Doctoral student receives Robotics award

Dinesh Rabindran and Dr. Delbert Tesar in the robotics lab at the Pickle Research Center.

AUSTIN, TEXAS—October 15, 2008

Dinesh Rabindran, a doctoral student working under the supervision of Prof. Delbert Tesar, has been selected to receive an honorable mention for the 2008 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Fellowship. He will be recognized at the 2009 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Kobe, Japan.

This fellowship is intended to support a student who will have a significant future impact on the fields of robotics and/or automation and increase gender diversity in the field. 24 candidates from 5 countries were nominated for this fellowship. The applications were reviewed by a committee of international researchers. One person received the fellowship and 6 were selected for an honorable mention.

Mr. Rabindran is completing his doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Delbert Tesar at the Robotics Research Group (RRG). The RRG is laying the foundation for open architecture systems for which safe and responsive actuators are central to its success. Towards this goal, Rabindran's doctoral work is investigating a dual input parallel actuator using a differential drive to make robot manipulators mechanically safe around humans. This approach might find application in areas where robots physically interact with humans, such as rehabilitation robots.

In addition, Rabindran has been an active mentor for the Graduates Linked with Undergraduates in Engineering (GLUE) initiative for the past 4 years. He has mentored 4 diverse undergraduate students through the GLUE program, focusing on the field of robotics and automation.