NAME

Morgan Quigley

SYNOPSIS

I work for Open Robotics, designing open-source software, firmware, and electronics. Here is my CV.

DESCRIPTION

Current projects include:

• ROS: I was one of the original authors of the Robot Operating System (ROS) way back when (circa 2006-2008). Open Robotics is the steward of ROS, and works in collaboration with thousands of contributors across the globe to continually improve and maintain the system. New feature development now happens in ROS 2, a complete rewrite of ROS, which adds improvements in security, portability, real-time safety, performance, and many other aspects. Much more information is available on the ROS 2 website.
• RMF: Robotics Middleware Framework (RMF), to promote interoperability between fleets of robots, shared building infrastructure (for example, elevators and automatic doors), and enterprise IT systems.

HISTORY

Before Open Robotics, I received a PhD under the advisement of Professor Andrew Ng in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Past projects include:

• OVC: The Open Vision Computer (OVC) is an open-source (hardware, software, firmware) smart-camera project which runs ROS internally. This device is designed particularly for space- and mass-constrained applications, such as small drones or robot heads.
• Sandia STEPPR and WANDRR robots: In collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and others at OSRF and elsewhere, I designed the electrical systems and firmware for the Sandia STEPPR and WANDRR high-efficiency biped robots, supported by the DARPA M3 program. The program goal was to create human-size walking machines that required dramatically less power than prior generations of bipedal robots. We demonstrated WANDRR at the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), where it walked for 4 hours on a single battery charge (plus another hour of standing around), covering 2.8 kilometers with an average power consumption in the 450-watt range (including all onboard electronics, computers, etc.). Video available here showing the design, assembly, and operation of the robots.
• Sandia Hand: The Sandia Hand is a sensor-rich, high-DOF robotic hand. I designed and implemented its electronics (14 microcontrollers, an FPGA, 12 brushless motor drivers, a stereo camera pair, 100 tactile sensors, 13 inertial units, 4 strain gages, etc.), and its firmware and software, which are fully open source. Here is a video of the hand being teleoperated. A later version of the hand made its way onto several robots in the 2013 DARPA Robotics Challenge. This video of Lockheed Martin's TROOPER shows some footage of the hand on an ATLAS robot from Boston Dynamics.

CONTACT

morgan@openrobotics.org

https://github.com/codebot