Hi, I'm Martin. I have an MS and BS from MIT in Mechanical Engineering. Specializing in robotics and mechatronics, I'm a multidisciplined engineer with skills and experiences spanning mechanical and electrical systems, software, and controls.
I also have a passion for sensors, vision-based technologies (augmented/virtual reality, camera systems, computer vision), and entertainment technology (film-making, immersive attractions, experiential story-telling).
I'm currently helping eradicate mosquito-born diseases as a Factory Automation Engineer on Verily's Debug project.
Portfolio
Automated Fuselage Assembly
June 2015 - October 2016
Boeing's large-scale, mobile, multi-robot system that autonomously drills and fastens fuselage panels for 777 aircraft.
Augmented Reality for Manufacturing
October 2015 - December 2016
Using AR for digital work instruction, training, and validation in Boeing's manufacturing plants.
Optical Orientation Sensor for Underwater Robot
September 2012 - May 2014
My graduate research on a camera-laser system to measure distance and angular rotations, for autonomous weld-line inspection.
Underwater Nuclear Inspection Robot
February 2011 – May 2012
My undergraduate research involved designing a small, appendage-free, submersible robot to visually inspect nuclear reactors.
Hand Scanner, Interactive Sci-Fi Room
March - May 2014
My team and I won a contract from 5Wits to design a futuristic, interactive adventure room.
Autonomous Ball Robot
January 2012
This robot collects balls and launches them over a wall to the opponent’s side of the field. With help from my EE and CS teammates, we came in 1st out of 9 other teams.
Web Design
March 2014
I started learning web design for my graduate product design class. We were required to submit assignments in the form of websites.
Name Card
February 2014
A kinetic name card I made for my product design class, based on the mechanical camshaft toys.
Jumping Robot
October - December 2013
A robot to study how the time delay between kicking the front and hind legs might maximize the jump height of a quadruped.
Mannequin Arm and Legs
October 2013
As a Teaching Assistant for the Intro to Robotics class, I modelled and printed a pair of legs and arms for the students to control.
Beverage Recognition
April – May 2013
An activity recognition program that determines which drink a person is preparing. It combines logical and probabilistic reasoning.
Ascent - Wheelchair Assist
October - December 2011
A manual wheelchair with a power assist. The hand rims measure user-applied torque and activate two powertrains when necessary.
Forget-Me-Not
October 2011
A place-mat for your important, small-sized items (keys, phone, a letter to mail). When leaving the house, the system alerts you if anything was forgotten.
Yo-yo
October - December 2010
Every MIT mechanical engineer makes a yo-yo consisting of injection-molded inner-hubs and outer-rings and a thermoformed plate.
Autonomous Pipe-Plugging Robot
October – November 2010
An autonomous robot that scans the ground beneath it, locates a damaged pipe, and inserts a plug. This team competition was inspired by the BP oil spill.
Crafts
Blueberry Costumes
In just one week, I sewed two blueberry costumes for me and my girlfriend.
I first made a paper model to work out the measurements, then used it as a pattern. The blueberries are lined with batting, filled with stuffing, and hand-stitched onto a blue t-shirt.
December 2015
Warriors Costume
Modelled after one of the characters in the movie The Warriors. I made the necklace, armbands, and headbands, but called in a professional (my mom) for the vest.
October 2015
BMO Kindle Sleeve
A hand-stitched Kindle sleeve of the BMO character from the cartoon Adventure Time.
January 2015
Burrito
A plush burrito, complete with rice, beans, cheese, lettuce, tortilla, and wrapped in foil.
June 2014
Doll Couple
Little doll versions of me and my girlfriend, hand-sewn from felt.
March 2014
Laser Security System
I sketched a few concepts for a security drone that would target guests of a walk-through adventure room. My intent was to explore different designs that could evoke different feelings within the guests.
See the website I designed to present my ideas here.
March 2014
Horse
A plush horse wearing boots.
January 2014
Reindeer Ornament
A friend of mine held an ornament decorating party, painting little wooden reindeer (which I helped laser cut). Mine was dressed as a ninja turtle.
December 2013
Sheep
A fluffy sheep.
June 2013
BMO Phone Sleeve
A hand-stitched phone sleeve of the BMO character from the cartoon Adventure Time.
