Prof. Kiju Lee (left), Ken Hornfeck (middle), Yan Zhang(right), Endri Kerci(up-left), Donghwa Jeong (up-middle) and Beatrice Floyd (up-right). DIRL Group Picture - Summer 2010.
Distributed Intelligence and Robotics Lab
MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING | CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
Welcome to Distributed Intelligence and Robotics Lab at Case Western Reserve University. Our research focuses on sensor-networked systems, modular robotics, and sociable robots with emphasis on biomedical and healthcare applications. Click here for recent news and announcements.
TaG-Games: Tangible Geometric Games
This project focuses on developing and evaluating a novel procedural and methodological approach, called "TaG-Games", for play-based assessment of an individual’s cognitive, fine motor, working memory, and learning skills via tangible interactive games.
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Philos: the Robot Friend
“Philos” means “friend” in Greek. The overall goal of this research is to develop a personalizable robot that can socially interact with humans and monitor real-time health data for those who require continuous monitoring and special care, such as the elderly or people with disabilities
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Modular Robotic Systems
We are investigating design methodology, distributed algorithms, and sensor integration for modular robotic systems. Previous research has demonstrated the concept of robotic self-replicationg based on heterogeneous modules with simple electronic components.
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Research News
Our TaG-Games project has been recently funded by the National Science Foundation, under the REESE (Research and Evaluation in Engineering and Science Education) program (NSF Award No. 1109270). This project focuses on developing sensor-enabled geometric blocks for assessming cognitive problem-solving, working memory, and fine-motor skills in young children as early indications of their general learning skills. Reprogrammable blocks with embedded sensors and user feedback mechanisms will be developed in combination with a graphical user interface for assessment, education, and entertainment purposes. The developed technology will be tested on university students (age: 18-30) for preliminary evaluation and then young children (age: 4-6). The team involves Kiju Lee (Principal Investigator), Elizabeth Short (Co-Investigator, Psychology) and Frank Merat (Co-Investigator, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). Graduate research assistants are Donghwa Jeong (Ph. D. Candidate, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Beatrice Floyd (MSE Candidate, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), and Rachael Cooper (Ph.D. Candidate, Psychology). [Last updated on 11. 20. 2011]
Announcements
[MS Thesis Presentation] Beatrice Floyd will present her Master's work on 5/3 at 1:30pm in Canavin Room. Her MS thesis is entitled "Computer Automation and Vision-Based Tracking of the Upper Extremities, Gaze, and Objects for Performance Assessment." 5/3/2012 new
[S2012 DIRL Lab Meeting] at 4pm in Glennan 622. 3/29/2012
[Conference: BMES 2011] Donghwa presented his poster entitled "Quantitative analysis of muscle activations and real-time simulations for two pitching motions, overhand pitching and sidearm pitching" at BMES 2011 which held in Hartford, CT, Oct. 12-15, 2011.
[Conference: Psychology 2011] Prof. Lee gave a presentation, entitled "Games for Automated Assessments of Cognitive and Fine-Motor Skills: Design and Preliminary Evaluation," at the 5th annual international conference on psychology held in Athens, Greece, June 2011.
[Thesis Defense: 3-23-2011] Ken Hornfeck completes his MS Thesis. Congratulations Ken!
[Job: 2-21-2011] The DIRL is currently looking for an undergraduate summer research assistant. Interested students please send your detailed CV to Prof. Lee.[now closed]
[Seminar: 10-18-2010] Goldbag Research Seminar, School of Nursing, CWRU @ 12pm. Speaker: Kiju Lee; Location: 1st Floor Lounge, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
[Meeting: 10-1-2010] DIRL Fall Interim Meeting: Glennan 622 @ 4pm. Student Seminar Speaker: Yan Zhang
[Announcement] Prof. Lee's office hours - Fall 2010: T 3:00-4:30, Th 1:00-2:30
[Meeting: 6-16-2010] DIRL Summer Interim Meeting: Glennan 622 @ 12:30pm.
[Meeting] Sociable robot team meeting: 6/1, 6/3, 6/7, 6/10 1pm.
[Announcement] We welcome Bolutife Ogunjobi from Fisk University! Bolutife will join the lab participating in research activities for her 10 week summer undergraduate reserach program (SURP) sponsored by ACES+.
[Announcement] Beatrice Floyd joined DIRL. She will be working on the SIG-Block project with a focus on the development of an interactive geometric game interface. She has been selected as a SOURCE 2010 Summer Research Scholar.
[Meeting: 4-26-2010] DIRL Summer Kick-off Meeting @ 12pm, Glennan 622.
