Developing a site-specific (non-proscenium) performance with a colleague in dance that allows for data collection of human preferences and perception of distinct styles of motion on human and robot bodies. We aim to understand how social interactions and prior movement experience influence style preferences. Sponsored by UIUC IPRH.
Building on research from media studies, communications, robotics, the learning sciences, and art with the aim of understanding how traditions as old as storytelling can change attitudes, beliefs, and even outcomes for displaced workers. Participants learn through kinesthetic modes about how robots (and their hidden software) work through accessible, immediate metaphors.
Extending our work in augmenting existing robotic platforms with expressive interfaces, we are working with a smart-building team to design mobile building sensors that act in harmony with building occupants. Sponsored by UIUC iSEE.
Developing a novel bi-pedal walking platform with a mechanisms group for a greater display of variation in gait styles. Sponsored by NSF.
Designing an embodied, platform-invariant notion of “movement” and execution strategies for a suite of movement platforms, allowing nontechnical users to easily prescribe the behavior of a robot in scenarios like remote bomb disposal and collaborative robots in manufacturing. Sponsored by DARPA .
Developing supervisory controllers for the timing coordination and motion profile specification of a heterogeneous team of cooperative robots that can effectively and safely aid elderly and alternately-abled populations with everyday activities. Sponsored by NSF.
Studying correspondences in movement and sound with musicians in humans in order to glean strategies for sonifications that will supplement robotic movement to increase the perceived level of movement variation. Sponsored by UVA DSI.
Worked with UVA Dance Program to produce a hands-on, interdisciplinary seminar that developed a live artistic performance supported by an engineered system. Sponsored by The Jefferson Trust.
Modeled heterogeneous teams on factory floors and completed a use case for industry-university advanced manufacturing consortium. Sponsored by CCAM.