Eric R. Bachmann
Associate Professor

Dr. Bachmann joined the faculty of Miami University as an associate professor in August 2001. Prior to coming to Miami, he was a lecturer and assistant research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA where he earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Before entering academia, he served as an unrestricted aviator in the US Navy and flew aircraft such as the CH-53E and SH-60B. He also earned a BA in mathematics from the University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Bachmann’s research focuses on large scale virtual environments and human posture and position tracking using small inertial and magnetic sensors. He is co-director of the HIVE project located on the Oxford campus. The HIVE is the largest virtual environment in the world. He holds two patents related to his work in human posture tracking. Over the course of his research career, Dr. Bachmann has received grants totaling over $1.1 million. He has published in the areas of both robotics and virtual environments.

Dr. Bachmann teaches a variety of computer science courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He leads Yoga classes in the Recreational Sports Center on the Oxford campus of Miami University. He holds a 2^nd degree black belt in Taekwondo. He enjoys backpacking and studies piano. He is extremely proud of his daughter who is a junior majoring in sociology and journalism at Miami.

EDUCATION:

• Ph.D. Computer Science, Naval Postgraduate School
• M.S. Computer Science, Naval Postgraduate School
• B.A. Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati

EXPERIENCE:

• Associate Professor, Computer Science and Systems Analysis, Miami University, 2001-Present
• Lecturer of Computer Science/Research Professor,
  Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, 1997-Present
• United States Navy, Unrestricted Aviator, Lieutenant Commander, USNR, 1985-1997
• RCA Missile Test Project, Patrick AFB, FL - Programmer/Analyst, 1984-1985

PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS:

Journal Publications:

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, and R. B. McGhee, “A Simplified Quaternion-based Algorithm for Orientation Estimation from Earth Gravity and Magnetic Field Measurements,” accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, in September 2007.

D. Waller, E. R. Bachmann, E Hodgson, and A. C. Beall, “The HIVE: A Huge Immersive Virtual Environment for research in spatial cognition,” Journal of Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers. Vol. 39, No. 4, November 2007, pp 835-843

E. R. Bachmann, X. Yun, A. Brumfield, “An Investigation of the Effects of Magnetic Variations on Inertial/Magnetic Orientation Sensors,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2007, pp 76-87.

X. Yun, and E. R. Bachmann, “Design, Implementation, and Experimental Results of a Quaternion-Based Kalman Filter for Human Body Motion Tracking,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Vol. 22, Issue 6, December 2006.

E. R. Bachmann, and X. Yun, “A Single Parameter Tunable Quaternion Based Attitude Estimation Filter,” Journal Navigation, Vol. 53, Issue 2, Fall 2006.

D. Waller and E. R. Bachmann, “The Borderline of Science: On the Value of Factor Analysis for Understanding Presence,” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, Vol. 15, Issue 2, April 2006.

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, S. Arslan, K. Akyol, and R. B. McGhee, "An Inertial Navigation System for Small Autonomous Underwater Vehicles,” Advanced Robotics, VSP and Robotics Society of Japan, Vol. 15, No. 5, 2001, pp. 521-532.

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, R. H. Whalen, R. L. Roberts, R. G. Knapp, A. J. Healey, and M. J. Zyda, "Testing and Evaluation of an Integrated GPS/INS System for Small AUV Navigation," IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Vol. 24, No. 3, July 1999, pp. 396-404.

Conference Proceedings:

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, H. Moore, and J. Calusdian, “Self-contained Position Tracking of Human Movement Using Small Inertial/Magnetic Sensor Modules,” accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2007, Rome, Italy, April 2007.

B. J. Snow, P. Maynard-Zhang, and E. R. Bachmann, “A WiFi Based Personal Place Awareness System using Bayesian Learning,” Proceedings of the Midwest Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science Conference (MAICS-05), Dayton, Ohio, April 2005.

X. Yun, C. Aparicio, E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, “Implementation and Experimental Results of a Quaternion-Based Kalman Filter for Human Body Motion Tracking,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2005, Barcelona, Spain, April 2005. .

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, Kavousanos-Kavousanakis, A., Yildiz, F., McGhee, R. B., “Design and Implementation of the MARG Human Body Motion Tracking System,” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 04), Sendai, Japan, September - October 2004.

