The Department was founded in 1930.

Summary

Two departments of Theoretical Mechanics and Resistance of Materials were founded simultaneously as well as MPEI was established in 1930. The present department received its current name in 2016 after MPEI reconstruction.

The scientific activity of the department staff covers various areas of mechanics, mathematics, diagnostics and management of technical systems.

Employees of the department carry out scientific and methodological activity in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics, robotics, mechatronics, gyroscope theory and applications, the theory of oscillations, stability, reliability and safety of machines and structures.

The educational activity of the department is aimed at training specialists in the field of robotics and mechatronics, applied mechanics and engineering methods for calculating the structures for strength, reliability and safety using the computer technology.

Graduates of the department work in the fields of the aviation and rocket technology, power, industrial and civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and the oil and gas industrial complex.

The Center for training and retraining of specialists “Reliability of Structures” was created on the basis of the department. The center implements the program "Application of the finite element method for strength calculations and ensuring the reliability of structures" to improve the skills of specialists in the field of design of buildings and structures Laboratory “Dynamics and diagnostics of power equipment” was created on the basis of the department as well. As part of the program, studies are carried out, concerning the dynamic characteristics of the rotors of the power equipment and the determination of diagnostic signs of a number of defects in changing operation conditions.  The department carries out a significant amount of projects on robotics in the framework of scientific research of students, as well as pre-university training of students at the Center for Technological Support of Education.​

Research areas

Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; robotics; mechatronics; dynamics; the strength of machinery instruments and equipment; mechanics of composite materials; theory of earthquake resistance of structures; development of vibration protection devices; the theory of reliability and safety of machines and structures.​

Recent projects

Development of guidelines for determining the alignment of the supports of the turbine unit taking into account the measurements of the ascent of the necks of the rotors based on data from vibration control systems and mechanical quantities, 

- Study of nonlinear effects in the dynamics of the wave solid-state gyroscope under changing operating conditions on a moving base,

- Research and modeling the behavior of groups of mobile robots. Development of control algorithms that take into account the dynamic and geometric characteristics of the devices, the properties of the chassis, the underlying surface and the tightness of the workspace,

- Theoretical and experimental study of the dynamics of new types of micromechanical gyroscopes,

- Theory of controlling the process of synchronizing the oscillatory movements of a disk spool of the internal combustion engine and crankshaft rotation.

Features

New educational methods for preparing students to participate in design engineering activities to create new constructive robotic systems with various types of locomotion, new types of inertial and external information sensors. Actively developing prototypes of autonomous wheeled mobile robots-manipulators are implemented at the department.

Teams of students of the department won prizes in the international scientific and technical festival "Mobile Robots" named after professor E.A. Devyanin in Moscow, at the first All-Russian festival "Robots for people", at the international congress "FIFA RoboWorld Congress. Robots in Education, Entertainment and Service ”, at “RoboCafe” competitions at the International specialized exhibition “Robotics” and many others.

Every year, students of the department win cups and diplomas of Russian and international competitions of mobile robots, participate and win in regional and All-Russian Olympiads in theoretical mechanics, resistance of materials, engineering and computer graphics, as well as in the Olympiad "I am the professional."

Students, graduate students and teachers of the department actively participate in scientific research in the field of mechanics, mechatronics, robotics and control processes in the framework of schools of thoughts of the RAS Academician V.V. Bolotin and Professor Yu.G. Martynenko. The department represents MPEI in the Technological platform “Technologies of mechatronics, embedded control systems, radio frequency identification and robotics”. The scientific and innovative activities of the department are associated with scientific and expert work on the instructions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation of the Russian Federal Property Fund, the international committee “Vibration, shock and monitoring of the technical condition”, as well as under contracts with enterprises of the real sector of the economy. 

Unique equipment

The department has installed modern equipment that allows the implementation of the principles of modern digital production. This significantly reduces the path from a technical idea to its implementation in the form of an existing model of a technical system. The department supports the work of the Center for Technological Support of Education, which includes numerically controlled machines for machining structural materials, an apparatus for laser cutting and engraving, three-dimensional modeling, scanning and printing systems.
The department’s robotics laboratory has a comprehensive workbench for studying the dynamic characteristics of mechatronic and robotic systems. Employees of the department conduct research on the mechanical properties and strength of composite materials in various environmental conditions.

The main characteristics of the workbench
The precision industrial robot manipulator KUKA KR6 sixx R900 AGILUS is designed to study the accuracy of complex technological operations in automatic mode. The movement of the payload and target equipment weighing up to 6 kg in the working area with a radius of 1 m with a positioning accuracy of 1 mm is provided by an automatic control system, which is configured in an interactive graphic programming environment.
KUKA youBot mobile robotic manipulators are designed to study the control processes and dynamics of robots in a changing environment. The presence of roller-bearing wheels permits to move the mobile platform in an arbitrary direction on the plane with a maximum speed of 1 m / s. The carrying capacity of a mobile platform with a five-link manipulator is 20 kg. The battery life is 1.5 hours. A stereo vision system, a laser scanner with an obstacle detection range of up to 6 m are included in the automatic control system for the movement of a mobile robot-manipulator.

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KUKA youBot

The robot movement is programmed in the Simulink medium, as well as in the Robot Programming System (ROS) with the open source based on the Linux operating system.
The mobile robot "Energy", created to participate in international competitions of mobile robots, permits to automatically move around the test site with a changing noise signal medium. Comprehensive processing of primary measurement information of the technical vision system with a circular field of view, odometric and rangefinder sensors provides high accuracy in determining the position of the robot in an autonomous mode of operation. The automatic control system permits to perform the optimal speed on the road markings and beacons of the test site.
The available equipment allows for the automation of technological processes of the enterprise, warehouse and shopping complex, monitoring and technological actions in hard-to-reach dangerous and cramped conditions. Research and development project is aimed at improving the accuracy of the implementation of target-oriented tasks through the integrated processing of arrays of measurement information, the application of mechanics, artificial intelligence, optimal and adaptive control.


Educational programs at the department

Bachelor

15.03.03 Applied mechanics, profile “Dynamics and Strength of Machines, Instruments and Equipment”.

15.03.06 Mechatronics and robotics, profile "Computer control technologies in robotics and mechatronics"

Master

15.04.03 Applied mechanics, program “Dynamics and Strength of Machines, Instruments and Equipment”.

15.04.06 Mechatronics and robotics, program: "Development of computer control technologies and mathematical modeling in robotics and mechatronics."

PhD

Mathematics and Mechanics

1.1.7. Theoretical Mechanics and Dynamics of Machines

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