Long Wang of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of technology

Robotic manipulation has advanced numerous application domains such as home, manufacturing, warehouses, surgery, and space. Yet it is still challenging to perform complex and delicate manipulation tasks interacting with a partially known environment. In this talk, I will present work in three aspects towards more intelligent manipulation: robot modeling, assisted telemanipulation, and remotely assisted free-flying manipulation.

Surgical soft continuum robots allow for deep access to the anatomy while providing inherent safety. However, there is no modeling and calibration framework for these robots in the literature. I will present such modeling framework as a prerequisite that enables autonomous features.

Interaction forces are important in manipulation tasks. Currently, in minimally invasive surgery, surgeons rely on only visual feed, losing the force interactions with the anatomy as they would have in open surgery. I will present a model-mediated telemanipulation framework that allows surgeons to interact with the anatomy through haptic virtual fixture laws.

In the last part, I will present my postdoctoral work at Columbia on a space robotics project aiming at ground-space teleoperated manipulation tasks using assistive free-flyers. In addition, I will discuss the new directions and work-in progress started at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Biography:

Long Wang, who joined Stevens Institute of Technology in August 2019, is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. His research interest lies in modeling, sensing, and control of robots, with a focus on building robots and intelligent machines to assist effort in challenging environments.

The applications that Long is most interested in include robotic surgery and remotely operated manipulation tasks. These applications are embedded with research problems such as novel compliant robot mechanisms, advanced control algorithms for robot interactions with environments, and human-robot collaborative interfaces for surgeons or operators.

Prior to joining Stevens, Long was a postdoctoral researcher in the Robotic Manipulation and Mobility Lab at Columbia University, and before that, he was a research assistant in the Advanced Robotics and Mechanism Applications Lab. Long received Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and he received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University and Columbia University, respectively.

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