Enhancing humanoid robot actuator design in new $1.2M project

August 29, 2024
A Digit bipedal robot holds a package in the lobby of the Robotics Building at the University of Michigan.
An Agility Robotics Digit bipedal robot carries a package into the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building at the University of Michigan. A new $1.2M NSF grant aims to innovate on the design of such legged robots.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enhance the design of humanoid legged robots, enabling their use in demanding situations such as warehouse labor and emergency response. The researchers will develop a new framework for designing energy-efficient robots by focusing on a specialized type of motors: Quasi-Direct-Drive (QDD) actuators with Unidirectional Parallel Spring (UPS) mechanisms.

“Preliminary simulations indicate a potential 20% improvement in locomotion energy efficiency,” said Yanran Ding, assistant professor of robotics and the project’s principal investigator.

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Building an ecosystem for the Open-Source Leg

July 10, 2024

University of Michigan researchers received a $1M grant to develop and expand the ecosystem around the Open-Source Leg, a lower-limb robotic prosthesis developed at U-M. The device offers researchers standardized hardware and software for lower-limb prosthetics research, reducing the barriers to improving powered prosthetics and enabling their adoption.

“This grant is a key step toward engaging the wider research community–developing the infrastructure for an open-source project is challenging both to fund and create, and we’re very thankful for the continued NSF POSE award,” said Elliott Rouse, professor of robotics and mechanical engineering, and principal investigator on the grant.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Pathway to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program, which awarded the grant, focuses on facilitating, creating, and growing open-source ecosystems out of open-source products. This includes building out sustainable governance, a cohesive community of developers, and a broad base of users.

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Better prosthetics: $3M to develop more natural robotic leg control

December 23, 2023
Student demonstrates using a prosthetic leg climbing a set of stairs to a platform.

A smoother experience for robotic prosthetic leg users is the aim of a University of Michigan project that has received renewed support from the National Institutes of Health. The R01 grant of $3 million will also enable the implementation of the researchers’ improved control program on a commercially available robotic prosthetic leg. 

Sit to stand, stand to walk, up and down stairs and inclines—the human body shifts among these activities almost thoughtlessly. But these transitions are hard for robots, and robotic prosthetic legs have the additional challenge of not being hooked into the human user’s central nervous system to stay synchronized with their body. 

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Choosing exoskeleton settings like a Pandora radio station

October 19, 2023
Using a simple and convenient touchscreen interface, the algorithm learns the assistance preferences of the wearer. Video: Levi Hutmacher.

Taking inspiration from music streaming services, a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, Google and Georgia Tech has designed the simplest way for users to program their own exoskeleton assistance settings.

Of course, what’s simple for the users is more complex underneath, as a machine learning algorithm repeatedly offers pairs of assistance profiles that are most likely to be comfortable for the wearer. The user then selects one of these two, and the predictor offers another assistance profile that it believes might be better. This approach enables users to set the exoskeleton assistance based on their preferences using a very simple interface, conducive to implementing on a smartwatch or phone.

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How we can better link mind and machine

July 28, 2022
A user's legs walking with a powered ankle exoskeleton on a treadmill
A user demonstrates walking with a lower-body exoskeleton. In a new study, powered exoskeleton users had trouble incorporating instructional haptic feedback cues, informing how future human-machine interaction must be designed. Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing

A team led by University of Michigan researchers recently tested how exoskeleton users responded to the task of matching haptic feedback to the timing of each footstep. The team found that the haptic cues added mental workload, causing less effective use of the exoskeleton, and demonstrated the hurdles in future human-machine design.

“When we introduce haptic feedback while walking with an exoskeleton, we usually intend for the user to understand and maintain coordination with the exoskeleton,” said Man I (Maggie) Wu, a robotics PhD student.

“We discovered that the exoskeleton actually introduces a competing mental load. We really need to understand how this affects the user while they attempt to complete tasks.”

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