Human Manipulation Research

• October 02, 2015

  Reducing Human Fall Injuries using a Mobile Manipulator

  At the Positronics lab, we have been investigating using robots to help prevent falls and to help reduce injuries when falls do occur. We initially pursued this research using multi-rigid body simulation to avoid possible harm to humans during exp...

• August 01, 2014

  Opening drawers with PR2

  This video from Roxana Leontie shows our PR2 robot, Pepe, autonomously opening  a drawer. Uncertainty from sensing the drawer's position and imprecision in Pepe's movements can make it challenging to perform tasks like this autonomously.Opening a ...

• June 01, 2014

  Load equalization via proprioceptive force feedback

  Previous research with Pepe, our PR2 robot from Willow Garage, was focused on manipulating bulky objects for which form orforce closure strategies may be infeasible: in such cases, we may be able to constrain manipulated objects only unilaterally ...

• June 01, 2012

  Mobile manipulation

  Load equalization via proprioceptive force feedbackOur latest research with Pepe, our PR2 robot from Willow Garage, has focused on manipulating bulky objects for which prehensile grasping strategies may be infeasible: in such cases, we may be able...