Robotics Research at BGU Prof. Yael Edan, Coordinator
After a decade of basic and applied research on different aspects of robotics technologies, such as perception, motor control, mechanical design, intelligent systems and human-robot interactions, BGU has become a leader in the field, with advanced research being conducted in several laboratories across campus, as detailed below
Computational Computer Vision No robot can be made 'intelligent' without the ability to sense the environment. Much of the sensing research at BGU is focused on computational and computer vision. This research has two goals—the development of algorithms that automatically analyze real-world visual information (images and videos) for practical tasks and the computational modeling of biological and human visual capacities with the aim to understand how visual perception occurs in the brain.
Computational Motor Control Research at BGU on computational motor control seeks to understand how the brain controls movement and hence covers physiological, behavioral, and theoretical modeling associated with motor control, motor learning and motor adaptation, and physiological studies of the cerebellum and cerebellar processing. Stateof-the-art robotic devices are used to generate an augmented reality environment with haptic feedback such that people can interact with virtual objects and "feel" them with both hands. The applications of these studies include robotics telesurgery, rehabilitation of the physically disabled, and the development of human-like robots and novel human-machine interfaces. Today, BGU researchers are internationally recognized for their work on time representation, the perception of delayed stiffness, the Turinglike handshake test for motor intelligence, and intelligent grasping methodologies.
Biomechanics Extensive research at BGU has focused on the interaction between human movement and
robotics. Theory and experimental work are integrated in the development of two types of robot: legged robots (including various approaches for locomotion, development of motion algorithms, and combining sensor information and control) and wearable robots (exploiting human movement for energy harvesting and using an exoskeleton to study how muscle and tendon work is related to metabolic cost).
Biomimetic Robots The production of biomimetic robots is based on adapting designs from nature to solve modern problems. Among the robots that have been designed and built in BGU’s Mechanical Engineering Robotics Laboratory are those that climb like spiders, crawl like snakes, or walk on four legs like horses. The laboratory also produces robots that mimic human actions, such as opening and closing a valve. All stages of production of unique robot prototypes are covered—from the mechanical design, through the electronics and software (including motion planning algorithms), to the control systems.
Integrated Manufacturing Technology The newest of the robotics laboratories at BGU comprises a digital factory facility that embodies the central tenets of industrial engineering and management—production planning, intelligent automation, information systems, and human factors. The facility, which supports both research and teaching, is designed for the production of 3D puzzles in fully automated, semi-automated, and manual stations. The process is supported by a heterogeneous IT infrastructure, which includes manufacturing databases, shop-floor control, data warehousing, business intelligence, and enterprise systems.
Human-Robot Interaction R&D across the campus on advanced humanrobot interaction includes construction of physical and virtual environments, measurement of operator performance, advanced interaction
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