Research

Assistive Robotics

Computer/Mathematical Simulations

Research is focused on the development of novel human-robot interface (HRI) designs to facilitate ADL (activities of daily living) tasks for wheelchair bound subjects in arbitrary unstructured environments. The work was spurred by a pilot grant (PP1069) from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and is being currently supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0534576. This work is being performed in collaboration with Holly Yanco's group at U. Massachusetts Lowell with clinical trials scheduled to be conducted at Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center.

The core idea is to facilitate human robot interaction so that the reaching motion of the robot end-effector is segregated into two parts: (i) a gross motion where the robot traces a coarse trajectory to get close to the desired pose while avoiding undesirable interactions (such as collisions) with the environment, and (ii) a fine autonomous motion where the robot intricately positions itself to interact with the object of interest. This project brings together expertise from the areas of computer vision, real-time programming, perspective geometry, and nonlinear and adaptive control. For more information, see the website for the Assistive Robotics Lab at UCF.

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For More Information
     Dr. Aman Behal
     NanoScience Technology Center
     University of Central Florida
     Orlando, FL 32826