Suffolk Reporter

Robotics is becoming an integral part of civil engineering, offering potential benefits such as removing humans from dangerous work zones and reducing physically demanding labor. Faculty members at Stony Brook University are leading research projects to address contemporary challenges through robotics.

Assistant Professor Wei Li is developing tactile sensing robots that can perceive and handle delicate materials. This project, in collaboration with Assistant Professors Shaoting Lin from Michigan State University and Yu She from Purdue University, received a National Science Foundation grant for three years. Li explained the use of photoelasticity in their research: “We wanted to study how the particles in granular media interacted with each other.” The goal is to miniaturize this technology into robotic fingertips capable of sensing various textures and potentially being used in medical or underwater applications.

Assistant Professor Ci-Jyun (Polar) Liang focuses on enhancing safety and sustainability in construction through human-robot collaboration. Liang's research involves using robots for repetitive tasks like heavy lifting and bricklaying. He utilizes imitation and reinforcement learning methods where robots learn by observing human demonstrations. “The robot can observe the environment and provide different solutions if they didn’t see those scenarios in the human’s demonstration,” said Liang.

Paolo Celli, another assistant professor, works on creating underground-burrowing robots using his expertise in structural mechanics. Collaborating with geotechnical engineer Ali Khosravi from Auburn University, they aim to understand interactions between shape-morphing structures and granular media better. These robots have applications such as site investigation and underground excavation.

Celli also teamed up with Kathryn Daltorio from Case Western Reserve University to develop a robot for easier installation of underground utility lines, addressing issues like weather-related power outages. “Beyond robotics, these shape morphing structures we investigate can be useful as temporary structures,” said Celli.

Regarding robotics' future role in civil engineering, Celli noted: “I don’t think robots will ever completely replace construction workers or jobs like that... But there are some tasks... that could be supported by robots.”

— Angelina Livigni