WPI Research is the research magazine of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It contains news and features about graduate research in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering, along with notes about new grants, books, and faculty achievements.
Issue link: http://wpiresearch.epubxp.com/i/229254
notebook > WPI TEAMS PREPARE FOR A ROBOT SHOWDOWN STANDING MORE THAN SIX FEET TALL, sheathed in a rugged metal framework, and sporting a chest-mounted heat sink that glows with a high-tech aura, WPI's Atlas robot is an impressive sight. Created by Boston Dynamics (working under a contact from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA), Atlas is the most sophisticated and capable humanoid robot ever built. DARPA is interested in accelerating the development of robots like Atlas that can work in facilities designed for people and perform the kinds of tasks needed for disaster response. That is the goal of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), which has engaged robotics teams at universities, government labs, and companies. Having navigated four independent tracks, the surviving teams will meet in December 2013 in Florida for a match-up in which humanoid robots will respond to a simulated disaster scenario. WPI will be represented on two of those teams. The frst, led by researchers at Drexel University, will feld a robot known as Hubo. At WPI, one of eight universities preparing Hubo for the rigors of the DRC, Dmitry Berenson, PhD, assistant professor of computer science and robotics engineering, is heading a team that also includes Sonia Chernova, PhD, assistant professor of computer science and robotics engineering, and Robert Lindeman, PhD, associate professor of computer science. They are developing the algorithms that will enable Hubo to fnd and turn a valve. The robots will also have to drive a truck, walk across rubble, and remove debris blocking an entryway, among other tasks. Joining the Drexel team at the December trials will be a team of WPI robotics engineers who earned a place in the Florida showdown by entering a DRC track known as the Virtual Robotics Velin Dimitrov, a PhD candidate in robotics engineering and a member of WPI's homegrown DARPA Robotics Challenge Team, with WARNER (WPI's Atlas Robot for Nonconventional Emergency Response). Competition (VRC). Working against the clock, they programmed a virtual version of the Atlas to tackle a challenging series of tasks. Of 26 teams that qualifed for the VRC, WPI's placed second; its reward: a real Atlas to use in the December contest. The best performing teams in December will advance to the DARPA Robotic Challenge fnals in 2014. The ultimate winner will walk away with $2 million — and an Atlas robot to call their own. > TARGETING BRAIN CANCER WITH A REMARKABLE ROBOT < A robotic manipulator developed by a WPI research team, seen at left near the bore of this MRI scanner, can precisely insert an ultrasound probe into the brain guided by live MRI images. The probe kills tumor cells, but leaves normal brain tissue intact. 4 > wpi.edu/+research TYPICALLY, PATIENTS WITH BRAIN TUMORS receive one of two courses of treatment, both of which have important limitations. Stereotactic radiation surgery, in which a radiation beam is focused on the tumor, is noninvasive and can increase survival, but it may take multiple treatments to relieve symptoms and it is diffcult to confrm that the tumor has been destroyed. Open-brain surgery provides quick relief of symptoms and tissue samples for lab testing, but it is highly invasive and can lead to serious complications. Gregory Fischer, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering and director of WPI's Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) Laboratory, thinks there's a better way. With a fve-year, $3 million R01 award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fischer is leading a multi-institution research team developing an innovative treatment system that marries a probe