CV

Education

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Washington State University, 2029 (expected)
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Washington State University, 2023
A.A. Yakima Valley College, 2019

Research Experience

Spring 2023: Undergraduate Research Assistant
- Washington State University
- Duties include: Performing literature search from prior publications, writing research reports, preparing and submitting manuscripts, building robots, testing research equipment, and tools.
- Supervisor: Dr. Ming Luo
Fall 2022: Undergraduate Research Assistant
- Washington State University
- Duties included: Designing and evaluating a lightweight soft gripper for apple harvesting and assisting in various experiments with graduate students.
- Supervisor: Dr. Ming Luo
Fall 2021: Undergraduate Research Assistant
- Washington State University
- Duties included: Design and assembly of a temperature-controlled enclosure. Was trained on a laser to cut carbon fiber sheets.
- Supervisor: Dr. Néstor O. Pérez-Arancibia

Technical Skills

Programming & Software:
- Python (advanced)
- C# (beginner)
- C++ (beginner)
- Arduino (intermediate)
- MATLAB (intermediate)
- ROS (beginner)
- OpenCV (beginner),
- TensorFlow (beginner)
Robotics and Control:
- Forward/Inverse Kinematics
- SLAM
- Path Planning
- PID control
Mechanical Design:
- CAD (Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, OnShape) (advanced)
- Component Design (advanced)
- Protoyping (3D printing, Machining) (advanced)
Electronics & Embedded Systems:
- Arduino (intermediate)
- PCB Design (beginner)
- Sensors
- Actuators
- Real-Time Systems
Simulation & Modeling:
- Gazebo
- Simulink
Fabrication & Testing:
- Rapid Prototyping
- Soldering
- Calibration
- Experimental Validation

Specialized Areas

Computer Vision
Machine Learning
Human-Robot Interaction
Soft Robotics
Systems Integration (I2C, SPI, UART)
IoT

Professional Skills

Technical Writing & Research Publications
Interdisciplinary Team Collaboration

Publications

Design and Evaluation of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

C. Ninatanta et al., "Design and Evaluation of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper," 2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), San Diego, CA, USA, 2024, pp. 479-484, doi: 10.1109/RoboSoft60065.2024.10521995.

Modeling and Experimental Verification of a Continuous Curvature-Based Soft Growing Manipulator

J. Allen, R. Dorosh, C. Ninatanta, A. Allen, L. Shui, K. Yoshida, J. Luo, M. Luo, 'Modeling and Experimental Verification of a Continuous Curvature-Based Soft Growing Manipulator,' in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 3594-3600, April 2024

Design, Modeling, and Control of a Low-Cost and Rapid Response Soft-Growing Manipulator for Orchard Operations

Ryan Dorosh, Justin Allen, Zixuan He, Christopher Ninatanta, Jack Coleman, Jack Spieker, Ethan Tuck, Jordan Kurtz, Qin Zhang, Matthew D. Whiting, Jiecai Luo, Manoj Karkee, and Ming Luo, “Design, Modeling, and Control of a Low-Cost and Rapid Response Soft-Growing Manipulator for Orchard Operations”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), (2023)

Design of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

C. Ninatanta, J. Pilgrim, R. Dorosh, and M. Luo, “Design of a lightweight soft electrical apple harvesting gripper,” in Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intell. Robots Syst. (IROS), 2023.

Chris Ninatanta

CV

Education

Research Experience

Technical Skills

Professional Skills

Publications

Design and Evaluation of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

Modeling and Experimental Verification of a Continuous Curvature-Based Soft Growing Manipulator

Design, Modeling, and Control of a Low-Cost and Rapid Response Soft-Growing Manipulator for Orchard Operations

Design of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

Talks

Design of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

Feeling the Future: User Reactions to Haptic Devices

Enhancing Orchard Robotics Through Human-Teleoperated Systems with Haptic Feedback

Design and Evaluation of a Lightweight Soft Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

Design and Evaluation of a Lightweight Electrical Apple Harvesting Gripper

Low-cost Reliable Soft Arm for Automated Tree Fruit Harvesting

Teaching

Dynamics Systems Lecturer