Résumé: Rick Wagner

Engineer and scientist; contact via email, address below.

Recent Position:   Senior Technical Specialist (retired 2010), Northrop Grumman
                   Aerospace Systems, Mail station M1/1406
                   One Space Park, Redondo Beach, CA 90278


Education:         • PhD, Robotics and AI, University of Southern California,
                     December 1997 (GPA 3.8)
                   • MSCS, University of Southern California, May 1994 (GPA 3.5)
                   • BSME, University of Hawaii, December 1979 (GPA 3.2)

Areas of expertise:

Robotics: Space robotics, assembly task planning, path and motion planning,
network agents (softbots), grasp planning, and cooperation.

Space: Spacecraft manufacturing, integration, and test planning and
simulation, zero-gravity and dynamics simulation, mechanisms and kinematics,
computer-aided design, and environmental test, with 30 years of experience in
development of mechanisms with thermal, contamination, dynamics, kinematic,
and reliability considerations.

Internet: The first automated design service on the Web:
FixtureNet, the subject of an international journal article;
Research advisor and team leader for a network agent meeting
scheduling system developed in Java by a team of graduate students
at USC in 1999.

Teaching: Upper and lower division programming, undergraduate
and graduate directed research, software engineering, theory of
computation, discrete mathematics, and computer graphics.

Research interests:

Space robotics, object-oriented programming languages, intelligent network
agents, robotic grasp and motion planning, and artificial intelligence.

Experience:

Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS):

2002-2010          Senior Technical Specialist, Integration, Test and Launch
                   Directorate. APM (assistant project manager) for project
                   Redwood Integration and Test (2005-2009).

2000-2002          Staff Engineer, Mechanical Test Engineering and
                   Test Operations Department. Responsibilities include
                   process simulation and automation, CAD training, and
                   department Webmaster.

1998-2000          Staff Engineer (part time). Software development,
                   computer simulations, department Webmaster, and
                   database and document management in spacecraft assembly,
                   integration, test, and launch operations.

1993-1998          Staff Engineer, Mechanical Development and Test
                   Engineering Department. Responsibilities include:
                   implementing the S&EG product data management system
                   (PDMS), a distributed federated object oriented DBMS,
                   for the solar array products (SAP) center; developing a 
                   system for product solid model integration into
                   spacecraft assembly and test operations; and coordinating
                   training and user support for AutoCAD designers in S&TD,
                   including Web pages creation and maintenance.

1989-1993          Engineering Staff, I&T Operations, project 8482.
                   Responsible for creating and implementing automated
                   assembly and test procedures. Worked with the United
                   States Air Force and the Department of Defense to produce
                   the Militarily Critical Technologies List (MCTL, October
                   1992).

1987-1989          Subproject manager (SPM), Mechanical Integration
                   Engineering, project 8482, with multi-million dollar
                   budget responsibility. Planning and engineering
                   responsibility for all mechanical integration and test
                   activities, including system MGSE requirements, facility
                   modifications, and overall spacecraft schedule.

1985-1986          Section Head, Mechanical Test Engineering, DPD I&T
                   Department. Responsible for all spacecraft mechanical test
                   procedures, test engineering floor support, and personnel
                   hiring and assignments.

1984-1985          Staff Engineer, Manager of Test Operations, Mechanical
                   Systems, project 5081, with responsibility for all the
                   day-to-day spacecraft integration and test activities,
                   including daily schedules and manpower assignments.

1980-1984          Member of the Technical Staff, Mechanical I&T Department.
                   Supported DSCS, DSP, FLTSATCOM, GRO and numbered projects,
                   including spacecraft static load tests, zero gravity
                   simulation for deployment tests, and stiffness and
                   torque-angle tests. Performed the first static load test
                   on a flight spacecraft. Developed computer automated data
                   analysis for stiffness and deployment testing.

University of Southern California, Computer Science Department:

1998-2000          Full time lecturer responsible for the undergraduate
                   curriculum for the Computer Science and the Computer
                   Science/Computer Engineering degree programs. Under-
                   graduate and graduate directed research.

1998               Lecturer (part time), Computer Science 477L, Design and
                   Construction of Large Software Systems.

1996-1997          Teaching Assistant and guest lecturer, Computer Science
                   201, Principles of Software Development. Student
                   member of the USC PhD Admissions Committee.

1994-1996          Research Assistant, Modular Robotics Laboratory. Design
                   and analyse new robotic algorithms for industrial
                   robotics including part feeding (singulation,
                   orientation, presentation) automated fixture design
                   synthesis, and fixture loading. Implemented FixtureNet,
                   the first World Wide Web automatic modular fixture
                   design service.

