The Biomechatronics Group
The Biomechatronics Group in the Media Lab is researching and building the next generation of prosthetic limbs. More specifically, "The Biomechatronics group seeks to advance technologies that promise to accelerate the merging of body and machine, including device architectures that resemble the body's own musculoskeletal design, actuator technologies that behave like muscle, and control methodologies that exploit principles of biological movement." The group is changing people's lives and is truly making a difference in the world.
What I Worked On (that I can tell you)
Over the summer I worked on the actuator technologies aspect of the research in the lab. I was tasked with beginning the development process for a new type of actuator that would drastically alter how the user interacted with his or her prosthetic and vice versa through neural interfacing. The design was a challenge due to the physical space constraints of the prosthetic housing as well as power consumption, and generating enough force to be effective. The actuator also needed to be highly precise, moving only mere millimeters at a time. I also wrote preliminary code for my actuator that will allow precise control of the actuator's positioning and force output. The project further honed my design skills, comfort building embedded systems, and problem solving ability, all while contributing to a vital cause.
The Biomechatronics Group in the Media Lab is researching and building the next generation of prosthetic limbs. More specifically, "The Biomechatronics group seeks to advance technologies that promise to accelerate the merging of body and machine, including device architectures that resemble the body's own musculoskeletal design, actuator technologies that behave like muscle, and control methodologies that exploit principles of biological movement." The group is changing people's lives and is truly making a difference in the world.
What I Worked On (that I can tell you)
Over the summer I worked on the actuator technologies aspect of the research in the lab. I was tasked with beginning the development process for a new type of actuator that would drastically alter how the user interacted with his or her prosthetic and vice versa through neural interfacing. The design was a challenge due to the physical space constraints of the prosthetic housing as well as power consumption, and generating enough force to be effective. The actuator also needed to be highly precise, moving only mere millimeters at a time. I also wrote preliminary code for my actuator that will allow precise control of the actuator's positioning and force output. The project further honed my design skills, comfort building embedded systems, and problem solving ability, all while contributing to a vital cause.
