James O. Vickery

I have a Bachelor's in Physics and Math and I am currently a Masters student in Mechanical Engineering concentrating in Robotics. I made this website to showcase my various projects, particularly self-motivated passion projects. Explore some of my work below.

MY PROJECTS

CONTACT

Quadruped Walking Robot

Project for Robotics Studio at Columbia University

"Bobo the Robo"

This is an ongoing project for my Robotics Studio class. The goal of the class is to build a walking robot from scratch.

For the class, I was supplied with 8 motors, a serial to PWM controller, a battery, a voltage regulator, a Raspberry Pi, and a $100 budget for additional parts. Everything else is designed and built by me.

This project is a combination of mechanical design with electrical/motor integration, programming, simulation, and much more.

For this project I used both 3D printing and laser cutting.

Current State of Walking

Just using motion primitives (simple sin and cos functions) I am able to achieve speeds of 19 cm/s while walking.

As you can see in later slides I plan to improve upon this significantly by using simulation and reinforcement learning to optimize the walking gait for speed and stability.

Click image to see and read more

3 Degree of Freedom Manipulator

A self-inititiated project to help myself and others better understand topics in kinematics.

Realistic Render

I found it difficult to imagine certain robotics concepts when they were explained in very abstract terms.

My hope with this robot is that a professor can concretely demonstrate: Relative coordinate frames, forward/inverse kinematics, singularities, motion planning and trajectories.

I plan to mount a set of XYZ axes to the base and to the end of the arm to demonstrate, among other principles, relative coordinate frames.

Simplified Overview

The design is a 3-link elbow manipulator.

It uses 3 NEMA-17 Stepper motors actuate the joints
and is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller and an 3 a4988 stepper motor controllers. I'm hoping to upgrade these to better options (such as the TMC2208/2209) after initial testing.

Project has been designed, but assembly is stalled due to the laser cutters being upgraded. Hoping to have an assembled prototype in the near future.

After testing I hope to redesign the linkages to be more visually appealing.

Click image to see and read more

Motion Planning for 2 DoF Planar Manipulator

Initially began as a homework assignment that I extended.

GUI Demonstrating Motion

This program dynamically simulates the movement of a 2-link planar manipulator.

This began as homework assignment: “Use MatLAB to simulate a straight-line trajectory between the points (1,0) and (0,2) with unit length links.” After submitting the assignment, I rewrote the program in python and modified it to include more capabilities.

The blue and orange lines are the two links and the green line is the path the path that the end effector follows. The Blue circle represents the workspace boundary.

Simulation

I extended the program so that it can now:

Simulate between any two points

Use any length of links

Use any number of interpolations

Show the workspace boundaries

Click image to see more

Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy Modification Project

Haverford College Senior Thesis

Lab Overview

For my thesis I designed and assembled modifications to an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to perform multiple forms of Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM).

I continued my predecessors work while introducing new elements and making design decisions.

Principles of AFM

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) works by using contact* forces and feedback to detect the topography of a sample. A microscopic tip essentially taps along the surface of a sample and maps out the surface by feel.

*In reality it is electrostatic forces but contact is a good enough analogy.

Image taken from: Reilly, Simon & Leach, Richard & Cuenat, Alexandre & Awan, Shakil & Lowe, Martin. (2006). Overview of MEMS sensors and the metrology requirements for their manufacture.

Click image to see more

Timing Chain Replacement
(1996 Chevy S-10)

Hands-on experience

Timing Chain Replacement

I have a passion for cars and during my summer break one year I purchased a 1996 Chevy S-10 with a loose timing chain for $400. I then spent three days replacing the timing chain on the 2.2L 4-cylinder by myself. (The old timing chain is in my hand)

The '96 S-10 had the ability to replace the timing chain without removing the front end or taking the engine out of the car which is why I took the project on.

Reassembled engine bay after Testing.

After reassembling the engine, to my pure delight the truck started right up.

I had been nervous about the timing since the 2.2L L4 engine was an interference engine.

Click image to see more

Python and Primes

A few fun scripts for factoring and generating primes/semi-primes

Programs with Primes

The idea came from reading about Shor’s algorithm/RSA encryption. I decided to practice python by making programs with various tasks

You can see the programs on the left generating primes and semi-primes while the programs on the right confirm the numbers on the left and demonstrate further capabilities.

Further info on GitHub:
https://github.com/JOVickery1/Primes

Click image to see more

Model of a Piston Engine

An educational tool for fellow students.

Simplified Working Model

I used this model to explain working principle of an internal combustion engine to fellow classmates during high school.

Functional 3D model was printed. Explanation of the 4-stroke engine cycle laser engraved into the wooden base.

Original CAD

Original CAD model. Unfortunately the files were lost during a computer transfer.

Click image to see more

Email

James.Vickery@columbia.edu

James O. Vickery

Quadruped Walking Robot

3 Degree of Freedom Manipulator

Motion Planning for 2 DoF Planar Manipulator

Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy Modification Project

Timing Chain Replacement (1996 Chevy S-10)

Python and Primes

Model of a Piston Engine

Email

Connect

Timing Chain Replacement
(1996 Chevy S-10)