Faculty Directory
Brenna Argall

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
Tech Room B288
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-467-0862Email Brenna Argall

Website

Brenna Argall's Homepage

Assistive & Rehabilitation Robotics Laboratory (argallab)

Departments

Computer Science

Mechanical Engineering

Affiliations

Master of Science in Robotics Program

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Education

Ph.D. in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

M.S. in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

B.S. in Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA


Research Interests

It is an irony that often the more severe a person's motor impairment, the more challenging it is for them to operate the very assistive machines which might enhance their quality of life. A primary aim of my lab is to address this confound by incorporating robotics autonomy and intelligence into assistive machines---turning the machine into a kind of robot, and offloading some of the control burden from the user to the machine. Robots already synthetically sense, act in and reason about the world, and these technologies can be leveraged to help bridge the gap left by sensory, motor or cognitive impairments in the users of assistive machines.

My research lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, rehabilitation robotics and machine learning. A distinguishing theme present within many of my lab's projects is that the machine automation is customizable---to a user's physical abilities, personal preferences or even financial means. A fundamental question that arises time and again throughout many of our projects is how exactly to share control between the robot and the human user, and how to adapt these control formulations over time as the human changes. We are working with a range of hardware platforms, from a smart wheelchair to assistive robotic arms.


Selected Publications

  • Gopinath, Deepak E.; Argall, Brenna D., Active Intent Disambiguation for Shared Control Robots, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering 28(6):1497-1506 (2020).
  • Young, Michael; Javaremi, Mahdieh Nejati; Argall, Brenna D., Discrete N-Dimensional Entropy of Behavior, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.:2227-2233 (2019).
  • Broad, Alexander; Abraham, Ian; Murphey, Todd; Argall, Brenna, Data-driven Koopman operators for model-based shared control of human–machine systems, International Journal of Robotics Research 39(9):1178-1195 (2020).
  • Javaremi, Mahdieh Nejati; Young, Michael; Argall, Brenna Dee, Interface Operation and Implications for Shared-Control Assistive Robots, IEEE ... International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics : [proceedings] 2019:232-239 (2019).
  • Jain, Siddarth; Argall, Brenna Dee, Recursive Bayesian Human Intent Recognition in Shared-Control Robotics, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.:3905-3912 (2018).
  • Young, Michael; Miller, Christopher; Bi, Youyi; Chen, Wei; Argall, Brenna Dee, Formalized task characterization for human-robot autonomy allocation, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.:6044-6050 (2019).
  • Argall, Brenna Dee, Autonomy in Rehabilitation Robotics, Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems 1:441-463 (2018).
  • Gopinath, Deepak E.; Argall, Brenna Dee, Mode Switch Assistance To Maximize Human Intent Disambiguation, (2017).
  • Young, Michael; Nejati, Mahdieh; Erdogan, Ahmetcan; Argall, Brenna Dee, An Analysis of Degraded Communication Channels in Human-Robot Teaming and Implications for Dynamic Autonomy Allocation, Springer International Publishing:665-679 (2017).
  • Erdogan, Ahmetcan; Argall, Brenna Dee, The effect of robotic wheelchair control paradigm and interface on user performance, effort and preference, Robotics and Autonomous Systems 94:282-297 (2017).
  • Mohammed, Samer; Park, Hae Won; Park, Chung Hyuk; Amirat, Yacine; Argall, Brenna Dee, Special Issue on Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics, Autonomous Robots 41(3):513-517 (2017).
  • Nejati, Mahdieh; Argall, Brenna Dee, Automated incline detection for assistive powered wheelchairs, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.:1007-1012 (2016).
  • Broad, Alexander; Argall, Brenna Dee, Path planning under interface-based constraints for assistive robotics, Proceedings International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, ICAPS 2016-January:450-458 (2016).
  • Jain, Siddarth; Argall, Brenna Dee, Grasp detection for assistive robotic manipulation, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.:2015-2021 (2016).
  • Argall, Brenna Dee, Modular and adaptive wheelchair automation, Springer Verlag:835-848 (2016).

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