USNA Faculty Profiles

 

Joel M. Esposito
Associate Professor
Systems Engineering Department

105 Maryland Ave.
Annapolis, MD 21402
esposito at usna edu

  Degrees    |  Profile   |   Research   |   Courses |  Publications   |  

 
Degree
Degree

    Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2002
    M.S. University of Pennsylvania, 1999
    B.S. Rutgers University, Magna Cum Laude 1997

Profile
Publications

Joel Esposito:  is an Associate Professor (CV) in the System Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy.  He teaches courses in Robotics and Control Systems.  Pedagogically, his current efforts are focused on developing a new course on autonomous vehicles (land, sea, and air).  His research focuses on the use of algorithmic and numerical tools for designing and analyzing mobile robot motion controllers. He is the author of over 35 peer reviewed publications.  Prior to joining the faculty in 2002, he spent several years as a graduate research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania working with Vijay Kumar at the GRASP Laboratory.  During those years he worked on a variety of DARPA projects, participated in the development of a programming language, CHARON, and held visiting appointments at Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories and Boston University. 

Academic Genealogy: Ferdinand Freudenstein --> Bernie Roth --> Kenneth Waldron -->  Vijay Kumar

About USNA: The Naval Academy is a 4 year undergraduate institution conferring the Bachelors of Science degree in a variety of accredited majors. Historically the Academy faculty has maintained a 50-50 civilian-officer ratio.   Students receive tuition waivers in exchange to commit to serve as an officer in the Navy or Marine Corps for at least 5 years.  The ABET Accredited Systems Engineering Major is the among the most popular majors at the Academy.  It is actually an applied control systems department.  At its core is a 5 course sequence in feedback control.  Upper level electives include embedded computing, modern control, communication systems and four courses in robotics. 

Looking for someone else?  Perhaps you are looking from my wife's website?   She is a Dentist in Annapolis and Arnold, Maryland

Research Projects
Forthcoming Publications


Cooperative Manipulation:  We study how large groups of robots can work together to move big objects in concert, without relying on a centralized leader.  Army ants transporting prey provide a proof of concept in nature.   Our ultimate goal is to field a team of autonomous tug boats that can tow disabled ships.   Watch our video documentary or see our publications below for details.   I work with Matthew Feemster and CAPT Jack Nicholson at USNA.
This project is funded by ONR.

 

 

Mobile Wireless Networks:  Imagine a large swarm of mobile robots that have to exchange information to complete their task.  Low power ad hoc wireless technologies such as BlueTooth and IR require that the sender and receiver are within a certain range of each other.  In addition, signal strength improves if the sender and receiver maintain line of sight.   These two constraints restrict how the entire group can move. VIDEO1, VIDEO2,  

   

Rapidly Exploring Random Trees:  This popular robot motion planning algorithm can be used to vet complex control systems as well, by trying to find scenarios under which control software will fail -- exposing the bugs in the code.   One of the goals of the project is to adapt the original algorithm for this purpose, and to predict the convergence rate of the algorithm.     Here is a video of the algorithm discovering how an intruder can get past a team of robot security guards. 

 

Other Activities
Research Projects

MTIC:    I wrote (with Owen Barton) the Matlab Toolbox for the iRobot Create which allows you to control your Roomba or Create Robot from Matlab.   We are still in the Beta Version.

Computers in Education Journal (ASEE):   I am the editor-in-chief of the Computers in Education Journal, a publication of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).  The purpose of the journal is to provide a forum to share new pedagogical approaches to using all facets of computing (programming, software, hardware, embedded, etc.) in engineering education.  Please direct all submissions to ed-pub (at) crosslink (dot) net

Unmanned Ground Vehicle Competition:  I am the faculty adviser (with Brad Bishop)  for the Naval Academy's entry into the AUVSI's Intelligent Unmanned Ground Vehicle Student Competition.   We are currently in the process of constructing our vehicle.   Updates to follow.

University Service:  I serve on the Faculty Teaching and Service Award Committees.
 

Current Courses
Research Projects

Courses Taught:

Pedagogical Articles:

Publications
Conferernce Presentations

Swarm Manipulation:

Multi-Robot (Swarm) Motion Planning and Control:

Enhancements to Rapidly Exploring Random Trees with applications to verification:

Numerical Methods for Simulating Hybrid Systems:

For a complete list see CV.

<updated 8/1/2008>