Skip navigation
Duerstock IAS Lab

Robotic Assistive Mobility and Manipulation Platform

The power wheelchairs and mobility devices people rely on today are built on technology that has changed very little in decades. They leave many users dependent on someone else for everyday tasks, and often confine daily life to part of their own home. At the same time, the help they depend on is getting harder to find. Roughly 53 million family caregivers in the United States provide unpaid support, professional caregivers are in short supply, and about 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day.

RAMMP is a five-year program funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and led by the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) at the University of Pittsburgh. Its goal is to create the next generation of open-source robotic assistive mobility and manipulation technologies. By combining a powered mobility device with a robotic arm, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart sensing, RAMMP is designed to help people with mobility impairments carry out daily tasks safely and on their own.

RAMMP is not a single device. It is an open platform that others can build on, made up of four parts:

  • ATOS, the Assistive Technology Operating System: a modular software framework for intelligent mobility devices, with drivers, perception modules, navigation algorithms, and human-robot interaction components.
  • RAMMS, the Robotic Assistive Mobility and Manipulation Simulation: a digital twin environment that mirrors real-world conditions, so new ideas can be tested safely and at scale before they reach a user.
  • Hardware reference designs: open CAD files, bills of materials, and assembly documentation for RAMMP-compatible mobility bases, sensor arrays, and robotic arm mounts.
  • Developer documentation and APIs: guides, tutorials, and documented interfaces that let developers at any level extend and customize the platform.

Assistive technology has traditionally been closed and proprietary, which keeps devices expensive and hard to customize. RAMMP releases its software, hardware designs, and documentation under open-source licenses. Researchers can test new navigation and manipulation methods without starting from scratch, manufacturers can build the designs into commercial products, and makers, therapists, and advocates can adapt the platform to individual needs.

Purdue is one of five universities in the RAMMP consortium. Our part of the project focuses on transportation: integrating the assistive robotic platform’s hardware and software with transportation systems, so that people with disabilities can take part more fully in the activities of daily living.

Funding: This project is funded, in part, by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through an award of up to $41.5 million to the University of Pittsburgh. The five-year project began in September 2025.

In the news: Purdue joins $41.5 million ARPA-H project to advance robotic assistive mobility for people with disabilities (Purdue Engineering)
Pitt to Lead Major Project to Create Robotic Wheelchair (University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)

Project Investigators

Dr. Brad Duerstock (Co-Principal Investigator)

Dr. Brandon Pitts (Co-Principal Investigator)

Consortium Partners

RAMMP is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Rory Cooper, Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of HERL. The consortium brings together expertise in rehabilitation engineering, robotics, AI, and assistive technology.

For more information, please visit the RAMMP website or contact Professor Brad Duerstock