January 2013
BMO
A life-size stuffed animal modelled after the character from the cartoon Adventure Time.
2012
Mustache
A quick disguise when you need it. These hold on to the septum in your nose—unfortunately not one-size-fits-all. They make for the perfect gift to give to that fun, two-piece band you just saw.
December 2012
Halloween Tree
An 8’x6’ scene I made for my Stagecraft class. I sketched the scene on cardstock, then cut out the pieces and arranged them in layers. Then I projected them onto 0.5” thick MDF, traced and cut them out.
It's painted with a fire retardant base then final paint job. I also sewed a plush apple to hang from one of the branches.
November – December 2009
Apple
I created a plush apple for my wooden Halloween scene art project.
November 2009
Aladdin Pants
I sewed a pair of Aladdin pants to complete the vest, hat and sash my mom made for me.
October 2009
Publications & Patents
Publications
Omni-Egg: A Smooth Spheroidal, Appendage Free Underwater Robot Capable of 5 DOF Motions A. Fittery, A. Mazumdar, M. Lozano, H. Asada, 2012 IEEE/MTS Oceans Conference
Active Yaw Stabilization for Smooth, Highly Maneuverable Underwater Vehicles A. Mazumdar, A. Fittery, M. Lozano, H. Asada, 2012 ASME Dynamic Systems and Controls Conference
A compact, maneuverable, underwater robot for direct inspection of nuclear power piping systems A. Mazumdar, M. Lozano, A. Fittery, H. Asada, 2012 IEEE Int’l Conference on Robotics and Automation
Patents
Integrated Pipe Pressure and Temperature Sensors and Related Methods US20170199064, M. Lozano, The Boeing Company, 2015
Smooth, Spheroidal, Appendage Free Underwater Robot Capable of 5 DOF Motions US20130291782, A. Mazumdar, M. Lozano, A. Fittery, H. Asada, 2012
High Efficiency, Smooth Robot Design US20140107839, A. Mazumdar, M. Lozano, A. Fittery, H. Asada, 2012
Awards
2015 Boeing Research & Technology - Performance and Innovation Award: Robotic Sealing
2015 Boeing Research & Technology - Performance and Innovation Award: Robotic Fastening
2015 Boeing Engineering Week - Drone Navigation Challenge: 1st
2014 MIT Product Design: Contract for Sci-Fi Adventure Room
2013 MIT de Florez Award for Mech. Engineering: Omnidirectional Underwater Robot, 1st
2012 MIT de Florez Award for Mech. Engineering: Autonomous Ball-Collecting Robot, 3rd
2012 MIT Maslab Autonomous Robot Competition: 1st
2010 MIT Pipe-Plugging Robot Competition: 2nd, voted Most Valuable Engineer
Augmented Reality for Manufacturing
October 2015 - December 2016
Part of Boeing's Advanced Production group, I was on a four-person research team developing an augmented reality system for manufacturing. Using a mix of handheld and wearable devices, we could communicate detailed work instructions and information to technicians when performing manufacturing and assembly tasks. We also explored training applications, video-calling, and real-time assembly validation.
I helped develop and test AR applications, configured various sensors and display technologies, designed a user interface, and prepared 3D models. I also provided integration support, installing the AR system on the factory floor and demonstrating the technology.
Automated Fuselage Assembly
June 2015 - October 2016
Boeing's new large-scale autonomous production system, officially known as Fuselage Automated Upright Build (FAUB). Robot pairs (one inside the fuselage, one outside) drill and install rivets and bolts. Four of these pairs simultaneously work on a single fuselage.
I was specifically asked to help integrate the system into the Boeing factory, due to my experience and background in robotics. I spent a total of eight months relocated at the Everett, WA site, where I provided testing, qualification, documentation, and implementation support for each work cell before and during use in production, across all three shifts of a 24x7 production schedule. I was awarded a Performance and Innovation award for my work on this project.
Optical Orientation Sensor for Underwater Robot
September 2012 - May 2014
My Master's research involved developing a camera-laser sensor to measure distance and angular rotation relative to a surface. This sensor was integrated into an underwater nuclear inspection robot (my undergraduate research) for autonomous inspection of weld-lines and surfaces.
