Date: September 11-12, 2024
Location: DeLuca Forum, Discovery Building, University of Wisconsin-Madison – 330 N Orchard St, Madison, WI 53715.
Organizers: Dan Negrut and Radu Serban, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Event Sponsors: National Science Foundation, Brian Eckrose Foundation, Komatsu Corporation.
This year’s meeting will emphasize AI and Digital Twin technologies in terramechanics, mechatronics, autonomy, and bio-robotics, covering both terrestrial and extraterrestrial applications. This informal gathering aims to bring together individuals from industry, academia, and research labs in a collaborative “let’s learn from each other” environment. It serves as an applied computing idea marketplace, facilitating technology transfer and promoting cross-pollination between industry and academia within a pre-competitive setting.
Registration website: https://charge.wisc.edu/GraingerInstitute/magic.
NOTE: This event is free for participants from academia, state or federal institutions, and companies that are members of the Machine-Ground Interaction Consortium at UW-Madison. Contact Dan Negrut at negrut@wisc.edu for free-registration details.
Please consult this page for the latest updates, room information, changes in schedule, etc.
Day 1: Wednesday, September 11, 2024
| Time | Session |
| 08:30-08:45 | Dan Negrut (UW-Madison) – Logistics, opening remarks |
| 08:45-09:10 | Krishna Kumar (UT-Austin) – Differentiable Physics Simulators for Robot-Soil Interaction Optimization |
| 09:10-09:35 | Bonaventura Tagliafierro (Uppsala University, Sweden) – A Review of the Use of Chrono DEM-Engine for Simulating Multi-Physics Engineering Problems |
| 09:35-10:00 | Antti Lajunen (University of Helsinki, Finland) – High-Fidelity Simulation of Agricultural Mobile Robots |
| 10:00-10:45 | Networking break (45 mins) |
| 10:45-11:10 | German Ros (NVIDIA) – On the Role of Advanced Sensor Simulation in Autonomous Ground Vehicles |
| 11:10-11:35 | Robert Mueller (NASA KSC) – NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Pilot Excavator (IPEX) Digital Twin Autonomy Challenge for Universities |
| 11:35-12:00 | Adriana Daca (Cal Tech) – Granular Mechanics Modeling for Planetary Defense Applications |
| 12:00-12:25 | Chen Li (Johns Hopkins University) – Animal and Bio-Inspired Robot Locomotion and Mechano-Sensing in Complex Terrains |
| 12:25-13:55 | Lunch (90 mins) – Participants are responsible for their own lunch arrangements. |
| 13:55-14:20 | Tyson Swetnam (U Arizona) – The Pillars of Open Science |
| 14:20-14:45 | Ken Kamrin (UC Berkeley) – Granular Scaling Laws in Terramechanics and Lunar Mobility |
| 14:45-15:10 | Corina Sandu (Virginia Tech) – Experimental Tire Performance Evaluation and Tire Modeling for Rigid and Deformable Terrains |
| 15:10-15:55 | Networking break (45 mins). NOTE: a group photo will be taken at the onset of this break. |
| 15:55-16:20 | Hiroyuki Sugiyama (University of Iowa) – Data-Driven Modeling for Off-Road Mobility Simulation |
| 16:20-16:45 | Asher Elmquist (Jet Propulsion Lab) – Simulation of Surface Mobility in DARTS with High-Fidelity Perception Sensor Models |
| 16:45-17:10 | Dan Negrut (UW-Madison) – An Overview of Terramechanics Models in Chrono |
| 17:15-18:15 | Student Poster Session |
Day 2: Thursday, September 12, 2024
| Time | Session |
| 08:15-08:30 | Dan Negrut (UW-Madison) – Logistics, opening remarks day 2 |
| 08:30-09:15 | Keynote talk – Genya Ishigami (Keio University, Japan) – Modeling, Analysis, and Control of Robotic Mobility in Rough Terrain: Insights from Decades of Terramechanics Research |
| 09:15-09:40 | Mohit Gupta (UW-Madison) – Imaging the World, One Photon at a Time |
| 09:40-10:05 | Fabian Buse (DLR, German Aerospace Center) – Applications of Simulation and Terramechanics in the Development and Operation of the MMX Rover IDEFIX |
| 10:05-10:50 | Networking break (45 mins) |
| 10:50-11:15 | Chirs Skonieczny (Concordia University, Canada) – Material Point Method and Subspace Graph Networks for Modeling Reduced-Gravity Machine-Soil Interactions |
| 11:15-11:40 | Yunyi Jia (Clemson University) – Combining Deep Reinforcement Learning with Model Predictive Control for the Control of Off-road Autonomous Vehicles |
| 11:40-12:05 | Jeng Yen (Jet Propulsion Lab) – How Do We Use Ground Interaction Modeling in Operating Mars Rovers? |
| 12:05-13:35 | Lunch (90 mins) – Participants are responsible for their own lunch arrangements. |
| 13:35-14:00 | Ethan Holand (Carnegie Mellon University) – Evaluating Mobility Performance of the MoonRanger Lunar Micro-Rover via Simulated and Experimental Testing |
| 14:00-14:25 | Jacob Wagner (US Army RDE-CERL) – Digging Deeper: Learning for Autonomous Earthmoving |
| 14:25-14:50 | Swamit Tannu (UW-Madison) – Unlocking the Power of Quantum Computing for Physical System Simulations |
| 14:50-15:15 | Mehari Tekeste (Iowa State) – Integrating DEM and Scaling Law Modeling Techniques for Simulation of Earth-Moving Applications |
| 15:15-16:00 | Networking break (45 mins) |
| 16:00-16:25 | Alex Schepelmann (NASA Glenn) – mTRAX Planetary Exploration Laboratories Capabilities Overview |
| 16:25-16:50 | Joey Andrews (UW-Madison) – Preventing Brain Trauma – the UW Panther Program |
| 16:50-17:15 | Ryan Penning (Universal Robots) – Building a Robotics Simulator for Everyone: Web-based Simulation Development at Universal Robots |
| 17:15-17:30 | Dan Negrut (UW-Madion) – Wrap-up remarks |