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Robert MacLachlan
Project Supervisor

Associated center: VASC

Email address: ram@ri.cmu.edu
Office: NSH 3216
Phone: (412) 445-8113 or (412) 268-5905

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

For more information, see my personal homepage.

Jump to: Research interests | Keywords | Labs & groups | Projects | Publications

Biomedical instrumentation, human manipulation accuracy and technology to improve accuracy by removing unintentional motion, micron-scale measurement, proximity sensing using non-vision sensors, state estimation, particle filters, interfacing sensors and actuators, analog and power electronic design.

acoustics, control, mechatronics, medical applications, optics, sensor fusion, sensors, and sonar

• Medical Instrumentation Lab - We are developing intelligent tools for microsurgery and minimally invasive surgery.
• NavLab - Autonomous Vehicles and Driver Assistance

• ASAP - non-contact 3-D surgical instrument tracking for device testing and surgeon assessment
• Micron: Intelligent Microsurgical Instruments - Suppression of hand tremor to improve precision in microsurgery.
• Needle Steering for Brain Surgery - We are developing high accuracy proportional steering of flexible needles for minimally invasive navigation in the brain.

• Positioning Accuracy of Neurosurgeons
  R. Sandoval Garcia, R. MacLachlan, M. Oh, and C. Riviere
  Proceedings of the 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, August, 2007, pp. 206-209. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [287 KB] copyrighted

• Test of Tracing Performance with an Active Handheld Micromanipulator
  D. Choi, R. Sandoval Garcia, R. MacLachlan, L. Ho, L. Lobes, and C. Riviere
  Proceedings of the 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, August, 2007, pp. 3638-3641. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [292 KB] copyrighted

• Optical Tracking for Performance Testing of Microsurgical Instruments
  R. MacLachlan and C. Riviere
  tech. report CMU-RI-TR-07-01, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, January, 2007. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [294 KB] copyrighted

• Tracking of Moving Objects from a Moving Vehicle Using a Scanning Laser Rangefinder
  R. MacLachlan and C. Mertz
  Intelligent Transportation Systems 2006, IEEE, Vol. 2006, September, 2006, pp. 301-306. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [431 KB] copyrighted

• Collision Warning and Sensor Data Processing in Urban Areas
  C. Mertz, D. Duggins, J. Gowdy, J. Kozar, R. MacLachlan, A. Steinfeld, A. Suppe, C. Thorpe, and C. Wang
  Proceedings of the 5th international conference on ITS telecommunications, June, 2005, pp. 73-78. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [259 KB], ps.gz [308 KB] copyrighted

• Tracking Moving Objects From a Moving Vehicle Using a Laser Scanner
  R. MacLachlan
  tech. report CMU-RI-TR-05-07, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, June, 2005. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [477 KB] copyrighted

• Development of the Side Component of the Transit Integrated Collision Warning System
  A. Steinfeld, D. Duggins, J. Gowdy, J. Kozar, R. MacLachlan, C. Mertz, A. Suppe, C. Thorpe, and C. Wang
  IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2004, pp. 343-348. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [187 KB] copyrighted

• Safe Robot Driving in Cluttered Environments
  C. Thorpe, J.D. Carlson, D. Duggins, J. Gowdy, R. MacLachlan, C. Mertz, A. Suppe, and C. Wang
  Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium of Robotics Research, October, 2003. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [349 KB] copyrighted

• Safe Robot Driving
  C. Thorpe, R. Aufrere, J.D. Carlson, D. Duggins, T.W. Fong, J. Gowdy, J. Kozar, R. MacLachlan, C. McCabe, C. Mertz, A. Suppe, C. Wang, and T. Yata
  Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Automation (ICMA 2002), September, 2002. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [4130 KB] copyrighted

• Driving in Traffic: Short-Range Sensing for Urban Collision Avoidance
  C. Thorpe, D. Duggins, J. Gowdy, R. MacLachlan, C. Mertz, M. Siegel, A. Suppe, C. Wang, and T. Yata
  Proceedings of SPIE: Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology IV, Vol. 4715, April, 2002. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [57 KB], ps.gz [61 KB] copyrighted