Talk 1 : Design methodologies for a remotely teleoperated bimanual underwater robot
Speaker : Xiyang Yeh
Abstract :
The world’s oceans span a significant proportion of Earth’s surface and house a whole plethora of amazing flora and fauna. Exploring and monitoring these oceans, however, has remained expensive and challenging because human divers can only explore these environments during short periods of time and within limited depths. To facilitate such efforts, we propose to design a haptic based remotely teleoperated bimanual robot. Design methodologies for robotic manipulators have been well documented in literature.  However, generalized methodologies for robotic systems with complex properties such as floating bases and branching architectures remain a challenge. The talk will focus on our design analyses of such systems.


Talk 2 : Tactor-induced skin stretch as a sensory substitution method in teleoperation
Speaker : Sam Schorr 
Abstract : 
When we use a tool to explore or manipulate an object, friction between the surface of the tool and the finger pads generates skin stretch cues that are related to the interaction forces. Previous work showed that stiffness discrimination with skin stretch cues is nearly as accurate as when using full kinesthetic cues. In this study, participants perform a teleoperated palpation experiment to determine the orientation of a stiff region in a surrounding artificial tissue, under five feedback conditions: force, reduced-gain force, vibration, graphical, and skin stretch feedback. When participants received tactor-induced skin stretch feedback, they performed as well as with force feedback, with no increase in task completion time.

Talk 3 : Hand design for an underwater humanoid robot 
Speaker : Hannah Stuart
Abstract :
An underactuated and compliant tendon-driven hand design is presented for underwater mobile manipulation. It is designed to mimic many of the same tasks as a human diver, so that marine researchers can dexterously access coral that has been previously unexplored. Performing the application-specific tasks while underwater can be quite challenging. Light suction flow at the fingertips helps mitigate repulsive water-object-hand interactions when grasping underwater, especially with light and small objects. We have developed a simulation model for the hand grasping with suction underwater to guide us in our future design work. For more information about the project visit: http://www.redsearobotics.net/

Talk 4 : Developing musculoskeletal models 
Speaker : Apoorva Rajagopal
Abstract :
I will be talking about the different components that go into developing a musculoskeletal model for studying human movement and provide ways to validate our model in the context of its intended use.

Talk 5 : The metabolics of human biomechanical simulations
Speaker : Chris Dembia
Abstract : 
I will be talking about the new tool that we've been creating for calculating metabolics of our simulations of human movement. I will review the different components that go into calculating metabolics and its usefulness in understanding walking with heavy loads and developing assistive devices.