Tyler Jenkins

Education:

• PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University, 2017-Current.
• MS, Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University, 2014 -2016. Thesis: Bio-inspired Online Variable Recruitment Control of Fluidic Artificial Muscles
• BS, Mechanical Engineering with minor in Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, 2010 – 2014.

Research Interests:

• Strategic use of unmanned systems
• Soft Robotics
• Dynamic Systems & Controls

Current Research:

• Autonomous Exploration Rolling Flying Vehicles
• Bio-inspired actuator architecture.
• Modeling and control of artificial muscle systems.

Previous Research:

• Dash X deployable UAV: Feature articles can be found here and here

Acknowledgement:

• NCSU MAE – for awarding the Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship, 2017
• DARPA – For supporting my research.
• USASOC – For supporting my research.

Publications:

1. Jenkins, T., Chapman, E., and Bryant, M., “Bio-inspired online variable recruitment control of fluidic artificial muscles,” Smart Mater. and Struct., Vol. 25 No. 12, 2016.
2. Chapman, E. M., Jenkins, T. E., and Bryant, M., “Modeling and Analysis of a Meso-Hydraulic Climbing Robot with Artificial Muscle Actuation,” Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Vol. 12, No. 6, 2017.
3. Chapman, E., Jenkins, T., and Bryant, M. “Design and Analysis of Electrohydraulic Pressure Systems for Variable Recruitment in Fluidic Artificial Muscles,” Smart Mater. Struct., Vol. 27, No. 10, 2018.
4. Jenkins, T., and Bryant, M., “Pennate Actuators: Force, Contraction, and Stiffness”, Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 2020.
5. Atay, S., Jenkins, T., Buckner, G., and Bryant, M., “Energetic Analysis and Optimization of a Bi-modal Rolling-Flying Vehicle,” International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, 2020.

Conferences:

1. Jenkins, T., Chapman, E., and Bryant, M., “Control approach development for variable recruitment artificial muscles,” Proc. SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials: Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems, April 15, Las Vegas, NV, 2016.
2. Chapman, E. M., Jenkins, T. E., and Bryant, M., “Parametric Study of a Fluidic Artificial Muscle Actuated Electrohydraulic System,” Proc. of ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems, Sept. 28-30, Stowe, VT, 2016.
3. Jenkins, T., and Bryant, M., “Variable stiffness soft robotics using pennate muscle architecture,” Proc. SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials: Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems, March 3-7, Denver, CO, 2019.
   *Best Student Paper Award Recipient