Intelligent Assistive Robotics

Alain Herzog

The Center of Intelligent Systems at EPFL (CIS) launched a research pillar on “Intelligent distributed robotic systems”. The second CIS Collaboration Grant supports a collaborative research project in assistive distributed robotics to create smart assistive environments for persons with limited mobility.

« Our grand vision is to develop new distributed robotic systems at the intersection between smart homes, neuroprosthetics, and rehabilitation robotics. Rather than a multi-purpose robot helper, this robotic system will be modular and distributed, serving as an active interface, infrastructure, and actor to assist persons with limited mobility in their daily living. » say Prof. Ijspeert and Prof. Paik, the two professors federating the involvement of 14 laboratories from different schools based on several campuses of EPFL. This CIS research pillar on “Intelligent Systems for distributed robotic systems” pulls together amongst others researchers from robotics, artificial intelligence, computer vision and neuroprosthetics.

Project lead

Dr. Anastasia Bolotnikova is now working at EPFL on the CIS collaboration grant on Assistive Distributed Robotics. 

Anastasia received her M.Sc diploma in Computer Science from University of Tartu, Estonia, in 2017. She has graduated the Ph.D. program in Robotics from the University of Montpellier, France, in March of 2021. During her Ph.D studies she was working as a robotics researcher at SoftBank Robotics Europe (Paris). The focus of her doctoral research was on the use of humanoid robot technology for assistance to frail or elderly. 

Her research interests are on robot control, motion planning, human-robot interaction and the application of robotics technologies in the context of assistance for people with special needs.

 

Associated Labs

 

The Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob in short) is part of the Institute of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering at the EPFL (also co-affiliated with the Institute of Mechanical Engineering). We work on the computational aspects of locomotion control, sensorimotor coordination, and learning in animals and in robots. We are interested in using robots and numerical simulation to study the neural mechanisms underlying movement control and learning in animals, and in return to take inspiration from animals to design new control methods for robotics as well as novel robots capable of agile locomotion in complex environments. We are also interested in rehabilitation robotics, e.g. exoskeletons, and in restoring locomotion.

At the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab we focus on design, actuation, fabrication, and control of unique robotic systems. The research in our lab is committed to inventing interactive robotic systems with novel fabrication techniques and integration processes that push the limits of mechanical properties. These efforts enable us to create soft, reconfigurable, and interactive robots that are highly conscious of the environment and have extensive applications in wearable technology, medical/rehabilitation robots, personal robots.