Hamza Khan

Biography

Dr. Khan received his Ph.D. in Robotics from the Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy in 2015.  He also holds two Master degrees in Robotics Engineering from University of Genoa- Italy and Warsaw University of technology- Poland.  He was also awarded scholarship of worth 42000 euros from the European Commision for Erasmus Mundus European Master on Advanced Robotics (EMARO) Program in 2009.  He did his B.S.c in Mechatronics Engineering from Air University (Pakistan) in 2008 and awarded  with Prime Ministers medal for outstanding academic achievement in his bachelor's degree. Dr. Khan is an internationally acclaimed young researcher with over 160 worldwide citations to his credit of his published work.  His interests include mechanical design, new actuators technologies, control and customisation of sensors for the robotic platforms.

Research Interest

CARPE Project (2015-Present) The Compliant Actuation Robotic Platform for Flexible Endoscopy (CARPE) project is based on the ‘active tether robot’ (ATR) idea for the provision of snake like locomotion; i.e., instead of the locomotive power for the active colonoscope being supplied to the back of the robot via a power cable, the design is turned on its head, and replaced by a motile segmented ‘active tether’, which is itself an endoscope, and which can operate in both a gas and aqueous environment. The platform is based on a Mini Compliant Joint (MCJ), with two degree of freedoms (DoFs) using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires as actuators a compliant mechanism, a synergistic combination which increases the energy efficiency and mechanical bandwidth performance; and at the same time, reduces heat production and stress on the SMA wires. The MJCs actuates by current-induced contraction of SMA wires, two hollow articulating rings with 2 DoFs. As the rings have intersecting axes, the two torsional springs provide roll and pitch. Such a chain of active MCJs provides sinusoidal motor-less locomotion. In essence, CARPE is a generic modular system (capable of translation into any type of flexible endoscope in current clinical use) consisting of independent segments (much like a biomimetic vertebral column), mechanics and electronics. The big advance of CARPE, when used to construct a colonoscope over the current equivalent endoscope, is that once, the end of the CARPE colonoscope would travel by its intrinsic snake-like locomotion. MiniHyQ Project (2012-2015) MiniHyQ Robot is designed and built by Hamza Khan as his PhD work at Italian Institute of Technology. MiniHyQ is the lightest and smallest hydraulic quadruped robot that has been designed and constructed so far. MiniHyQ is a fully torque controlled robot and has a wide joint range of motion and an onboard compact power pack. MiniHyQ has nearly the same leg length as the previous robot (HyQ, build by our group), but has constantly changing upper and lower link lengths due to a changeable instantaneous center of rotation of its knee joint. The robot’s legs are 15% shorter with knees fully retracted. Its weighs is only 35kg (24kg with an off-board pump unit), and is portable by a single person. To reach the lightweight and miniaturization we have achieved, miniature hydraulic actuators were carefully selected allowing us to reduce the required pump size inside the torso. By using a hydraulic rotary actuator for the hip and linear actuators with isogram mechanism for the knee joint, a wider range of motion is achieved allowing a self-righting motion.