+ Cao Yanjun

I received the Master Degree in Mechatronic Engineering from Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIACAS) in 2015 and received my Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering and Automation from Tianjin University of Technology (TJUT), Tianjin, China in 2012. My former research interests mainly focus on Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot, especially in hardware aspect. Some researches about Power Transmission Line Maintenance Robots are made in my Master years. In future, I hope to develop a smart modular robotic system or robotic swarm which has more real applications.

In addition to my studies, I also love sports and always become excited to try new things. I play longboard and I think this activity is so fascinate.

+ Current Projects

• My most excited research project is about Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot–360bot/360botG2;

Self-reconfigurable modular robots are famous for their self-assembling, self-reconfiguring and self-repairing abilities. These abilities allow the robots to change themselves into autonomy systems to finish many different jobs or variable tasks. However, few kinds of robot systems have been applied to solve real-world challenges although such a lot of experiments about these modular robotic systems have been carried out in laboratory environment. This always attributes to limitations in physical environments and limits their practical application area. Thus we start our research with the same initiate reasons, flexible, powerful and robust, but also avoid the existed limitations, like motor torque limitation in many modules configurations, to find applications for modular robotics.

A strategy combing ideas of ants and cells was proposed to develop a robotic system aimed at implementing both search and rescue tasks for post-disaster missions in the future. l designed a novel modular robot met our targets with a simple structure. The design enabled that each module moved with the same degree of freedom used for assembling. This design was successfully prototyped and the research result was reported by school newspapers.

In my master years, I did some extension of my previous research in Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot (SRMR) and is a totally self-motivated, self-directed and self-funded project. I have completed a series of challenges and developed an improved module of SRMR. The most significant feature is that single module can move in a wide range of ground conditions, wood floors, stone floors, land covered in broken bricks and grass land, which allow each module work independently in a swarm as well as assembly into an powerful structure if needed. This module has great potential to bring SRMR into the real world.

• My master project is about Power Transmission Line Maintenance Robot;

I designed and developed a robotic device to reduce the danger for lineman when removing power line entanglements, as they always result in a flashover and cause great loss to society. A multi-discipline approach was proposed and a novel composite clearing device, which was made up of a heating cutting tool and a blade cutting tool, was produced. This device was able to remove most types of entanglements effectively, including thread-like and cloth-like ones of various materials, in a relatively simple, quick and robust way.

+ Scholarship and Awards

• I received Graduate Project Scholarship and Research Assistant Scholarship, SIACAS scholarship from 2012 to 2015.

+ Select Publications

• Cao Yanjun, Leng Yuquan, et al. 360botG2—An Improved Unit of Mobile Self-assembling Modular Robotic System Aiming at Exploration in Real World [C], the 41st Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Yokohama, Japan. 2015.
• Cao Yanjun, Wang Hongguang, et al. A Hazard Entanglements Clearing Robot for Power Transmission Line with Composite Clearing Tool [C], the 5th IEEE International Conference on Cyber Technology, Shenyang, China. 2015.
• Cao Yanjun, Ge Weimin, Zhang Huajin. Structure Design and Simulation Analysis of an Innovative Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot-360bot [J]. ROBOT, 2013,35(5): 568-575,606.

+ Contact Information and Links

• Contact me by email: yanjundream@outlook.com
• Or find me on Facebook.