E. R. Bachmann, X. Yun, and C. W. Peterson, "An Investigation of the Effects of Magnetic Variations on Inertial/Magnetic Orientation Sensors,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2004, New Orleans, Louisiana, April - May 2004

X. Yun, M. Lizarraga, E. R. Bachmann, and R. B. McGhee, "An Improved Quaternion-Based Kalman Filter for Real-Time Tracking of Rigid Body Orientation,” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 03), Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2003.

E. R. Bachmann, X. Yun, and R. B. McGhee, "Sourceless Tracking of Human Posture Using Small Inertial/Magnetic Sensors,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics & Automation (CIRA 03), Kobe, Japan, July 2003.

E. R. Bachmann, , X. Yun, D. McKinney, R. B. McGhee and M. J. Zyda,  "Design and Implementation of MARG Sensors for 3-DOF Orientation Measurement of Rigid Bodies,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2003, Taipei, Taiwan, September 2003.

E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, X. Yun and M. J. Zyda,  "Inertial and Magnetic Posture Tracking for Inserting Humans into Networked Virtual Environments,” ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST 01, Banff, Alberta, Canada, November 2001, pp. 9 – 16.

J. L. Marins, X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, and M. J. Zyda, "An Extended Kalman Filter for Quaternion-Based Orientation Estimation Using MARG Sensors," Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems(IROS 01), Maui, Hawaii, USA, Oct. 29 - Nov. 03, 2001, pp.2003-2011.

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, and S. Arslan, "An Inertial Navigation System for Small Autonomous Underwater Vehicles," Proceedings of 2000 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 00), Vol. 24, April 2000, San Francisco, CA, pp. 1781 -1786.

E. R. Bachmann, I. Duman, U. Usta, R. B. McGhee, X. Yun, and M. J. Zyda, "Orientation tracking for Humans and Robots Using Inertial Sensors," Proceeding of the IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics & Automation (CIRA 99), Monterey, CA, November 8-9 1999, pp.187-194.

X. Yun, G. C. Hernandez, E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, and A. J. Healey, "An Integrated GPS/INS Navigation System for Small AUVs Using an Asynchronous Kalman Filter," Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, August 20-21, 1998, Cambridge, MA, pp. 43-49.

X. Yun, E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, R. H. Whalen, R. L. Roberts, R. G. Knapp, A. J. Healey, and M. J. Zyda, "Testing and Evaluation of an Integrated GPS/INS System for Small AUV Navigation (SANS)," Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST), Durham, NH, September 1997, pp. 101-108.

E. R. Bachmann, R. B. McGhee, R. H. Whalen, R. Steven, R. G. Walker, J. R. Clynch, A. J. Healey, and X. Yun, "Evaluation of an Integrated GPS/INS System for Shallow-Water AUV Navigation (SANS)," Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE Symposium on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Technology, (AUV ’96), Monterey, CA, June 3-6, 1996, pp. 268-275.

R. B. McGhee, J. R. Clynch, A. J. Healey, S. H. Kwak, D. P. Brutzman, X. Yun, N. A. Norton, R. H. Whalen, E. R. Bachmann, D. L. Gay, and W. R. Schubert, "An Experimental Study of an Integrated GPS/INS System for Shallow-Water AUV Navigation (SANS)," Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST), Durham, NH, September 25-27, 1995, pp.153 – 167.

Invited Papers:

M. J. Zyda, D. P. Brutzman, R. Darken, R. B. McGhee, J. Falby, E. R. Bachmann, K Watsen, B. Kavanaugh, and R. Storms, “NPSNET-Large-Scalve Virtual Environment Technology Testbed,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-Existence, Tokyo, Japan, December 1997, pp 18-26.

Patents

United States Patent: Method and Apparatus for Motion Tracking of an Articulated Rigid Body, Patent No.: US 7,089,148 B1, Date of Patent: August 8, 2006.

United States Patent: Method and Apparatus for Motion Tracking of an Articulated Rigid Body, Patent No.: US 6,820,025 B2 Date of Patent: Nov 16, 2004

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Networked virtual environments, human motion, and computer graphics.