“Turning Assistive Machines into Assistive Robots” by  Brenna Argall, Northwestern University

Abstract:

For decades, the potential for automation to aid those with motor, or cognitive, impairments has been
recognized. It is a paradox 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. 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. This talk will overview some of the ongoing projects in my lab, whose research lies at the
intersection of artificial intelligence, rehabilitation robotics and machine learning. We are working
with a range of hardware platforms, including a smart wheelchair and assistive robotic arm. A
distinguishing theme present within many of our 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 in our work is how exactly to share control
between the robot and the human user.

Biosketch:

Brenna Argall is the June and Donald Brewer Junior Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
at Northwestern University, and an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine &
Rehabilitation. Her research lies at the intersection of robotics, machine learning and human rehabilitation.
She is director of the assistive & rehabilitation robotics laboratory (argallab) at the Rehabilitation Institute of
Chicago (RIC), the nation’s premier rehabilitation hospital. The mission of the argallab is to advance human
ability by leveraging robotics autonomy. Prior to joining Northwestern and RIC, she was a postdoctoral fellow
(2009-2011) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and prior to graduate school she held a
Computational Biology position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her Ph.D. in Robotics (2009) was
received from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as her M.S. in Robotics (2006) and
B.S. in Mathematics (2002).Combustion for Clean Energy: from Low Emissions to Low CO2

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Nov 20, 2015
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Location:
38-138 Engineering IV
420 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles CA 90095