Accuracy is Politeness for Engineers: Manipulators of the Future Modeled at the Center of Computer Engineering

 

The SUSU Center of Computer Engineering is increasing the pace of its innovative developments and scientific potential. In July, the Russian Higher Attestation Commission confirmed the academic title candidate of technical sciences for the head of the department of calculations and testing of the CCE, Oleg Kudryavtsev. We spoke with the new candidate of science on high-accuracy robotics, modern materials and the art of taking a hit, secrets of successful time management, and the meteorite that brought success.

– What affected your choice of path in life?

In April 2007 I came to SUSU on Open House Day. Our department, Dynamics and Machine Durability and its head in those years, Aleksandr Olegovich Chernyavskiy, really inspired me with their talks. Also, SUSU is a family university for us – my parents also graduated from SUSU. I decided to study here.

My defense was scheduled for February 15th, 2013. This was the day the meteor landed. As a result, they shifted our defense to one week later, but I’ll always remember this day!

 – How did your career start?

– After my degree, the question remained: what do I do now? At that time, work had begun at the university within Decree #218 of the Russian Federation Government for designing a model for a low-floor, energy-efficient tram. They needed calculators, and they told our graduating class, “Stay in our postgraduate program. You’ll do research and gain experience!”. Five of us, including myself, stayed at the university. That’s how my immersion in science began.

Together with my scientific advisor, Sergey Borisovich Sapozhnikov, we began working on impact-proof defense structures. This includes bullet-proof vests and helmets. In 2014, we won a grant from the Russian Scientific Fund for developing impact-proof composite materials and the construction of floating armored vehicles. The goal of this work was to create a floating vehicle from modules with sandwich-structure sections and light fillers which would absorb the energy of bullets and offer structural rigidity. We prepared methods to calculate elements, created a behavior model for ceramic-composite material impact, and created a full 3D model of the vehicle.

– Where did the topic of your dissertation come from?

My work is dedicated to the study of deformation and damage to layered ceramic-composite plates from local impact. This includes elements of the high protection class of bullet-proof vests where the external layer is ceramic elements which destroy the armor-piercing core of bullets and a composite base which catches shrapnel, preventing injury. Such bullet-proof vests help you take a hit in the most extreme conditions. At first, the push behind writing this dissertation was this project in particular. From this project, we developed the main material for dissertation research.

– What projects are you working on now in the Center of Computer Engineering?

Right now, the center is completing a few projects, and our department takes active part in them. We are working on realizing the Federal Target Program for the project entitled “Development of a System for Blocking Differentials”. Also, within Decree #218 of the Russian Federation Government, we are developing a product line of hypoid axles for trucks and busses with KAMAZ.

In addition, we are completing joint research with the company DST-Ural, which builds bulldozers and other construction technology. The Center of Computer Engineering, alongside this Chelyabinsk business, has won the project within decree #218. This is a large project, designed for a three-year completion time. It involves introducing high-technology products to the market for Russian mechanical engineering businesses which build large products. Within this project we are developing a robotized complex.

– Tell us more about the robotized complex

– This isn’t, of course, the robots that we know from sci-fi films. This is a large construction along which a horizontal beam runs. A vertical construction with robot manipulators and instruments are attached to it. This can include a spray gun, a welding electrode, a plasma torch for plasma cutting – anything an assembly shop needs.

To ensure the manipulator’s accuracy, the construction must be rigid. It must be removed from various vibrations, since vibration negatively affects the accuracy. In our project, we have a positioning accuracy of .2mm. This is a high number.

The CCE’s goals include ensuring the high accuracy of all parts created. The size of the portal module can reach 24 meters length ad up to 4 meters in width and height. In this large space, we must very accurately position the actions of the robot manipulator. We are responsible for the fabrication, robot programming, choosing the instruments, and for all of the electronics.

– Do you have any hobbies? Or do science and work take up all of your time?

My wife and I love to ride bicycles and in the winter we go skiing.

– Do you have a secret for managing your time?

I have understood for a long time that any result requires serious effort, and the more effort you put in, the better and more quickly you get a result. So, I agree with the words of the research head of the CCE Andrey Vladimirovich Keller, “You must do some research every day, at least a little bit, and then everything will work out!” When we studied, every weekend was dedicated to homework in mathematical analysis, theoretical mechanics, and theory of strength of materials. This is the basis for a good technological education which helps me a lot in my work today. I am sure that if you want to achieve something you have to totally dedicate yourself to it. Only then can you count on a result.

 

Yulia Rudneva, photo by Oleg Igoshin
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