Summary
I am an experienced robotics and embedded systems engineer, multidisciplinary product engineer, and R&D and space systems project manager. I bring my ethos of attention-to-detail, documentation, knowledge sharing, agility, and flexibility to everything I do.
Education
M.S. Mechanical Engineering – Dynamics and Controls, University of Florida
Dec 2019
B.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University
Dec 2012
Cert Hybrid Vehicle Engineering, Michigan Technological University
Dec 2012
Experience
NASA Johnson Space Center – LTVS Insight Team – Resident Office Lead – Venturi Astrolab
Apr 2024 – Present
On-site engineering liaison between NASA and Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services (LTVS) contractor, Venturi Astrolab.
- Establishing working relationships between Astrolab and NASA to enable risk management, engineering insight, and effective communication between the organizations.
- Interface directly with NASA Technical Authorities and their Subject Matter Experts to ensure project technical performance is met by the Contractor.
- Facilitating efficient data / document sharing methods and tools and fostering a collaborative environment to navigate difficult technical and programmatic challenges.
- Learn the Contractor operating rhythms, tools, culture, and point of view to improve communication and coordination between NASA and the Contractor as an in-situ resource for both
- Develop trusting, productive working relationships with the Contractor, resolving any miscommunications between the two organizations.
- Influence technical path, communicate risks, and provide thoughtful engineering insight by attending internal Contractor technical reviews and direct interactions with Responsible Engineers, Program Managers, and CEO.
- Drive internal process changes to increase LTV project efficiency and internal NASA communication via Teams and SharePoint implementations.
NASA Johnson Space Center – Lunar Terrain Vehicle Ground Test Unit Project Manager
Dec 2022 – Apr 2024
Led a multidisciplinary team of up to 26 engineers, interns, and subject matter experts to achieve customer goals while minimizing risk.
- Joined the project midway through as it transitioned customers under the EVA & Human Surface Mobility Program (EHP). Assessed the project state, especially risks: technical, schedule, cost, and personnel, and started addressing deficiencies.
- Negotiated with projects within the org and contractor suppliers to enable the reassignment or hiring of key personnel to fill roles within the project.
- Established commercial partner relationships with electrical systems providers including battery and power management to ensure successful delivery of subsystems.
- Assessed and regularly communicated project risks and impacts to the program, including any cost, schedule, and external delays or events.
- Addressed existing system engineering deficiencies, integration testing and interactions between design decisions on the vehicle driving to resolutions.
- Regularly engaged customer organizations to establish and refined 5-year plans to address program risk with the GTU and established a development path for the vehicle to ensure it can be used for all intended future needs.
NASA Johnson Space Center – Deputy Team Lead – Dexterous Robotics
Feb 2021 – Apr 2024
Created and led a multidisciplinary robotics R&D team of 25. Responsible for a portfolio of up to 12 projects with varying stakeholders and priorities.
- Managed an overall full-cost budget of $6.7M/year, including labor, contract task order management, simplified acquisitions, and materials purchases.
- Developed and executed plan for defining the Lunar Terrain Vehicle robotic manipulator system requirements used in the RFI and final RFP for the LTV Services contract including high level conceptual definition, trade studies, concept of operations development, coordination with internal and external stakeholders.
- Developed partnerships and agreements with industry, academia, and other governmental agencies, including domestic and international Space Act agreements (SAAs) worth $9.75M and interagency agreements (IAAs) worth up to $30M.
- COR-II certified, serving as COR for 4 different contracts and grants, including developing statements of work, deliverables, and milestone negotiations for contracts and grants starting as unsolicited proposals, SBIR proposals, and involving firm-fixed price options and other complexities.
- Expertise in SBIR Phase I, II, and III contract review, award, and administration, including post-Phase II opportunities and strategy for TRL advancement.
NASA Johnson Space Center – Principal Investigator – Smart Habitat Robotics
Apr 2019 – Apr 2021
Led a multidisciplinary team of up to 9 engineers performing technology development for robot subsystems using state of the art project management techniques formed from a hybrid of Agile and traditional waterfall methodologies.
- Managed a budget of $2.5M, assembled team members from within the organization and worked with contractors to find new and existing talent to create a cohesive team.
- Directed development path to target the technology that would benefit the organization as a whole as well as upcoming spaceflight programs.
