Our project aims to develop a robotic system for internal inspection of industrial piping systems. Current inspection methods face limitations because they rely on either friction with pipe walls or thrust from propellers to traverse piping systems. When confronted with vertical sections, changing diameters, unconstrained environments, or a combination of the three, current inspection methods are rendered ineffective. To address these drawbacks, our team developed a novel version of a soft, continuum robot known as a vine robot.

Our project helps people keep their homes filled with fresh, cool air and lower their AC
costs. The number of extreme heat days in California has tripled over the last century. In
response, many people use AC to cool down their homes, but this is extremely costly
and environmentally unfriendly. Our automatic window-opening system enables
homeowners to bring fresh air into their homes and reduce their AC usage.

The US Navy spends over $60B annually on ship maintenance, where the hazardous work environment claimed the lives of 50 sailors last year. For this reason, our team developed GANER, the Gaucho Autonomous Navy Environment Robot, to replace humans and lead the ship maintenance industry in both safety and cost efficiency. 

With 250 million endoscopies done worldwide annually, endoscopes are a critical component of
today’s medical care, yet, they are also the leading cause of infection by medical device.

Our project aims to create a time-saving device for testing infrared sensors, called Focal Plane
Arrays (FPAs), which are used in mission-critical military and space applications. Current test
chambers used to validate the output of FPAs include a fixed-sized aperture, placed in a
cryogenically-cooled vacuum chamber, which controls the amount of light that hits a FPA during
testing.

Minimally invasive surgeries, such as arthroscopic (keyhole) surgeries, have grown in popularity
due to the promise of faster recovery times and causing less pain. A typical keyhole surgery
setup involves a camera that captures the movement of a surgical tool and displays it on a
monitor. During the surgery, it is easy to lose a sense of scale in translation and orientation of
the tool.

The Spring Actuated Lunar Robot’s (SALR) objective is to further our understanding of the moon’s surface with a novel way of traveling by jumping. The rugged terrain poses challenges to rovers and a lack of an atmosphere on the Moon means flight by generating lift is not viable. The jumping spring mechanism created by the Hawkes Lab would allow a robot to reach heights of 30 meters, becoming even greater with the Moon’s low gravity. Jumping on the moon also allows for the potential of recovering energy when landing and dampening the impact.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Young children who have been diagnosed with CP often require physical therapy treatment in order to walk, crawl, or even sit up on their own. Many adults with cerebral palsy require aid to do everyday tasks and in some cases require wheelchairs, prohibiting them from leading fully independent lives.