[Conference: CHI 2010] Donghwa & Prof. Lee attended CHI-WISH 2010, which took take place in Atlanta, GA, April 10-11, 2010, in conjunction with CHI 2010
[Conference: TEI 2012] Donghwa and Beatrice will attend the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions (TEI 2012), which will be held in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Feb 19-22, 2012. They will present their posters in the Work-in-Progress session.
[New Members: Spring 2012] Evan Vanderhoff (Undergrad Student, MAE) and Charles Hart (Graduate Student, EECS) have joined DIRL for the spring semester. Evan's work focuses on investigating novel design of robotic systems. Charles will primarily work on hardware development for sensor-embedded cube blocks.
Research Projects
This project focuses on developing and evaluating a novel procedural and methodological approach (called TaG-Games) for play-based assessment of an individual’s cognitive, motor control, and learning skills.
TaG-Games employs a set of sensor-integrated geometric blocks (SIG-Blocks) for data collection and a graphical user interface (GUI) for administering the test and monitoring/analyzing the measured data. TaG-Game enables remote and real-time monitoring of a player’s performance and behavior by wireless communication established between the blocks and the host computer through the user interface.
It will allow multiple, objective, and continuous assessments, thereby providing great potential as a routine screening tool, especially for continuously monitoring of cognitive problem-solving and processing skills, fine motor proficiency, and working memory in various domestic and professional environments. Furthermore, the test difficulty can be easily adjusted by changing the number or geometric shapes/colors of the blocks employed. We are also investigating computational measures of geometric game complexity based on an information-theoretic approach.
For preliminary evaluation, three types of games, Assembly, Shape Matching, and Sequence Memory, have been developed and currently being tested through a small-scale human subject study.
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Geometric Games for Assessing Cognitive, Working Memory, and Motor Control Skills by B. Floyd, D. Jeong, and K. Lee
SmartBall: Toward Interactive Play for Infants by D. Jeong, B. Floyd, and K. Lee
TaG-Games: Tangible Geometric Games for Assessing Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills and Fine Motor Proficiency by D. Jeong, E. Kerci and K. Lee
Sensor-Integrated Geometric Blocks: Towards Interactive Play-Based Assessment of Young Children by D. Jeong, E. Kerci and K. Lee
WORK IN PROGRESS
Hardware Development: The next generation of SIG-Blocks is currently being developed in order to address the technical problems identified in our current prototype, improve esthetic design, and enable reprogrammable geometric patterns and sensory feedback mechanism.
Software Improvements and Game Development: We are developing various types of fun games with enhanced graphics and visual/auditory stimuli.
Team
PI: Kiju Lee
Co-Investigators: Elizabeth Short and Frank Merat
Research Assitants: Donghwa
Jeong, Beatrice Floyd, and Rachael Cooper
Previous Members: Endri Kerci (BSE 2011)
Announcements
We are currently conducting a human subject study for testing our technology and designed game items. For CWRU students (ages 18 - 30) who are interested in participaing in this study, please send us an email. Each participant will be compensated by a $10 gift card. For general inquires about the project, please contact Prof. Lee.
This project focuses on developing a personalizable robot with integrated wireless health monitoring capability. The overall goal of this research project is to develop a reprogrammable robotic platform that can socially interact with humans and monitor real-time health data by enabling wireless communication between the robot and wearable sensor devices worn by individuals who require continuous monitoring and special care, such as the elderly or persons with disabilities. The proposed robotic system is suitable for both single user and multiple users.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Philos currently has a total of seven degrees of freedom in its motion. Each arm has two degrees of rotational freedom and the head also has two degrees of freedom (pan and tilt). These structures are actuated by servo motors, which are controlled by half-duplex serial communication with the microcontroller. In addition, Philos’s upper body is given one degree of translational freedom generated by two electric linear actuators controlled using an H-bridge integrated circuit (IC). Philos is able to express various behavioral responses that are either friendly or unfriendly. It is also detects and tracks human faces in order to indicate its interest in the person currently engaged in social interaction. It can also recognize and distinguish each individual it has interacted with previously.
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Philos: A Sociable Robot for Human Robot Interactions and Wireless health Monitoring" (Abstract) by K. Hornfeck, Y. Zhang and K. Lee
Towards Social-Therapeutic Robots: How to Strategically Implement a Robot for Social Group Therapy? by K. Lee, G. Kaloutsakis and J. Couch
WORK IN PROGRESS
Expressive Robot Face Design: We are redesigning Philos's head to enable various facial expressions. The picture on the left shows the current prototype designed by Eric Dymerski and modified by Raymond Krajci.