- Interfaced with other PIs across the agency to build relationships and enable networking amongst team members, consolidate lessons-learned, and promote future partnerships.
- Mentored junior Electrical Engineers through PCB design and development tasks.
- Key architecture designer for sensor fusion and fault tolerant control of a robotic series elastic joint.
Woodside Energy – Robotics Subject Matter Expert (Consulting)
Jan 2018 – May 2018
On-site robotics SME enabling technical interchange with commercial partner developing their in-house robotics competency.
- Guided the robotics team through details of robotics capabilities, operations, and implementation enabling them to procure solutions more efficiently.
- Instructed partner team in robotics hardware and software development techniques as well as CI / CD and CM of these capabilities.
- Performed on-site testing of robotic manipulation capabilites at a live liquified natural gas processing facility.
- Exchanged lessons learned on utilizing modern project management methodologies to promote agile, iterative development and nimble reaction to change, while still enabling reporting features for management in Jira.
NASA Johnson Space Center – Electrical & Computer Engineer
Mar 2013 – Apr 2019
Responsible engineer for numerous R&D projects of all sizes leading the development of electrical, electronic, and software systems.
- Designed the sensing, control, and motor drive electronics of dexterous, humanoid robotic forearms for use in an EVA space environment.
- Completed design of embedded electronics from concept through schematic capture and PCB design in Altium, to manufacturing and integration.
- Implemented firmware in VHDL and software in C and C++ for systems based on, e.g., Xilinx / AMD Spartan 6, Microchip ProASIC3 and IGLOO, TI TMS570, STM32.
- Developed integration and test plans including one-off and multi-use certification setups for complex robotics and space systems.
- Developed and maintained ECAD parts libraries and configuration management in Altium using SVN.
- Ported entire CI / CD system from Bitbucket to GitLab standing up build servers, compatible Docker images, and documenting best practices for multiple projects.
- Implemented a complete software configuration management system with Ansible, fully tested in Molecule, to manage the configuration of multiple deployed complex robotic systems with unique calibrations.
- Methodically resolved an ISS payload robotic system via electrical troubleshooting, design and implementation of modifications, and final re-certification.
NASA Johnson Space Center – Co-op
Aug 2009 – Mar 2013
Developed a wide variety of deep technical experience via rotating through multiple NASA organizations.
- Robotics – Developed entire embedded stack from schematic capture and PCB design in Altium to high and low-level control software for “RoboGlove,” including motor drive, sensor interfaces, and human interface.
- Robotics – Developed a calibration system and method for the dexterous finger joint sensors on Robonaut 2
- Avionics – Developed firmware in C and sensor interface circuitry for a wireless sensor network system’s MSP430 microcontroller.
- Avionics – Completed final build-out and integration testing of ground demonstration prototype of the Habitat Demonstration Unit before analog field testing.
- Mission Operations – Assessed new experimental life support system, identifying failure modes and cases to be used for training operations personnel.
- Mission Operations – Developed deep knowledge in space systems, including the ISS training alongside certifying flight controllers.
Companion Computers, LLC – Founder
Feb 2008 – Present
Provide R&D and testing consulting engineering services to clients.
Publications
July 2023
Jeevan Perera / Monica Visinsky / Evan Laske / Panagiotis Artemiadis / George Salazar / Kimia Seyedmadani / Elizabeth Schmida / Michael Steele / Isaac Mensah Jr.
Practical End-Effector Development Through Task Interface Taxonomy Analysis – 2022 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference
Nov 2022
Andrew Sharp / Austin Lovan / Eduardo Herrera / Evan Laske
Registering Articulated Objects With Human-in-the-loop Corrections – 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Mar 2022
Hagenow, M. / Senft, E. / Laske, E. / Hambuchen, K. / et al
Affordance Template Registration via Human-in-the-loop Corrections – 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Sept 2021
Hagenow, M. / Zinn, M. / Fong, T. / Laske, E. / Hambuchen, K.
Development and Testing of Robotically Assisted Extravehicular Activity Gloves – 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems
July 2017
Rogers, J.M. / Peters, B.J. / Laske, E.A. / McBryan E.R.
The Influence of Robotic Assistance on Reducing Neuromuscular Effort and Fatigue during Extravehicular Activity Glove Use – 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems
July 2017
Madden K.E. / Deshpande A.D. / Peters, B.J. / Rogers, J.M. / Laske, E.A. / McBryan E.R.
