Doctoral candidate Kate Tsui will be demonstrating the Manus ARM robot at the FirstAnnual Robotics Innovations Competition and Conference (RICC) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on November 7-8, 2009. This year's challenge focuses on improving the quality of life using robots.

Lab graduate Erin Rapacki (MS 2009) has had a paper on the development
of a wheelchair-mounted door opening robot arm accepted to the 2009
IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Practical Robot
Applications (TePRA).  The conference will be held in Woburn, MA on November
9-10, 2009.

Abstract:

This paper describes the development of an underactuated gripper designed to unlatch door knobs and handles. The challenge was to create a mechanism that could manipulate a variety of door knobs and handles while using only one motor in order to create a low cost device. The final design evolved by exploring the limitations in the performance of an initial prototype. In this paper, the cause of failure for the first prototype is discussed along with rationale for the changes made in the second design. The first design was capable of twisting door knobs and handles in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions. It had a collet-cone shape for compliance gripping and centering, and it utilized one motor for both gripping and twisting actions. The discussed gripper was developed for the assistive technology domain; however, this gripper mechanism could be utilized in a wide variety of robotic domains that exist today.