The University of Utah Robotics Center is a leading hub for cutting-edge research in medical and surgical robotics, pioneering advancements that revolutionize healthcare delivery and surgical practices. Researchers at the center focus on developing innovative robotic systems and technologies tailored for medical applications, with a strong emphasis on improving patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency. One key area of research is the development of robot-assisted surgical systems that enhance the precision, dexterity, and safety of surgical procedures. This includes the design of robotic platforms capable of performing minimally invasive surgeries with unparalleled accuracy, leading to reduced recovery times and improved patient comfort.  Interdisciplinary collaboration is a cornerstone of the Robotics Center's research approach, with experts from engineering, computer science, medicine, and allied healthcare fields working together to tackle complex challenges in medical robotics. This collaborative effort ensures that research outcomes are not only technologically advanced but also clinically relevant and ready for translation into practical healthcare solutions.

Artificial intelligence and Robotics in Medicine Lab (ARMLab)

Alan Kuntz, PhD

Assistant Professor, School of Computing
Lab Website: Artificial intelligence and Robotics in Medicine Lab (ARMLab)

The Kuntz Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab in the Robotics Center and Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah focusing on robotics and computational methods with medical applications. Research areas include healthcare applications of artificial intelligence, design optimization, and robot motion planning.

Drew Research Lab

Daniel Drew, PhD

Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Lab Website: The Drew Research Lab for Autonomous Robotic Millisystems

The driving goal behind our work is to make insect-scale robots truly useful as tools in industrial, commercial, and personal settings. This means not only overcoming the extreme resource constraints imposed by their scale, but also delivering capabilities that are wholly unique. Our work ties numerical simulation together with cutting-edge microfabrication and meso-scale assembly techniques, exploring novel actuation, communication, and sensing modalities for holistically-designed systems. Sometimes we look to nature for inspiration, like in the design of multifunctional components for acoustic communication; often we look beyond it, like in the creation of silent, solid-state atmospheric ion thrusters for flight. In all cases, energy and payload constraints demand systems designed from the ground up, tightly integrated, and at the bleeding edge of possibility.

Magnetic & Medical Robotics Lab

Jake Abbott, PhD

Professor,  Mechanical Engineering
Lab Website: Magnetic & Medical Robotics Lab

The Magnetic & Medical Robotics Lab in the Robotics Center has many projects that incorporate magnetic technologies in robotics, with a large focus on the use of magnetic fields to dexterously manipulate objects without any physical contact. Many of our projects consider medical applications of robotics, with a large focus on the application of magnetics in medical robotics. Some of our projects consider a human operator as a physical element of the control loop, which is a topic referred to as "haptics", and most of our haptics projects are aimed at medical applications or use magnetic technologies.

Robotic Systems Lab

Mark A. Minor, PhD

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Lab Website: Robotic Systems

We synergize design, modeling, and control of robotic systems to arrive at novel embodiments that provide new levels of adaptability, mobility, and immersion that would not otherwise be possible.

Our lab branches into several types of robotic systems. These include climbing robots, terrain adaptable mobile robots, virtual interfaces, autonomous vehicles, and some flying robots (ornithopters, helicopters, etc). We have extensive expertise with design and control of under-actuated nonholonomic systems, kinematic motion control, dynamic motion control, state estimation, sensor development, and data fusion.