Welcome to the Harvard BioRobotics Laboratory under the direction of Professor Robert Howe .

Our research focuses on the role of sensing and mechanical design in motor control, in both robots and humans. This work draws upon diverse disciplines, including biomechanics, systems analysis, and neurophysiology. The main approach is experimental, although analysis and simulation play important parts. In conjunction with industrial partners, we are developing applications of this research in biomedical instrumentation, teleoperated robots, and intelligent sensors.


Lab News:
  • Alex Dubec won the 2008-09 Best Presentation Award for his senior design project presentation "Restoring Force Feedback in Robotically-Assisted Beating Heart Surgery." The award recognizes excellence in presentation skills and technical content in the capstone design project, which is required of all seniors in Harvard's Bachelor of Science in Engineering Sciences degree program.
  • BioRobotics Lab member Shelten Yuen won the Best Student Poster Award at the CIMIT Innovation Congress 2008 in Boston for his work on a robotic motion compensation system to assist beating heart surgery.
  • Research from the BioRobotics Lab has recently been covered in the news:
  • BioRobotics Lab Members were recognized for outstanding work at the IROS 2007 Conference in October in San Diego. Post Docs Riichiro Tadakuma and Mahdi Tavakoli were both finalists for the Conference Best Paper Award, and undergraduate Dan Kettler (now a Ph.D. student at MIT) was a finalist for the Best Student Paper Award. Congratulations to these BioRobotics Lab members, and to Prof. Rob Wood of the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, who won both the Conference Best Paper Award and the Best Video Award!
  • BioRobotics Lab alumnus Aaron Dollar won the Best Student Paper Award from the 10th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. His paper, which is based on his Ph.D. research, was titled "The SDM Hand as a Prosthetic Terminal Device: A Feasibility Study." Aaron is now an Assistant Professor at Yale University.