msepostdoc-list Fwd: Mechanical Engineering Special Seminar

[Donna Bystrom]

*PURDUE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING*

*“SPECIAL SEMINAR”*

* *

*Friday, November 9, 2012*

*ME 3006 – 10:30 a.m.*

 

*A Wearable Co-Robot for the Future Factory*

 

*H. Harry Asada*

*Department of Mechanical Engineering*

*Massachusetts Institute of Technology*

 

*Abstract*

Imagine that one day factory workers have extra arms attached to their
body. The extra arms will help them hold objects, share a workload, and
streamline the execution of a task. If the movements of such
supernumerary limbs are tightly coupled and coordinated with their own
arms, they may come to perceive the extra arms as an extension of their
body, incorporated into their body image. As a result the factory
worker’s productivity will increase, human errors can be eliminated, and
the risk for injury may be reduced. In this talk a new type of co-robot
that becomes a functional extension of the human body will be
introduced. A pair of Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL) secured around
the hips can perform a task together with the human, having a specially
intimate and unique relationship with the wearer. Unlike physically
separated co-robots, linguistic communications are unnatural for SRL -
we do not talk to our hands. Instead, we communicate with them through
various sensory channels and physical interactions. In this talk
multi-disciplinary approaches to bringing SRL and the human together
will be described. These include a) biomechanics and machine design for
building a lightweight, compact robot system, which is comfortable to
wear and is perceived to be part of the body; b) Kalman filter for
estimating human posture and work load as well as SRL posture perturbed
by spontaneous movements of the human; c) neural movement control and
haptic technology for communicating and controlling SRL in a natural
manner; and d) skill transfer and training of SRL using system
identification and learning control. The technology will be described in
the context of future aircraft manufacturing, where factory workers will
be equipped with SRL to double or triple the productivity, quality, and
safety.

*Biography*

H. Harry Asada is Ford Professor of Engineering and Director of the Brit
and Alex d’Arbeloff Laboratory for Bio-Robotics in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge, MA. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in
precision engineering in 1973, 1975, and 1979, respectively, all from
Kyoto University, Japan. He specializes in robotics, biological
engineering, and system dynamics and control. His current research in
the biological engineering area includes bio-artificial muscles,
angiogenesis, modeling and control of cell migration, and cell tracking
image processing. His current robotics research includes wireless micro
underwater robots for direct inspection of nuclear reactors, aircraft
manufacturing robotics, wearable supernumerary robotic limbs for
assisting factory workers and astronauts, and cellular PZT actuators. He
won the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on
Robotics and Automation in 1993, 1997, 1999, and 2010, the O. Hugo
Schuck Best Paper Award from the American Control Council in 1985, and
Best Journal Paper Awards from the Society of Instrument and Control
Engineers in 1979, 1984, and 1990. He received the Rufus Oldenburger
Medal from ASME in 2011, and the Henry Paynter Outstanding Researcher
Award from ASME Dynamic Systems and Control in 1998. He also received
the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching from the School
of Engineering, MIT, for his contribution to robotics education. Dr.
Asada is a Fellow of ASME.

 

 

*Diana K. Akers*

*Secretary*

Mechanical Engineering

Purdue University

765-49-42689

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