*PURDUE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING* *“SPECIAL SEMINAR”* * * *Friday, November 9, 2012* *ME 3006 – 10:30 a.m.* *A Wearable Co-Robot for the Future Factory* *H. Harry Asada* *Department of Mechanical Engineering* *Massachusetts Institute of Technology* *Abstract* Imagine that one day factory workers have extra arms attached to their body. The extra arms will help them hold objects, share a workload, and streamline the execution of a task. If the movements of such supernumerary limbs are tightly coupled and coordinated with their own arms, they may come to perceive the extra arms as an extension of their body, incorporated into their body image. As a result the factory worker’s productivity will increase, human errors can be eliminated, and the risk for injury may be reduced. In this talk a new type of co-robot that becomes a functional extension of the human body will be introduced. A pair of Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL) secured around the hips can perform a task together with the human, having a specially intimate and unique relationship with the wearer. Unlike physically separated co-robots, linguistic communications are unnatural for SRL - we do not talk to our hands. Instead, we communicate with them through various sensory channels and physical interactions. In this talk multi-disciplinary approaches to bringing SRL and the human together will be described. These include a) biomechanics and machine design for building a lightweight, compact robot system, which is comfortable to wear and is perceived to be part of the body; b) Kalman filter for estimating human posture and work load as well as SRL posture perturbed by spontaneous movements of the human; c) neural movement control and haptic technology for communicating and controlling SRL in a natural manner; and d) skill transfer and training of SRL using system identification and learning control. The technology will be described in the context of future aircraft manufacturing, where factory workers will be equipped with SRL to double or triple the productivity, quality, and safety. *Biography* H. Harry Asada is Ford Professor of Engineering and Director of the Brit and Alex d’Arbeloff Laboratory for Bio-Robotics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in precision engineering in 1973, 1975, and 1979, respectively, all from Kyoto University, Japan. He specializes in robotics, biological engineering, and system dynamics and control. His current research in the biological engineering area includes bio-artificial muscles, angiogenesis, modeling and control of cell migration, and cell tracking image processing. His current robotics research includes wireless micro underwater robots for direct inspection of nuclear reactors, aircraft manufacturing robotics, wearable supernumerary robotic limbs for assisting factory workers and astronauts, and cellular PZT actuators. He won the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in 1993, 1997, 1999, and 2010, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award from the American Control Council in 1985, and Best Journal Paper Awards from the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers in 1979, 1984, and 1990. He received the Rufus Oldenburger Medal from ASME in 2011, and the Henry Paynter Outstanding Researcher Award from ASME Dynamic Systems and Control in 1998. He also received the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching from the School of Engineering, MIT, for his contribution to robotics education. Dr. Asada is a Fellow of ASME. *Diana K. Akers* *Secretary* Mechanical Engineering Purdue University 765-49-42689 Description: Description: Description: Description: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRYcqwSQNb8zwUKHmVfmWdKuYe7WOnzP1eaQ... <http://www.google.com/imgres?q=purdue+university+symbols&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=866&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=ptKEx4gtELC7iM:&imgrefurl=http://btn.com/2012/04/25/nike-tweaks-purdues-logo/&docid=ZBOSA5h9SIIn7M&imgurl=http://bigtennetworks.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/purold.jpeg&w=390&h=364&ei=OhdbUJa3KoyM0QHT7YD4BA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=673&vpy=144&dur=109&hovh=217&hovw=232&tx=133&ty=126&sig=102183350126941359563&page=1&tbnh=150&tbnw=161&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:79>