United States Air Force:

1969-1978          Communications Electronics Technician, USAF, with extensive
                   and varied experience in microwave, analog/digital, and
                   satellite ground systems. Duty stations included Keelser
                   Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi (Air Training Command
                   (ATC)); Bellows Air Force Station, Waimanalo, Hawaii (Air
                   Force Communications Service (AFCS)); Tinker Air Force Base,
                   Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (2nd Mobile Combat Communications
                   Group); McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento, California
                   (AFCS); Wheeler Air Force Base, Wahiawa, Hawaii (AFCS).

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society:

2006-2012          Founding Co-chair of the Space Robotics Technical Committee

Publications

International

IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Special Issue on Space Robotics, Guest Editor, December, 2009.
Novel Techniques to Solve Space-Exploration Problems, Rick Wagner, Richard Volpe, Richard Volpe, Gianfranco Visentin, December 2009, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 16(4):13-13 DOI: 10.1109/MRA.2009.935153.
Rick Wagner, "Grippers for Space Locomotion," International Conference on Robotics and Automation, a presentation to the Orbital Robotics Workshop, Pasadena, California, USA, May, 2008.
Rick Wagner and Hobson Lane, "Lessons Learned on the AWIMR Project," International Conference on Robotics and Automation, a presentation with paper to the Space Robotics Workshop, Rome, Italy, April, 2007.
Harald Schiferl and Rick Wagner, "A Distributed Model for Game Computing," Third International Conference on Application and Development of Computer Games, Hong Kong, April, 2004. Web version.
Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Castanotto, and Ken Goldberg, "FixtureNet: Interactive Computer Aided Design via the WWW," International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, June, 1997. Web version.
Richard Wagner, Yan Zhuang, and Ken Goldberg, "Fixturing Faceted Parts with Seven Modular Struts," The International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning, IEEE, August 1995.

National

Rick Wagner, Hobson Lane, and Brett Kennedy, "An Autonomous Walking Inspection and Maintenance Robot (AWIMR)," American Astronautical Society (AAS), Proceedings of the 28th Annual Guidance and Control Conference, February 2005.
Rick Wagner and Hobson Lane, "Space Robotics," a presentation to the NASA Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM), hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, December 2004.
Richard Wagner, "Implementing Linked Lists in Visual Basic," PC Developer magazine, Australia, December issue, 1993.
Richard Wagner, Fun Programming with Visual Basic, Chapter 13, Que Computer Books, a division of Prentice Hall, 1992.

Regional

Rick Wagner, "The Viewing Stones of Mars," Golden Statements, the magazine of the Golden State Bonsai Federation, May-June, 2004.
Dale Hall, Bob Hosken, and Rick Wagner, "Robotics Instruction Course," Beach Cities Robotics, FIRST team 294 high school course text, October 2003.
Richard J. Wagner, "String Tree Utility Data Structure and an Order n Sort," TRW Conference on Power Computing, April 2001. Web version.
Richard J. Wagner, "An Algorithm for Wiring Bonsai," Dai Ichi Bonsai Kai Newsletter, January 2001. See also the Web version.
Richard J. Wagner and Charles P. Wright, "Spacecraft Production Simulation," TRW Modeling and Simulation Conference, March 1999.

Patents

String Tree Utility Data Structure and an Order(n) Sort, U.S. patent number 6,741,999, May 25, 2004.
Double Knee Longeron Truss, a deployable structure for space applications, patent application 2003 by NGAS, later dropped.
Electrostatic Foot for Space Robot Locomotion, patent application 2005 by NGAS, later dropped.
Arthropodal Sticky Footed Space Walking Robot Gait, patent application 2005 by NGAS, later dropped.

Innovations at NGAS:

1980: First torque-angle test using a torque sensor.
1981: First stiffness test using automated data acquisition.
1982: First latch repeatability test using an autocollimator.
1983: First cold deployment test using gas bearings.
1984: First numerical integration with torque-angle test data.
1985: First static load test on flight hardware (FLTSATCOM flight 8).
1986: First parametric study of wire harness torque-angle data.
1987: First feasibility study for 5-panel solar array deployment with helium balloons.
1997: First Web published test report.
1998: First demonstration of Web-integrated test procedures.
1999: First spacecraft production simulation.
2000: First general Order(n) sorting algorithm (U.S. patent awarded May 25, 2004).
2001: First five-axis univeral joint used in torque-angle testing.
2001: First formalization of a flange stiffness design concept.
2002: First concept for a pneumatic space mirror.
2003: Double knee longeron truss for space nuclear power heat
      rejection system deployment.
2004: Bi-directional membrane tensiometer (NGAs trade secret).
2005: Electrostatic foot for space robotics locomotion.
2006: Robot gait for sticky footed space walking robots.
2007: CMG Space Robot.

U.S. Citizen. SSBI. Security clearances and references furnished upon request.

For more information send e-mail to: Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com

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