Inactive Projects

Medical and Biological Applications

Simulation and Control of Steerable Needles in Deformable Tissue

Using imaging feedback we can control a new type of steerable needles with high accuracy in deformable tissue. New interactive simulators and motion planners can also be used for training medical personnel to use these new medical devices.

N. Chentanez, R. Alterovitz, D. Richie, J. Cho, K. Hauser, K. Goldberg, J.R. Shewchuk, and J. O'Brien, Interactive Simulation of Surgical Needle Insertion and Steering. In ACM SIGGRAPH, New Orleans, LA, 2009. link

K. Hauser, R. Alterovitz, N. Chentanez, A. Okamura, and K. Goldberg, Feedback Control for Steering Needles Through 3D Deformable Tissue Using Helical Paths. In Robotics: Science and Systems, Seattle, WA, 2009. pdf

Needle steering controller in "rigid" tissue.

Windows Media, 0.4 mb

Needle steering controller in deformable tissue.

Windows Media, 0.4 mb

FEM simulations of steerable needle insertions (link)

Planning and Control of Soft Tissue Manipulation

Tissue manipulation tasks in robotic laparoscopic surgery can be automated to help relieve surgeon fatigue and enable new medical procedures that involve the simultaneous control of many hands. Tissue manipulation can also be used in conjunction with needle insertion procedures to improve targeting accuracy. Preoperative planning algorithms use finite element models of deformable tissue to select contact points that achieve the desired task robustly while avoiding tissue damage.

R. Jansen, K. Hauser, N. Chentanez, F. van der Stappen, and K. Goldberg, Surgical Retraction of Non-Uniform Deformable Layers of Tissue: 2D Robot Grasping and Path Planning. In proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), St. Louis, Oct. 2009.

M. Torabi, K. Hauser, R. Alterovitz, V. Duindam, and K. Goldberg, Guiding Medical Needles Using Single-Point Tissue Manipulation. In proceedings of IEEE Intl. Conf. of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Kobe, Japan, May 2009. Best Medical Robotics Paper Finalist pdf

Example video

Windows Media, 2.9 mb

Robotic Manipulation and Legged Locomotion

Precise Pushing on the Asimo Humanoid

K. Hauser and V. Ng-Thow-Hing. Multi-Modal Motion Planning for Precision Pushing on a Humanoid Robot. In K. Harada, E. Yoshida, and K. Yokoi (eds), Motion Planning for Humanoid Robots, Springer, 2010. link

V. Ng-Thowhing, E. Drumwright, K. Hauser, Q. Wu, and J. Wormer, Expanding Task Functionality in Established Humanoid Robots. In proceedings of IEEE Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2007.

K. Hauser, V. Ng-Thow-Hing, H. Gonzalez-Banos, Multi-Modal Motion Planning for a Humanoid Manipulation Task. In proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR) 2007. pdf

Legged Locomotion in Rough Terrain

K. Hauser. On the Connectivity of Motion Spaces for Biologically-Inspired Legged Robots. In proceedings of IROS 2009 Workshop on Biologically-Inspired Robots, St. Louis, Oct. 2009. pdf

K. Hauser, Motion Planning for Legged and Humanoid Robots. Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University, September 2008. pdf (8.9mb, single sided)

K. Hauser, T. Bretl, J.-C. Latombe, Motion planning for legged robots on varied terrain. In Intl. J. of Robotics Research 27(11-12):1325-1349, 2008. link

K. Hauser, T. Bretl, J.-C. Latombe, Using Motion Primitives in Probabilistic Sample-Based Planning for Humanoid Robots. In proceedings of the Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) 2006 pdf

K. Hauser, T. Bretl, J.-C. Latombe, B. Wilcox, Motion Planning for a Six-Legged Lunar Robot. In proceedings of the Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) 2006 pdf

K. Hauser, T. Bretl, J.-C. Latombe, Non-gaited Humanoid Locomotion Planning. In proceedings of IEEE Intl. Conf. of Humanoid Robots 2005 pdf

K. Hauser, T. Bretl, J.-C. Latombe, Learning-Assisted Multi-Step Planning. In proceedings of IEEE Intl. Conf. of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2005 pdf

Compilation of motion primitive adaptation for HRP-2

Windows Media, 5.7mb

Compilation of motion plans for ATHLETE on rough terrain

Windows Media, 6.7 mb

IJRR 2008 paper example videos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12

Compilation of non-gaited motion plans for HRP-2

Windows Media, 6.0 mb