Low-Cost, Real-Time Algorithms for Face Detection, Tracking and Recognition: We are also investigating image processing algorithms for embedded systems with limited hardware capabilities, such as Philos.
Developing Behavioral Algorithms: A behavioral framework for sociable robotic systems is being studied so that a robot can be customized to exhibit a variety of behavioral characteristics, as well as achieve realistic and dynamic interaction.
Team
PI: Kiju Lee
Previous Members: Kenneth Hornfeck (MSE 2011), Yan Zhang (MSE 2011), Sptephanie Cockrell (Summer 2011), Raymond Krajci (Summer 2011), and Eric Dymerski (Spring 2011-Senior Design Project)
Announcements
Subtopics of this project are prefectly suitable for Senior Projects (e.g., EMAE 398) for engineering undergraduates who are interested in robotics. Interested students please contact Prof. Lee.
LEARN stands for Light-weight, Expandable, Autonomous Robot for Navigation. A team of undergraduate students, Michael Malguarnera and John Horton, developed this robotic platform as well as a user manual and demo algorithms as their senior design project during the spring 2010 semester. This robot will be continuously used for undergraduate educational projects to provide students hands-on experience. 
Future projects may include: 1) camera-based autonomous navigation, 2) autonomous indoor air monitoring and mapping, and 3) new user interface development.
Team
PI: Kiju Lee
Previous Members: Michael Malguarnera (BSE 2010) and John Horton (BSE 2010)
Announcements
If you are interested in exploring LEARN for your senior design or independant research project, please contact Prof. Lee. Two or three students will be recruited to work on this project each semester in our lab.
We are investigating design methodology, distributed algorithms, and sensor integration for modular robotic systems. More information will be available soon.
Team
TBA
SELF-REPLICATING ROBOTIC SYSTEMS
Previous research has demonstrated the concept of robotic self-replicationg based on heterogeneous modules with simple electronic components. This project was to develop robotic systems that could duplicate in structured environments with various complexity. The current status of this research is based on modular systems where an initial functional robot consisting of several subsystems (modules) replicates by collecting unassembled parts. The amount of information required for the process can be shifted into the environment where the replication process takes place, and in this case, we say the environment is structured.
The picture on the right is an example of a structured environment. The robot trajectory is determined by the tracks and the subsystems are located relative to the known landmarks with some positional and rotational tolerances. Hence, a structured environment holds important information about the subsystems and may replace some functionality of the robot.
VIDEOS: SRR-I, MITOSIS SRR
O(N) FORWARD DYNAMICS ALGORITHMS FOR SERIAL CHAINS
This project was to develop a new method on O(n) mass matrix inversion for polymer chains and serial manipulators based on Fixman's method. In 1974, Prof. M. Fixman presented an efficient algorithm computing the mass metric determinant tensor for polymer chains with point masses at each rotational joint. By partitioning a generalized coordinates into soft (variables defining motions) and hard (constrained variables) variables, the inversed mass matrix of an unconstrained system has a form of a block matrix, where each of four blocks becomes sparse and band-limited.
Using these blocks instead of directly inverting the generalized mass matrix of the constrained system, the inverse of the constrained mass matrix can be computed efficiently. The algorithm was further extended for the manipulators consisting of rigid bodies and polymer chains containing side chains using Lie-theoretic approach.
Members
Publications
D. Jeong and K. Lee, "Interactive Cubes with Networked Sensors for Tangible Geometric Games," in preparation.
Y. Zhang, K. Hornfeck and K. Lee, "Adaptive Face Recognition for Low-Cost, Embedded Human-Robot Interaction," The 12th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, June 26-29, 2012, Jeju Island, Korea (in press)
2012
K. Hornfeck, Y. Zhang and K. Lee, "Philos: A Sociable Robot for Human Robot Interactions and Wireless health Monitoring" accepted for poster presentation, The 27th Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2012), Riva del Garda, Italy, Mar. 26-30, 2012.
D. Jeong, B. Floyd, and K. Lee, " SmartBall: Toward Interactive Play for Infants," TEI'12: Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. Feb 19-22 2012, Kingston, ON, Canada.
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B. Floyd, D. Jeong, and K. Lee, " Geometric Games for Assessing Cognitive, Working Memory, and Motor Control Skills," TEI'12: Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. Feb 19-22 2012, Kingston, ON, Canada.
