Neurobionics Lab

The Lab had a great time hosting the Detroit chapter of The Hidden Genius Project on campus in late August. This national organization trains and mentors Black male youth in technology creation, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills. The young men were able to try on different types of exoskeletons, interact with a robotic hand, and learn about the lab’s research tools. Check out a video of the day here!

The Lab also hosted a group of 20 students as a part of WISE GISE, a summer camp focused on providing hand-on STEM experience for rising 7th and 8th graders. The students were able to try out EMG sensors, wear exoskeletons, and interact with the lab’s motion capture system.

We would like to welcome Japman Gill and Nick Pett as the Lab’s newest PhD and Master’s students, respectively!

Dr. Rouse and PhD student Leo Medrano attended BioRob 2022 in Seoul, Korea. Leo presented his work on using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate gait states for exoskeleton control.

Congrats to Master’s students Shengwen Liu and Mo Miro who both graduated with Masters’ in Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan!

Dr. Rouse went on the Builder Nation podcast and spoke about his previous work on a bionic ankle prosthesis and the lab’s current direction. Listen here!

Congratulations to Dr. Ung Hee Lee who successfully defended his PhD this month! Great job Ung Hee; we will miss you!

PhD student’s Yves Nazon and Riley Pieper presented the lab’s work on ankle exoskeletons at Amazon’s re:MARS conference including running a live demo where conferencegoers were able to wear and adjust the assistance settings of the Dephy Ankle ExoBoots. Their presentation was also listed in “6 cool things we saw at re:MARS2022” which can be read here.

Dr. Rouse along with PhD students Nikko Van Crey, Kevin Best, Zach Bons, Emily Bywater, and Riley Pieper, Masters students Varun Shetty and Nundini Rawal, and research assistant Senthur Raj attended Dynamic Walking in Madison, WI. The lab members presented on a variety of topics including preference in loop optimization, spring design, and jump augmentation using ankle exoskeletons. Presentations can be found here. Great job everyone!

Yves Nazon II, one of the Lab’s PhD students, contributed to an article in ASME concerning his involvement in lowering barriers to entry for BIPOC STEM students. Read more about Yves work as the student co-lead on the Black in Robotics (BiR) national board and how BiR is working to advocate for increased diversity among STEM students here.

The Neurobionics Lab’s intellectual property was licensed by (Google) X.

Humotech will begin selling the Open Source Leg allowing researchers to purchase a pre-assembled version with additional technical support! This partnership with Humotech aims to reduce the barrier to entry for researchers who would like to utilize the OSL without having to build their own. Read more about here.

Dr. Rouse presented on the Neurobionics Lab’s research at MIT as a part of their Mechanical Engineering Department’s Colloquium.

We would like to welcome the newest members of the Neurobionics Lab!

PhD Students: Zach Bons (Mechanical Engineering), Emily Bywater (Mechanical Engineering), Chris Nesler (Robotics), and Riley Pieper (Robotics)

Master’s Students: Nundini Rawal (Mechanical Engineering)

Over the summer, multiple new papers were published–check out our publications here.

Congratulations to Dr. Kim Ingraham who successfully defended her dissertation this month! She graduated with her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Great job Kim!

Dr. Rouse’s paper “Summary of Human Ankle Mechanical Impedance During Walking” received the 2nd Prize in the 2021 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Prize Paper Award.

Dr. Rouse presented at a symposium for Mexico’s National Institute of Rehabilitation.

Dr. Rouse was invited to speak at the International Electric Machines and Motor Drivers Conference. He presented and participated in a panel entitled “Motor Drives for Robotics and Industrial Automation”.

Dr. Rouse presented a talk on medical robotics at WearRAcon 2021. This conference, organized by the Wearable Robotics Association, brings together leaders of industry, academia, government and medicine to discuss the latest in wearable robotics technology.

Dr. Rouse was recently a guest on the Conversations on Bionics and Pain Podcast to discuss the Open-Source Leg. Have a listen here!

Multiple Neurobionics Lab members presented research at the University of Michigan’s 2021 Engineering Research Symposium. Varun Shetty won the Engineering Innovation Award and Kim Ingraham received an honorable mention for the Richard and Eleanor Towner Prize for outstanding Ph.D. Research. The full list of winners can be found here. Great job everyone!