Michael Greminger Michael Greminger, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
University of Minnesota Duluth
111 Voss Kovach Hall
mgreming@d.umn.edu
Office: (218) 726-7562



Research Areas

Engineering Tools

We are exploring the possibility for combining modern browser based computational technologies to build advanced engineering tools. See the EngineeringPaper.xyz web app for engineering calculations for a working example. For tutorials and examples about using EngineeringPaper.xyz for engineering calculations, see the EngineeringPaper.xyz blog.

Design Optimization

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have the potential to revolutionize design. We are explore techniques to leverage deep neural networks to enforce manufacturing constraints on topology optimization. See our IDETC conference presentation for details.

Medical Device Design

In collaboration with physicians, we developed novel surgical tools for interventional pulmonology and neurosurgery applications. I was an innovation fellow with the University of Minnesota Medical Devices Center's Innovation Fellows Program during the 2015-16 academic year.

Smart Composite Structures

New smart composite structures are being investigated that use the piezoelectric properties of PVDF polymer to add strain and force sensing capabilities to carbon fiber reinforced composite structures. These smart composite structures have applications in structural health monitoring, dynamic load sensing, and active deformable structures.

Computer Vision

Various techniques are applied to the visual tracking of deformable structures. Applications have included vision-based force measurement for non-contact force feedback and the automated analysis of fuel droplet combustion for the characterization of fuel blends. A special emphasis has been placed on making these algorithms robust to the occlusions and spurious features that often appear in the images that are analyzed.

Publications

Journal

  1. Greminger, M., Haghiashtiani, G., "Multiscale modeling of PVDF matrix carbon fiber composites," Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 25, no. 4, April, 2017.

  2. Greminger, M., Hoxie, A., "Median ellipse parameterization for robust measurement of fuel droplet size," Measurement Science and Technology, vol. 27, no. 2, December, 2015.

  3. Haghiashtiani, G., Greminger, M., "Fabrication, polarization, and characterization of PVDF matrix composites for integrated structural load sensing," Smart Materials and Structures, vol. 24, no.4, March, 2015.

  4. Poe, B.G., Duffy, C.F., Greminger, M.A., Nelson, B.J., Arriaga, E.A., “Detection of heteroplasmy in individual mitochondrial particles,” Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, vol. 397, no. 8, pp. 3397-3407, August 2010.

  5. Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “A Deformable Object Tracking Algorithm Based on the Boundary Element Method that is Robust to Occlusions and Spurious Edges,” International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 78, no.1, pp. 29-4, June 2008.

  6. Piyabongkarn, D., Rajamani, R., Greminger, M., “The Development of a MEMS Gyroscope for Absolute Angle Measurement,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 185-195, March 2005.

  7. Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “Vision-Based Force Measurement,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 290-298, March 2004.

  8. Sun, Y., Greminger, M., Nelson, B. J., “Investigating Protein Structure Change in the Zona Pellucida with a Microrobotic System,” International Journal of Robotics Research, 2004.

  9. Sun, Y., Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “Nanopositioning of a multi-axis microactuator using visual servoing,” Journal of Micromechatronics, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 141-155, 2004.

Conference

  1. Greminger, M., "Generative Adversarial Networks with Synthetic Training Data for Enforcing Manufacturing Constraints on Topology Optimization," ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Online, August, 2020. [Video Presentation]

  2. Fai, G., Ostlie, S., Greminger, M., Cho, R., Dincer, H. E., "Tool for Transbronchial Biopsies of Peripheral Lung Nodules," Design of Medical Devices Conference, Minneapolis, April, 2019.

  3. Orner, M., Greminger, M., Goyal, A., "Waterjet Assisted Craniotome for Reduced Dural Tears," Design of Medical Devices Conference, Minneapolis, April, 2018.

  4. Greminger, M., Haghiashtiani, G., "Finite Element Modeling of PVDF Matrix Carbon Fiber Composites," International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring, Stanford University, September, 2015.

  5. Carlson, T., Moen, C., Soli, T., Greminger, M., Martinelli, J., "Detachable Bronchoscope with a Disposable Insertion Tube," Design of Medical Devices Conference, Minneapolis, April, 2015.

  6. Haghiashtiani, G., Greminger, M., Zhao, P., "Poling of PVDF matrix composites for integrated structural load sensing," Proc. SPIE 9061, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2014, San Diego, California, March 2014.

  7. Greminger, M., Sezen, A.S., Nelson, B.J., “A Four Degree of Freedom MEMS Microgripper with Novel Bi-Directional Thermal Actuators,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2005), Edmonton, Canada, August 2005.

  8. Greminger, M., Jones, J.F., “Real-Time Three-Dimensional Visualization of Standard Light Microscope Image Sequences for Microassembly,” The 6th IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning (ISATP 2005), Montreal, Quebec, July 2005.

  9. Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “A Deformable Object Tracking Algorithm Robust to Occlusions an Spurious Edges,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2005), Barcelona, Spain, April 2005.

  10. Greminger, M., Sun, Y., Nelson, B.J., “Boundary Element Deformable Object Tracking with Equilibrium Constraints,” IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2004), New Orleans, USA.

  11. Sun, Y., Greminger, M.A., Nelson, B.J., “Investigating Protein Structure with a Microrobotic System,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2004), New Orleans, USA.

  12. Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “Modeling Elastic Objects with Neural Networks for Vision-Based Force Measurement,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003), Las Vegas, USA.

  13. Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “Deformable Object Tracking Using the Boundary Element Method,” IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR2003), June 2003.

  14. Sun, Y., Greminger, M., Potasek, D., Nelson, B.J. “A Visually Servoed Multi-Axis MEMS Manipulator,” 8th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER2002), Sant'Angelo d'Ischia, Italy, July 2002.

  15. Greminger, M., Yang, G., Nelson, B.J., “Sensing nanonewton level forces by visually tracking structural deformations,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2002), May 2002.

  16. Greminger, M., Nelson, B.J., “Vision-based force sensing at nanonewton scales,” Proceedings of SPIE - the International Society for Optical Engineering, vol. 4568, Oct. 2001.

Patents

  1. “Gimbal limiter for suspension with lift tab,” United States Patent 8837090.

  2. “Head gimbal assembly with contact detection,” United States Patent 8531799.

  3. “Slider top bond design with shorted pad configuration,” United States Patent 8400736

  4. “Compact microactuator head assembly,” United States Patent 8289652

  5. “Slider for a head gimbal assembly with an inverted dimple,” United States Patent 8254063

  6. “Recessed base plate for data transducer suspension,” United States Patent 8254062

  7. “Cost reduced microactuator suspension,” United States Patent 8144435

  8. “Baseplate resonant axis optimization,” United States Patent 8929032

Education

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, October 2005
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, May 2002
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, May 2000
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering

PhD Thesis
Master's Thesis