Cy’s Portfolio
  • research lab

Rutgers Swarm Intelligence Lab

The Rutgers Swarm Intelligence Lab is run by Dr. Daniel Burbano Lombana, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Rutgers University. I have worked as a research assistant for the lab since 2023, developing hardware and software platforms for our research. The lab is exploring swarm behaviors in animals and how they can be applied in robotics, and studying the interactions between animals and robots, also known as ethorobotics.

  • project
  • publication

MagTile (original)

When studying animal-robot interactions with smaller animals like zebrafish, creating robots that are small enough and can also move on their own is often impractical, so a larger “puppetry” system is used to actuate the agent through magnets or hidden attachments. These systems are often limited to just one agent, which limits their value for swarm behavioral research. MagTile presents a different approach — using a grid of electromagnets to pull multiple magnetic zebrafish replicas near the bottom of a tank, allowing multi-agent experiments with some live and some robotic zebrafish to be conducted. The original version of MagTile was published in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology (ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11400697) and led to the development of MagTile2.

  • PCB

MagTile Actuator Tile

A 3x3 tile of electromagnets with connectors on all 4 sides so that multiple can be connected to form a large continuous grid. The electromagnet grid is used to pull zebrafish replicas along the bottom of a fish tank to simulate swimming patterns and study interactions with live fish. Uses PCA9685 I2C PWM controllers connected to MOSFETs to drive electromagnets. An Arduino connected to a PC via serial/USB is used to issue commands to tiles over I2C. Tiles run at 15V and can drive coils at up to 1.5A, with 60W total system power across all tiles. Designed for the Rutgers Swarm Intelligence Lab as a 2024 summer project.

  • project

MagTile2

The original MagTile system was developed in a hurry as a proof of concept, but when it proved that the method could work, the lab asked me to develop an improved, more thoroughly designed system. MagTile2 shares the same layout and electromagnet coils as the original MagTile, but completely overhauls the power system, jumping to a 48V architecture and individual constant current regulators for each electromagnet, capable of driving them at up to 4.5A for short bursts, and capable of over 200W of total system power across all tiles. Each tile has a dedicated MCU, and the I2C bus is replaced with CAN-FD to allow for faster, more robust control and detailed telemetry data. A “Master Tile” is added to manage power safety and facilitate platform control from a PC over USB. We hope to publish a methods paper describing and characterizing this system soon.

  • PCB
  • firmware

MagTile2 Master Tile

Power safety and USB interface board for the MagTile2 system. Accepts 48V drive supply and 12V control supply inputs, ensures voltage/current are within allowable thresholds, and precharges/arms the 48V bus when commanded to do so by the PC. The USB interface presents a composite device to the PC, including a virtual serial port device for controlling the platform from Python, MATLAB, or other environment supporting serial communication, and a vendor-defined WebUSB device which communicates with MagTile2 Manager. MagTile2 manager is a browser-based program that interactively displays all telemetry and granular fault data from the Master Tile and Actuator Tiles to the user during operation and standby including displaying the detected grid shape reconstruction, and allows arming, setting setpoints, and initiating the self-test procedure.

  • PCB
  • firmware

MagTile2 Actuator Tile

9-channel constant-current regulator board embedded in each MagTile2 tile, based on the STM32G473, commanded over CAN-FD, for driving the tile’s 3x3 grid of electromagnets. Accepts 48V in from the main system bus, runs individual digital constant-current control loops for each electromagnet, and reports telemetry and granular fault data over CAN. The control loop exploits high input voltage and MOSFET pulse rating to support driving electromagnets at up to 4.5 amps despite using SOT-23 MOSFETs rated for only 3A continuous, and estimates the resistance of each electromagnet based on control loop parameters to monitor rapid temperature rise caused by 80W of power developed in the electromagnet when driven at 4.5A. Multiple hardware and software safety systems protect the tile from damage and user error, and of the 234 power stages built, zero have failed to date, including during development and hours of experimental runs. An automated self-test enables easy qualification during assembly. Serial ports on each side of the tile allow it to identify its neighbors to automatically reconstruct the grid shape in software on the Master Tile.

  • PCB

Actuator Tile Interconnect Board

Sits below the main actuator tile board in each MagTile2 tile, connected through a mezzanine connector. Facilitates passing power and data to neighboring tiles and features a buck regulator to create a clean 5V supply for each tile’s control electronics, generated from the 15V gate drive and control rail provided by the Master Tile.

  • web app

MagTile2 Manager

Description coming soon.