George Small

George Small

Buffalo, New York, United States
3K followers 500+ connections

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About

Chief Technology Officer at Moog, focusing on the combination of technology development…

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Experience

  • Moog Inc. Graphic

    Moog Inc.

    East Aurora, NY

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    Moog Inc. East Aurora, NY

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    Moog Inc, East Aurora NY

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    Moog Inc. East Aurora, NY

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    Amherst, NY

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    Orchard Park, NY

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    Tonawanda, NY

Education

Publications

  • Robotics and Autonomy: Force Control for Active Chassis Balancing

    IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics ( Volume: PP, Issue: 99 )


    This paper presents the realization of the worldwide first automated walking excavator chassis. To this end, the authors build a new generation of high-performance hydraulic valves with integrated pressure feedback to achieve fast and accurate cylinder force tracking. This allows to automatically adapt the legs to uneven terrain and to optimally shape the ground reaction forces in order to change orientation and height of the cabin. Due to the contact redundancy, automated balancing is…


    This paper presents the realization of the worldwide first automated walking excavator chassis. To this end, the authors build a new generation of high-performance hydraulic valves with integrated pressure feedback to achieve fast and accurate cylinder force tracking. This allows to automatically adapt the legs to uneven terrain and to optimally shape the ground reaction forces in order to change orientation and height of the cabin. Due to the contact redundancy, automated balancing is implemented as a contact force optimization problem including constraints on contact forces and joint torques. The corresponding prioritized optimization problem can be simplified by using a quasi-static approximation of the system dynamics and a complexity reduction due to the kinematic structure of the legs. Our approach considers the unknown configuration and load of the cabin, arm, and bucket as system disturbances, whereby gravitational effects are approximated as well as possible. It is tested in a Gazebo simulation and validated in different experiments using a prototype walking excavator machine. The proposed method revolutionizes operator control of these versatile but complex multi-purpose vehicles: instead of manual and coordinatively very demanding cylinder position adjustment, the operator can command simple high-level commands like cabin pose. Furthermore, it significantly reduces peak forces in the cylinders and at the contact points, which causes less damage to the mechanics and the ground.

    Other authors
    • Marco Hutter
    • Philipp Leemann
    • Gabriel Hottiger
    • Ruedi Figi
    • Stefan Tagmann
    • Gonzalo Rey
    See publication

Patents

Projects

  • Blockchain for Supply Chain - Moog Innovation Initiative

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    Co-lead for Blockchain for Supply Chain project, a Moog Innovation Initiative leveraging our global supply chain and additive manufacturing experience.

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