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Welcome

Hiya! I'm Erin, an eccentric robot inventor and analogue astronaut with hands-on experience in developing embedded systems and electronics.

I make robots for extreme environments to:
1) solve climate related challenges, and
2) discover more about harbouring lifeforms

My research & development work demonstrates my unconventional approach and continual progress towards these goals. Enjoy!

New! May 2024 - Robot Butterfly product now available

Photo credit: Kris Davidson

Photo by Kris Davidson during MDRS 261

News

May 2024

My newest product, Robot Butterfly, is now available!

Robot Butterfly

May 2023

Embarking on an analogue astronaut mission to the Mars Desert Research Station with Transatlantic Mars Crew 261! Bringing my robotics experiment, Atmosphinder.

Atmosphinder

Featured Robots

Selected works of robots that I have worked on.

Otter Force One

ROBOTICS, DESIGN • 2022

Robotic urchin harvesting to protect kelp forests. View Project

Robot Butterfly Watch

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS • 2022

Embedded wearable robot butterfly watch using the Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 in C.

Atmosphinder

SPACE CONCEPT • 2022

Atmosphinder harnesses Martian winds to perform environmental science on Mars by observing CO2 gas jet expulsions in the southern polar region. Presented at IAC 2022. View Project

Bowie the Robot

ROBOTICS, EVERYTHING • 2016-2019

Mobile autonomous robot that detects and collects plastic. View Project

Eja

ROBOTICS, DESIGN • 2020-2021

Ropeless fishing gear device with intelligent buoy. Decreases the occurrence of marine life entanglements with ghost gear, while making the commercial fishing process more intelligent for fisheries. View Project

Hippo-PD

ELECTRONICS • 2022

Power distribution for mobile robots. Custom Eagle circuit board design. Work in progress.

 

Skills

The breadth of my skillset is well suited for research & development and rapid prototype product design.

Electrical Engineering

  • 2 layer board layout (Eagle)
  • Schematic capture (Eagle)
  • Test equipment (oscilloscope, power profiling, logic analyzer, spectrum analyzer, power supply, digital load)
  • Soldering (through hole and surface mount - 0603)
  • Debugging (optical inspection, wire wrap fixes)

Embedded Systems

  • Program and Debug STM32 Arm Cortex M (C: STM32CubeIDE)
  • Program Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 (C: cmake via VSCode)
  • Program ESP32, Teensy, Arduino (C/C++: Arduino IDE)
  • Arduino firmware libraries (C++)
  • Architecture diagrams
  • MQTT protocol for IoT devices
  • printf debugging

Mechanical and Industrial Design

  • Autodesk Fusion 360 - solids, meshes
  • Simuscale - CFD simulation
  • Autodesk Fusion 360 - FEA, thermal simulations
  • Adobe Illustrator for laser cutting
  • Retouching in Meshmixer
  • Visualise in my mind

Fabrication

  • 3D printer (FDM – hobby, BigRep One, Formlabs 1 & 2 (SLA), Fortus 450MC)
  • Laser cutter (CO2 & Fibre)
  • CNC milling (Shopbot small & large format)
  • CNC milling copper circuit boards (Othermill / Bantam Tools)
  • Voltera (conductive ink deposition)

Entrepreneurship

  • Crowdfunding
  • Community leadership
  • Presenting to stakeholders, leaders of industry
  • Raising support and fundraising
  • Preparation of pitch decks
  • Writing grant applications
  • Managing volunteer team
  • Being multiple different roles
  • Understanding contributing factors to unintended learning experiences

Marketing

  • Live streaming (Open Broadcast Studio (OBS))
  • Video editing (Final Cut Pro X)
  • Graphic design (Adobe Photoshop)
  • Music mixing - basic (Garageband)
  • Written communications and documentation

Software

  • Creative coding (Processing - Java)
  • Interactive art (Processing - Java)
  • Scripting (Python)
  • Tensorflow for image object detection (Python)
  • Webpage design (HTML, CSS, Javascript)
  • iOS Apps - rusty (Cocoa Objective-C)

Outreach

  • Prototyping 101 workshop
  • Mentoring
  • Robotics workshops
  • Video tutorials
  • Written tutorials

Experience

  • Mentor, Making Embedded Systems ClasspertX Class 2021, 2022
  • Virtual Residency, Supplyframe DesignLab
    Summer 2021, Summer 2022
  • Electronics Designer, Invest Ottawa 2018-Present
  • Founder, Robot Missions 2016-Present

Education

  • International Space University SSP19 2019
  • MaRS Discovery District Fellowship 2015-2016
  • Fab Academy 2015
  • Stanford University EPGY (Artificial Intelligence) 2008

Interviews and Presentations

Awards

(under construction)

Rising Star at Sensors Converge
Gold Medal at RoboGames
  • Rising Star - Sensors Converge, Silicon Valley, CA (2023)
    • Recognised in the Next Gen Engineer program at Sensors Converge in Silicon Valley, the conference for embedded and electronics design engineers
  • European Space Agency scholarship to International Space University
    • Space Studies Program (2019)
  • Lieutenant Governor’s Visionaries Prize - Environmental Stewardship (2016)
    • Announced by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, this prize recognised Ontario’s most creative thinkers and gave them a forum for tackling the challenges that Ontarians and Canadians will face over the next 50 years.
  • Gold Medal - RoboGames (aka ‘robot Olympics’), Silicon Valley, CA (2015)
    • Won 1st place in the Open category with my original Rapidly Deployable Automation System robot. Represented Canada in this international tournament with robot builders from 20 countries.

In Action

Photos when building stuff to prove that, yes indeed, I am the person who does build the stuff (some people doubt this for some reason Lol).

Contact

My projects are regularly in need of support through funding, parts, supplies. Always interested in hearing about potential collaborations and thoughts. Feel free to get in touch and let's see what's possible!

Current status: Open to mentoring and advising new experimental robotics projects!

Page last updated: May 30 2024 08:02:50.