The sensor is capable of fine distance positioning (1mm accuracy, 30-300mm range) and angle detection (2deg accuracy, -30 to +30deg range). An early protoype is demonstrated below on a robotic boat. The robot can follow a changing surface, remaining perpendicular, and reject disturbances.
The vision control code uses the OpenCV Python library and runs on a RaspberryPi. The Pi communicates with an Arduino microcontroller, which interfaces with inertial sensors and pump actuators.
The robot presented an interesting controls problem. An onboard gyroscope sensor operates at a high frequency (50Hz) but drifts significantly over time. This is due to the sensor working best under dynamic conditions (it measures motion) but loses accuracy if the robot is still.
On the other hand, the vision sensor gives measurements slowly (3Hz) but reliably. However the optical measurements are only accurate under static conditions (photo snapshot) and can't account for motion between photos. This would lead to slow response times and greater overshoot.
My solution was to fuse the two sensors, isolate their respective frequencies and track motion between optical measurements. The optical measurements were weighed more heavily, to correct for any bias in the gyro sensor. This drastically improved performance, removed all drift, and minimized the overshoot and settling times of the controlled response.
Hand Scanner, Interactive Sci-Fi Room
March - May 2014
My graduate product design class was contracted by 5Wits to design a product for their new sci-fi attraction. My team and I won the contract with a futuristic, interactive adventure room. They implemented our design into their Deep Space attractions at their four locations in New York.
Our design experience is storyboarded here: Storyboard (Click one of the panels and navigate with the arrow keys.)
In the room, guests must scan their hands for security clearance to access the next area. Similar touch interactions are used for the laser beam controls.
Working through the ideation process, I first built a works-like prototype of the hand scanner. A simple voltage divider circuit senses finger touches and powers lights. It’s made with an Arduino microcontroller and LEDs, placed inside a lasercut acrylic box. The conductive pads are aluminum.
For more info and a video, visit this site I made for the assignment: Prototype model
I later refined the idea and implemented a capacitive sensing circuit. This allowed the scanner to work without direct contact and enabled me to hide the aluminum pads behind a solid sheet of plastic. This was a major improvement since clean, unbroken surfaces were a critical component to our designed experience.
During our final testing, we realized we could easily add motion control to make a much more memorable experience.
You can see a recording of our final presentation here, demonstrating a panel of the room: Link to dropbox
5Wits' implementation of our design is shown below.
Name Card
February 2014
The first assignment in my graduate product design class was to create a name card that represents you. The assignment wasn’t for a grade...I might have spent too much time on this.
Made entirely from lasercut acrylic and plastic stand-offs, it only uses four screws in the corners to hold the layers together. The motion of the rotating elements in the center is entirely constrained by the design of the other layers. The crank handle in the back rotates the series of gears, manipulating the letters. Declared 3rd favorite by the professor, out of 75 students.
Jumping Robot
October-December 2013
In our Bio-inspired Robotics course, two teammates and I were curious how the time delay between kicking the front and hind legs might maximize the jump height of a quadruped. We simulated various models in Matlab to find a theoretically optimal body length and time delay for our physical model.
We drove the joint motors as suggested by the simulation and afterwards used video-tracking software to measure the jump angle, height, and velocity of the robot. Experimentally we found a much lower optimal delay than the simulation, due to simplifications in the model (ignoring joint friction). Additionally we found evidence that maximum jump height doesn’t require more energy and in some cases minimizes cost-of-transport.
Mannequin Arm and Legs
October 2013
Modelled in Solidworks and 3D printed, I designed these for the Intro to Robotics class. Simple hinges were used at most joints (a ball joint for the shoulder). Students were tasked to design and control an exoskeleton robot to perform human-like motion: walking and drawing a circle.
Underwater Nuclear Inspection Robot
February 2011 - May 2012
My undergraduate research involved designing a small, appendage-free, submersible robot to visually inspect nuclear reactors.
My initial tasks were electronics-based. I specified which components to use and designed multiple PCBs (in EAGLE) for various applications. Since space was limited, I used a tiered design to compactly place the breakout boards. I also wrote the lower-level control code (Arduino), programmed a Matlab-based GUI, and configured radio communication between the two.
