Join the Center for Robotics and Biosystems December Seminar

Speaker: Robert Shepherd, Associate Professor at Sibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and the Organics Matter Lab at Cornell University

Date and Time: Friday, December 2 at 12:00 p.m. CT

Location: Mechanical Engineering Conference Room, B211 and Zoom

Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/CRBSeminar

? NU-authenticated attendees will be automatically admitted. Others, please email amy.nedoss@northwestern.edu to be admitted from the waiting room.

Abstract:

Animals are semi-discretized. Systems of organs that perform multiple functions and are spatially discrete from each other, yet interconnected chemically and electrically. The complexity of animals such as vertebrate mammals allow for adaptation within a single generation that has allowed many examples of species that have thrived without genetic modification even during periods of significant environmental change. In the search for generally adaptive robots, useful for far field exploration missions, we believe that a similar model of complex, multifunctional, and interconnected organ systems of animals should be embraced, rather than avoided. Of course, it is not yet that simple to be complex, but we will present approaches we have used to distribute sensing, actuation, energy, and computation in soft robots. The framework we use for guiding our design evolution is Autonomous Materials, where we push the manufacturing of robots towards forming processes, and multifunctional use of material chemistry. The resulting machinery presented will be organic both in chemical makeup and subsystem analogy to organisms.

Bio:

Rob Shepherd is an associate professor at Cornell University in the Sibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He received his B.S. (Material Science & Engineering), Ph.D. (Material Science & Engineering), and M.B.A. from the University of Illinois in Material Science & Engineering. At Cornell, he runs the Organic Robotics Lab (ORL), which focuses on using methods of invention, including bioinspired design approaches, in combination with material science to improve machine function and autonomy. We rely on new and old synthetic approaches for soft material composites that create new design opportunities in the field of robotics. Our research spans three primary areas: bioinspired robotics, advanced manufacturing, and human-robot interactions. He is the recipient of an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and his lab's work has been featured in popular media outlets such as the BBC, Discovery Channel, and PBS's NOVA documentary series. He is an advisor to the American Bionics Project (americanbionics.org) which aims to make wheelchairs obsolete. He is also the co-founder of the Organic Robotics Corporation (ORC; lightlace.io), which aims to digitally record the tactile interactions of humans and machines with their environment.