Human Robotics

This class will discuss human motor control from a robotics perspective, specifically focusing on:
- Problems in Motor Control
- Features of Performance, Task Goals and Movement Characteristics
- Stability and Muscle Contraction
- Stiffness and Impedance
- Motor Costs and Energetics
- Coordinate transforms
- Forward Models and Sensory Predictions
- Optimality and Cost Functions
- Optimal Feedback Control
- Feedback Modulation
- Motor Learning
- Applications in Robotics
- Applications in Rehabilitation
- Applications in Sports and Exercise.

After successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
- Understand basic robotic principles that can be applied to human motor control
- Read and evaluate scientific articles
- Explain computational aspects of motor control
- Understand and use robotic systems in the laboratory that can be used to examine motor control
- Learn the human physiology associated with the principles of motor control
- Explain how robotic principles can be applied to sports and exercise and for rehabilitation
- Understand and discuss the social issues involved with the use of robotics
- Design and conduct a research project in human robotics.

None

There will be 2 hours of seminar in which the students will both listen to lectures as well as be involved in discussions and targeted questions about the material, followed by 2 hours of lab in which the students will be involved in discussion, presentations, and simple modeling of the human system. During the lab time, we will also examine robotic systems to study human motor control. Students will be required to develop a research project in the field of human robotics during the seminar which can either focus on robotics, motor control, human-robot interaction, or applications of these topics to sport, exercise, health or rehabilitation.

Slides (pdfs of PowerPoint lectures)

- Human Robotics: neuromechanics and motor control” Etienne Burdet, David Franklin, and
Theodore Milner, MIT Press, 2013
- Additional literature will be announced during the course.

To show the ability to use robotic systems in the laboratory and their application in sports, exercise and rehabilitation, students will need to make a 20 minutes presentation on their research project, which consists of an oral presentation with slides followed by a discussion to test if they understand the social issues involved with the use of robotics and answer questions about both the project and the related physiology as well as how robotic principles can be applied in sport and exercise. Total time: 20 minutes. The weighting of the grades will be 50% for the project presentation and 50% for the discussion.