News

September 2023

We attended the SoCal Robotics Symposium at UCI. Anoush, Robert, and Anna presented posters, and Sukjun and Tania both gave talks.

August 2023

Kaityln, Nina, and Alex presented their work at the Undergraduate Summer Research Conference.

July 2023

Tania was awarded the ASEE Outstanding New Mechanical Engineering Educator Award!

June 2023

Connor, Fred, and Cedric presented their work at ICRA 2023 in London! 

Connor presented a poster on our ICRA paper titled "Image Segmentation for Continuum Robots from a Kinematic Prior".

Fred presented our recently published TRo paper titled "A Generalized Framework for Concentric Tube Robot Design Using Gradient-Based Optimization".

Fred also presented a poster on our ICRA paper titled "HaPPArray: Haptic Pneumatic Pouch Array for Feedback in Hand-Held Robots".

Cedric presented our work on small-scale growing robots with working channels at our Soft Growing Robot Workshop, and won third place for his poster!

May 26, 2023

Congratulations to Connor Watson for successfully defending his PhD thesis! He is the first PhD student to graduate from the lab, and he will be joining Intuitive Surgical in just a few weeks. Congratulations Dr. Watson!

April 2023

Alex presented "Enabling Higher Performance Concentric Tube Robots Via Multiple-Constant-Curvature Tubes" at ISMR (International Symposium of Medical Robotics), and Tania gave a workshop presentation.  

April 2023

Ayush won 2nd place at the UCSD Grad Slam! He presented his work on a soft robotic system for colonoscopy. Congrats Ayush!

October 2022

Tania was awarded the JSOE Outstanding Graduate Student Mentoring Award for MAE!

 

October 2022

Connor and Micah presented their work at IROS 2022 in Kyoto Japan! (Tania was chairing another session during their presentations, so we don't have pictures of the presentations themselves.)

September 2022

We attended the SoCal Robotics Symposium at UCLA! All 7 PhD students attended and participated in the many workshops offered. Connor also gave a 'Rising Stars' talk, and Tania gave a 'New Faculty' talk. Robert, Ayush, and Fred presented posters on their ongoing work.

June 2022

Tania was selected as a 2022 Beckman Young Investigator!  The program seeks to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of research in science. Our project will focus on  the investigation of soft, growing robots with reconfigurable joints and variable stiffness with the goal of overcoming the limitations of existing systems to enable safe, efficient access to hard-to-reach locations inside the human body. Read more here.

June 2022

Two of our undergraduate researchers, Rose and Anna, are graduating! Congratulations!!

Three papers accepted for presentation at IEEE/RAS International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2022! Congratulations Micah, Connor, Dan, and Cedric! 

Two papers accepted to IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) 2022! Congratulations Ayush, Cedric, and Mufeng!

"Learning Non-Parametric Models in Real Time via Online Generalized Product of Experts" is accepted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Congratulations Connor!

"Design and Evaluation of a Miniaturized Force Sensor Based on Wave Backscattering" is accepted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Congratulations Dan and Cedric!

"A Generalized Framework for Concentric Tube Robot Design Using Gradient-Based Optimization" is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics. Congratulations Fred and Cedric!

May 31, 2022

Alex and Felipe presented their work during the final presentation session for the GEAR Program. Nice work! 

May 19, 2022

Micah successfully defended his M.S. thesis, titled "Tactile Perception for Growing Robots via Discrete Curvature Measurements". Congratulations Micah! 

May 4, 2022

Dan successfully defended his M.S. thesis, titled "Design and Evaluation of a Miniaturized Wireless Force Sensor Based on Wave Backscattering". Congratulations Dan! 

April 2022

Tania was awarded an NSF CAREER grant to continue our work on hand-held continuum robots! 

February 2022: Postdoc Cedric Girerd has accepted an offer from the CNRS as a Researcher! He will stay at UCSD as a Visiting Scholar until the end of the year. Congratulations Cedric!!

July 2021: Tania was awarded a Hellman Fellowship from the Society of Hellman Fellows

July 2021: "Closed-Loop Position Control for Growing Robots Via Online Jacobian Corrections" is accepted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, lead author Connor Watson. Congrats! 

July 2021: Tse Tsui presented his work titled "Design of a Portable Shape Display for Augmented Reality" (virtually) at World Haptics!

March 2021: "VINE Catheter for Endovascular Surgery" is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, lead author Mingyuan (Richard) Li. 

December 2020: "Towards a Wireless Force Sensor Based on Wave Backscattering for Medical Applications" is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Sensors, lead authors Regan Zhang and Cedric Girerd. Congrats!

December 2020: "Design and Control of a Hand-Held Concentric Tube Robot for Minimally Invasive Surgery" is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics, lead author Cedric Girerd. Congrats Cedric!

November 2020: Presented at Material Research Society Fall Meeting in Symposium titled ‘Materials and Mechanics Challenges in Haptics for Human-Machine Interfaces'

October 2020: Presented at IROS 2020 workshop on localization and control of growing robots in medical applications

September 2020: "Teaching with Hapkit: Enabling Online Haptics Courses with Hands-on Laboratories" is accepted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine.

June 2020: Presented "Integration of Weekly Reflections in an Introductory Design Class to Assess Experiential Learning Outcomes" at the ASEE Annual Conference

June 2020: Connor presented his work at ICRA -- Congrats Connor!

June 2020

Rachel and Agustin presented their work during the final presentation session for the GEAR Program. Nice work! See their work highlighted on the GEAR webpage!

May 29, 2020

Andy successfully defended his M.S. thesis, titled "Design of a Portable Shape Display for Augmented Reality". Congratulations Andy! 

May 22, 2020

Fred successfully defended his M.S. thesis, titled "Development of a Low-Cost System for Laparoscopic Skills Training". Congratulations Fred! 

March 2020

​"Permanent Magnet-Based Localization for Growing Robots in Medical Applications" accepted to Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) with presentation at ICRA- Congratulations Connor!

UCSD article and video about the paper.

November 22, 2019

Connor successfully defended his M.S. thesis, titled "Permanent Magnet-Based Localization for Growing Robots in Medical Applications". Congratulations Connor! 

November 7, 2019

​Successful demo at the San Diego Robotics Forum at UCSD. Congratulations Cedric! 

November 2019

​"Development of a Low-Cost System for Laparoscopic Skills Training" accepted to special issue of JMRR- Congratulations Fred!

July 2019

Joint appointment in the department of surgery

​Tania now has a joint appointment with the Department of Surgery here at UCSD. She is excited to join the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery! 

Read more in the July Newsletter from the Chair of Surgery.

April 18, 2019

UCSD Jacobs School of engineering research expo

​Connor, Fred, and Alston presented posters at the graduate student Research Expo!

March 19, 2019

MAE 207 (Haptic interfaces) Final course projects

​Students from MAE 207 gave demonstrations of their course projects! Short video and article from UCSD School of Engineering.

November 8, 2018

Contextual robotics institute Forum

​Tania gave a talk at the CRI Forum at UCSD, where the theme this year was Healthcare Robotics. We also had several of the other forum speakers visit the lab to see what we're working on. (One of the visitors included Allison Okamura who took the picture here!)

September 13, 2018

Hapkit talk + demo at the CSTA Fall Meeting

​Tania gave a talk and Hapkit demo at the San Diego Computer Science Teachers Association Fall Professional Development Meeting. Event was hosted by the CSTA Board and UCSD CREATE.

August 19, 2018

Lab site up and running!

​The lab website is officially up and running. Now time to start stocking the lab with prototyping tools and equipment!