K. Lee, D. Jeong, B. Floyd, R. Cooper and E. Short, "Games for Automated Assessments of Cognitive and Fine-Motor Skills: Design and Preliminary Evaluation," presented at the 5th Annual International Conference on Psychology, 30-31 May & 1-2 June, 2011 (Abstract only).
D. Jeong and K. Lee, "Quantitative Analysis of Muscle Activations and Real-time Simulations for Two Pitching Motions, Overhand Pitching and Sidearm Pitching," 2011 Annual Meeting of Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES 2011), Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 2011.
D. Jeong, E. Kerci and K. Lee, "TaG-Games: Tangible Geometric Games for Assessing Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills and Fine Motor Proficiency," IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 5-7, 2010, pp. 32-37.
K. Lee and G. S. Chirikjian, "An Autonomous Robot that Duplicates Itself from Low-Complexity Components," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010), Anchorage, Alaska, May 3-8, 2010.
D. Jeong, E. Kerci and K. Lee, "Sensor-Integrated Geometric Blocks: Towards Interactive Play-Based Assessment of Young Children," International Workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (CHI-WISH 2010), Atlanta, GA, April 10-11, 2010.
K. Lee, G. Kaloutsakis and J. Couch, "Towards Social-Therapeutic Robots: How to Strategically Implement a Robot for Social Group Therapy?," IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA 2009), Daejeon, Korea, Dec. 2009.
K. Lee, M. Moses and G. S. Chirikjian, "Robotic Self-Replication in Partially Structured Environments: Physical Demonstrations and Complexity Measures," International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 27, Issue 3-4, pp. 387-401, March 2008.
K. Lee and G. S. Chirikjian, "Robotic Self-Replication from Low-Complexity Parts," IEEE Robotic and Automation Magazine, Vol. 14, Issue 4, pp. 34-43, December 2007.
K. Lee and G. S. Chirikjian, "Measures of Efficiency and Complexity for Self-Replicating Robotic Systems," International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Jeju, Korea, Aug. 21-24, 2007.
S. Eno, L. Mace, J. Liu, B. Benson, K. Raman, K. Lee, M. Moses, G.S. Chirikjian, "Robotic Self-Replication in a Structured Environment without Computer Control," IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation, Jacksonville, FL, Jun. 20-23, 2007.
A. Liu, M. Sterling, D. Kim, A. Pierpont, A. Schlothauer, M. Moses, K. Lee, G. S. Chirikjian, "A Memoryless Robot that Assembles Seven Subsystems to Copy Itself," IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Manufacturing, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jul. 22-25, 2007.
K. Lee, Y. Wang and G. S. Chirikjian, "O(n) Mass Matrix Inversion for Serial Manipulators and Polypeptide Chains using Lie derivatives," Robotica, Vol. 25, Issue 6, pp.739-750, November 2007.
K. Lee, M. Moses and M. Kutzer, "Self-Replicating Robots for Space Exploration," AIAA 2nd Space Exploration Conference, Houston, TX, 4-6, Dec. 2006 (poster exhibition).
K. Lee and G. S. Chirikjian, "An Autonomous Self-Replicating Robot in a Partially Structured Environment," AIAA Region I YPSE-06, JHU, APL, Laurel, MD, 10-11, Nov. 2006 (abstract).
K. Lee, M. Moses, G. S. Chirikjian, "Robotic Self-Replication in Structured and Adaptable Environments," Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems Workshop on Self-reconfigurable Modular Robots (Extended Abstract), Philadelphia, Aug. 2006.
K. Lee and G. S. Chirikjian, "A New Perspective on O(N) Mass-Matrix Inversion for Serial Revolute Manipulators," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 2005.
K. Lee and G. S. Chirikjian, "O(n) Inversion of Mass-Matrix for Hyper-Redundant Manipulators and Polymer Chains," MUSME 2005, Uberlandia, Brazil, Mar. 2005.
W. Park, D. Albright, C. Addleston, W.K. Won, K. Lee, G.S. Chirikjian, "Robotic Self-Repair in a Semi-Structured Environment," Robosphere 2004, NASA Ames, CA, Nov. 2004.
Y. Zhang, "Low-Cost, Real-Time Face Detection, Tracking and Recognition for Human-Robot Interactions," MS Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, April 2011.
K. Hornfeck, "A Customizable Socially Interactive Robot with Wireless Health Monitoring Capability," MS Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, March 2011.
K. Lee, "Robots that Duplicate Themselves: Theoretical Principles and Physical Demonstration," Ph.D. Dissertation, Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, July 2008.
Contact
Mailing Address
2123 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
Glennan Building, Room 622
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Phone: +1 216 368 2943
Fax: +1 216 368 3007