News
Kam Leang and industry partner Nevada NanoTech System recently received a U.S. Airforce Phase I STTR project for autonomous aerial-robot chemical sensing. The project will leverage the expertise of both teams to create intelligent agents for applications that include emergency response....
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“Simulating Tendon Reconstructive Surgeries using a Virtual Hand Model and Robotic Testbed,” National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIH R21). PI: Stephen Mascaro, Co-PI: Kenneth Foreman, 07/02/2019-05/31/2021, $347,798. The goal of this project is to advance tendon reconstructive surgery by providing a new way to predict the surgical outcomes using a virtual model for surgeons to examine the outcomes of surgery like range of motion and strength of grip. We currently have a unique virtual model of the tendon system of the human finger that can simulate the kinematics of the tendons and predict the pose...
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For amputees, walking down the sidewalk verses taking the stairs can be considerable obstacles. Mechanical engineering assistant professor Tommaso Lenzi just received collaborative funding with Drs. Nicholas Fey and Kenneth Hoyt (University of Texas at Dallas), from the National Science Foundation Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (NSF CMMI), National Robotics Initiative (NRI), for their research entitled, “Muscle Ultrasound Sensing for Intuitive Control of Robotic Leg Prostheses,” $600,987 (U), and $578,233 (UT). The goal of this project is to fill the knowledge gap regarding the integration of the user’s volition or intuitive will, in the control of lightweight robotic ankle...
Read MoreCongratulations to Profs. Abbott, Kong, Leang and Monson on their new $2M NSF EFRI Award, project in collaboration with R. Rajamani of Univ. of Minnesota and O. Pak of Santa Clara Univ. Project tile: “EFRI C3 SoRo: Magneto-electroactive Soft, Continuum, Compliant, Configurable (MESo-C3) Robots for Medical Applications Across Scales” The vision of this collaborative project between the University of Utah, the University of Minnesota, and Santa Clara University is to extend the capabilities of clinicians by enabling minimally invasive access to locations in the human body that are currently difficult or impossible to reach, using a new class of...
Read MoreProf. Jake Abbott’s work on magnetic capsule endoscope featured in an article in PCMag.com: https://www.pcmag.com/news/363730/this-robot-might-make-invasive-colonoscopies-a-thing-of-the ...
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Congratulations to Prof. Tommaso Lenzi for receiving new $972K DoD CDMRP grant entitled, “Motorized Hip Orthoses to Improve the Gait Ability of Transfemoral Amputees”. The goal of the project is to validate a new approach to improving amputees’ mobility—providing bilateral hip assistance with a motorized orthosis. Hip orthoses are very lightweight, and their mass is located close to the body center of mass, thus minimizing the metabolic energy cost of carrying this additional weight. In addition, as the orthosis is not suspended through the socket interface, it does not affect balance or socket stability. Because motorized hip orthoses can be...
Read MoreRobotics Ph.D. student, Dejun Guo (pictured on the right), advised by robotics faculty Kam K. Leang (pictured on the left) and member of the DARC Lab, University of Utah Robotics Center, won the 2017 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSCC) Best Student Paper Award, held October 11-13, 2017 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This conference and competition represent the best of the brightest minds in the field. For reference, the other finalists were from Texas A&M University, Villanova University, MIT/Northeastern University, UC Berkley, and University of Texas at Dallas. Co-authored by Prof. Leang, Guo’s paper entitled, “Position and Linear Velocity Estimation for Position-Based Visual Servo...
Read MoreMechanical Engineering – Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Robotics The University of Utah Robotics Center (robotics.coe.utah.edu) is seeking outstanding candidates with research interests and expertise in robotics and related systems, for a tenure-track appointment at the assistant or associate rank in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a Fall Semester 2018 starting date. Candidates with exceptional background and experience may be considered at a higher rank. Candidates must have an established record of published research, must exhibit strong potential for extramural funding within their area of expertise, and are expected to develop a vigorous research program. Candidates must also be qualified to teach...
Read MoreTwo papers by robotics faculty were recently accepted to the International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR): “Planning Multi-Fingered Grasps as Probabilistic Inference in a Learned Deep Network” by Qingkai Lu, Kautilya Chenna, Balakumar Sundaralingam, and Tucker Hermans. “Controlling Homogeneous Microrobot Swarms In Vivo Using Rotating Magnetic Dipole Fields”, by Jake J. Abbott and Henry C. Fu ...
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Katie Popek, Tucker Hermans, and Jake Abbott’s paper entitled, “First Demonstration of Simultaneous Localization and Propulsion of a Magnetic Capsule in a Lumen Using a Single Rotating Magnet,” was recently awarded the Best Paper Award in Medical Robotics at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Singapore. ICRA is the largest annual international robotics conference, and is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. Abbott is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hermans is an assistant professor in the School of Computing, and Popek recently earned her Ph.D. in Computing (Robotics Track) while conducting research...
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