating FDM models of candidate designs.Designed/built/tested two successful versions of prototype manipulators, responsible for 3 of the 4 outer axes of the robot including structure, drive train and actuators. DFX, cost optimization, testing, documentation, mfg line development etc...

Core member of the design team that developed the surgical manipulator used on the da Vinci S and Si products. Designed a 3-stage telescoping linear axis that comprises the distal end of the robotic manipulator, used to insert a surgical instrument into a patient. Developed new mechanical UI for surgical instruments and sterile adapter on the robot.Designed the robotic instrument interface to enable a more robust & simple UI. Designed a complex cable drive train, consisting of 10 cables and >100 pulleys & capstans, capable of running for millions of cycles.Optimized motor drive modules for reduced inertia & friction: DC motors, spur & planetary gears, spring and magnetic brakes, and high resolution encoders.My personal contributions to date: >2,000,000 machined parts and >4,000,000 total parts in the field. This has led to >10,000 manipulators built and >2,000,000 surgeries performed with this machine.I was also part of the team that designed and released the first 4-arm surgical robot in 2003.

Designed/built/tested a 5ft tall truss structure, mounted above the ceiling, to support a hanging surgical robot. Performed static structural analysis and dynamic modal analysis to optimize the truss structure.

Designed a haptic interface for a surgical simulation project.

Designed and built robotic cockroaches. The cockroach leg I co-designed was the basis for (at the time) the world's fastest running robot. Top speed = 3 ft/s.

Contributed to the detector design for GLAST, the Gamma Ray Large Area Telescope, which was renamed as the Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope. Performed experiments to optimize thermal/mechanical performance of the silicon wafer based gamma ray detector array.

Designed 1 DOF of a robotic positioning system used in NIF (National Ignition Facility), including a custom actuator and linear drivetrain. Designed and built pneumatic tools for transport and handling of large aluminum cover plates.

Performed nonlinear, transient thermal/mechanical FEA and designed flight hardware for an experiment to test Ultra High Temperature Ceramic spacecraft heatshield materials.

Designed various wind tunnel experiments to test instrumentation designs for spacecraft heat shield materials. I also contributed to the design of a pressure sensor on the Deep Space 2 Microprobes that ultimately crashed into Mars aboard the Mars Polar Lander :-/