Robotically Assisted EVA Gloves for ISS and Exploration – ISS Research and Development Conference
Dec 2016
Rogers, J.M. / Peters, B.J. / Laske, E.A. / McBryan E.R. / Joyce C.
RoboGlove – A Grasp Assist Device for Earth and Space – 45th International Conference on Environmental Systems
July 2015
Diftler, M.A. / Bridgwater, L.B. / Rogers, J.M. / Laske, E.A. / Ensley, K.G. / Lee, J.H. / Ihrke, C.A. / Davis, D.R. / Linn, D.M.
Patents
Control of a glove-based grasp assist device – US Patent 9,120,220
Sept 2015
Laske, E. / Bergelin, B.J. / Ihrke, C.A. / Davis, D.R. / Linn, D.M. / Sanders, A.M. / Askew, R.S. / Ensley, K.
Grasp assist device with automatic mode control logic – US Patent 9,878,452
Jan 2018
Laske, E. / Ihrke, C.A. / Davis, D.R.
Grasp assist system – US Patent 10,888,487
Jan 2021
Laske, E. / McBryan E.R. / Peters, B.J. / Rogers, J.M.
Grasp assist system with triple Brummel soft anchor – US Patent 11,019,862
June 2021
Laske, E. / McBryan E.R. / Peters, B.J. / Rogers, J.M.
Method for controlling a grasp assist system – US Patent 11,690,775
July 2023
Laske, E. / McBryan E.R. / Peters, B.J. / Rogers, J.M.
Skills
Programming Languages: C, Python, VHDL, C++, Matlab
Tools: Altium, Ansible, Docker, Jupyter, Matlab, Simulink, CI/CM, PTC Creo, Onshape, SPICE
Management Tools: Jira, Confluence, GitLab, GitHub, Artifactory, MS Project, SharePoint Online
Projects
Robonaut 2
Jan 2011 – Apr 2019
Robonaut2 is a humanoid dextrous robot. It is capable of lifting heavy objects and performing delicate tasks. The applications include performing tasks for crews both inside and outside of a spacecraft. It can be mounted on mobile platforms to allow remote exploration.
Space Suit RoboGlove
Oct 2014 – Sept 2016
This project sought to combine finger actuator technology developed for Robonaut 2 with the softgoods from the ILC Phase VI EVA glove to demonstrate methods to improve performance of future EVA glove dexterity and reduce fatigue. The Space Suit RoboGlove (SSRG) uses a system of three linear actuators to pull synthetic tendons attached to the glove’s fingers to augment flexion of the user’s fingers. To detect the user’s inputs, the system utilizes a combination of string potentiometers along the back of the fingers and force sensitive resistors integrated into the fingertips of the glove cover layer.
RoboGlove
Jan 2011 – Sept 2013
The RoboGlove is an assistive device that can augment human strength, endurance or provide directed motion for use in rehabilitation. RoboGlove is a spinoff of the highly successful Robonaut 2 (R2) system developed as part of a partnership between General Motors and NASA. This extremely lightweight device employs an actuator system based on the R2 finger drive system to transfer part or the entire grasp load from human tendons to artificial ones contained in the glove. Steady state loads ranging from 15 to 20 lbs. and peaks approaching 50 lbs. are achievable. Tactile sensing, miniaturized electronics, and on-board processing provide sufficient flexibility for applications in many industries.
ER4 X1 Force Shoe
Jan 2014 – Sept 2015
NASA Space & Life Sciences division was looking for a more portable, less intrusive method to gather force and pressure data during crew work outs. Their lab-based solution could achieve high data rates and multi-axis measurements but was not portable and their portable solution both did not give sufficent data for their research and was difficult to use in their desired exercises. The ER4 X1 Force Shoe was developed by integrating multiple 6-axis load cells, IMUs, batteries, and on-board processing and communications to sample, compute, and transmit all data at 500Hz for recording.
Awards
Elite Team Award (2018): For sustained dedication and technical excellence in repairing and upgrading Robonaut 2 Unit B for its return to the International Space Station.
Elite Team Award (2014): For outstanding diligence, dedication, and ingenuity in overcoming a late start to successfully complete R2 battery electronics radiation susceptibility testing at the Indiana test facility.
Federal Laboratory Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer (2013): RoboGlove