The Eric P. and Evelyn E. Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Aim2 category
Wire-harness installation is currently a complex manual manipulation task in the manufacturing process of large electrical systems. Simply put, wire harnessing is the assembly of electrical cables used in machinery, such as aircrafts, automobiles, and other electrical systems. It has been proposed that incorporating robots into this system can help the human operator. This project…
Humans are capable of skillfully manipulating complex objects with their own internal dynamics, such as moving a sloshing cup of coffee without spilling. How humans are able to select and execute movement trajectories from the infinite possible choices is an open question, however. One hypothesis is that human controller plans motion in terms of dynamic…
Our research goal is to explicate the whipping action in the words of dynamic primitives – submovement, oscillation and impedance. The reason why whip is compelling compared to other tools is due to its innate complexity; analyzing physics-based model of the whip requires infinite dimensional partial differential equation, and solving this is even challenging to modern super…
While robot performance has seen huge improvements over the past several decades, humans still vastly outperform them at tasks that involve complex dynamic interaction with the environment. Humans can easily manipulate a variety of compliant and non-compliant objects with two hands, or even coordinate large object manipulation with several other people. One key strategy that…
Motor neuroscience research is primarily composed of studies investigating unconstrained motion. Yet, interaction with constraints are essential aspects of everyday life, such as turning a steering wheel or opening a door. Humans excel at these tasks, while robotic systems often struggle. To investigate a constrained motion task a simple crank-turning experiment was developed. The…