Next I designed waterproof chambers for the onboard electronics. Early versions used a modified waterproof box until I designed a custom shell printed on an SLA machine. This research project was Awarded 1st in MIT’s annual graduate design competition (de Florez)
Autonomous Ball Robot
January 2012
Designed and built in under four weeks, this robot collects balls and launches them over a wall to the opponent’s side of the field. With help from my EE and CS teammates, this guy won 1st out of 9 robots in MIT's annual robot competition MASLAB.
Balls are sucked in by the lower rubber-band roller, shot to the back of the robot, and lifted by an Archimedes’ screw to the top level. The upper rubber-band roller spins the opposite way, shooting the balls out of the robot.
Modelling all components ensured proper assembly. Modular design allowed quick assembly and simultaneous modifying/testing of different mechanisms. This robot was Awarded 3rd in MIT’s annual undergraduate design competition (de Florez)
Ascent - Wheelchair Assist
October - December 2011
My team’s final project for our senior design class: a manual wheelchair with a power assist. The hand rims measure user-applied torque and activate two powertrains when necessary.
My major contribution was the central control box. It self-guides underneath the seat and, when fully inserted, completes the circuit to the powertrain and latches in place. The housing also provides basic weatherproofing.
Within, a single PCB was designed for the microcontrollers, radio transmitter, motor controller, etc. to remove clutter. 24 Li-Ion batteries snap into the appropriate configuration (4 groups in series, each group with 6 in parallel) to provide 2800mAh at 14.8V and are rechargeable through a port on the side of the box.
Forget-Me-Not
October 2011
Before choosing the final project idea in my senior product design class, five of us from a team of eleven worked on a place-mat for all your important, small-sized items. When leaving the house, the system would alert you if anything was forgotten on the mat (keys, cell-phone, a letter you need to mail).
I prototyped a mat with embedded contact switches as the sensing mechanism to power an LED. I also researched using strain gauges, adapted from precision kitchen scales, which we never implemented—our team decided to pursue the wheelchair idea.
Yo-yo
October - December 2010
Every MIT mechanical engineer makes a yo-yo. You split into teams of six, and two members design an inner hub (injection-molded), two others make the outer ring (injection-molded), and the last two thermoform a bit of plastic—this was my job.
I didn’t want to copy the traditional, dome-shaped plastic cover most yo-yos have, so I milled out a scallop shell design. With this mold, and the molds of my teammates, we manufactured 50 yo-yos.
Web Design
March - April 2014
I learned web design in my graduate product design class. We were required to submit our assignments as websites. Below are links to five sites I made for the class, including all images displayed.
Space Battle Storyboard
My pitch for a sci-fi themed interactive walk-through adventure. Storyboard
Steadicam Merlin Analysis
My usability review of a complex product – a camera stabilization system. Usability
Laser Gun Sketches
Concept ideas for a laser-gun turret, as part of the sci-fi adventure. Concepts
Hand Scanner Prototype
A works-like proof-of-concept hand scanner for the sci-fi adventure. Prototype
Hand Scanner Refinement
A refined hand scanner, applying lessons learned from the first prototype. Refinement
Beverage Recognition
April – May 2013
A partner and I developed an activity recognition program to determine which drink a person is preparing in the kitchen. We theoretically placed touch sensors on all the objects in the room. The program uses logic (which objects were touched) and probability (referencing a recipe database).
Above is a subset of our database. In bold are activities (drinks) followed by their properties (ingredients). As more items are used, the more likely the program can narrow down what you’re preparing. We’ve attempted to correct for false triggers, but enough mistakes can severely cripple the recognition.
The code is written in Python and even offers suggestions to the user when appropriate—recommending or reminding them to add certain ingredients. It’s a surprisingly good bartending aid.
Autonomous Pipe-plugging Robot
October – November 2010
My junior-year robotics course had a team competition modelled after the BP oil spill: Design a robot that attaches to a gantry, visually scan the floor to locate and plug a damaged pipe, then return home.
No one on my team of 6 knew computer vision, and I jumped at the opportunity to learn a great skill. I was in charge of software, vision and controls. Using Labview, I could quickly and autonomously find the pipe and position our robot directly above.
Our robot completed the task in the fastest time and with a perfect score. However, based on mechanical design, we came in 2nd place out of 8 teams. My teammates unanimously voted me Most Valuable Engineer.
