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X-WR-CALNAME:Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University
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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260608T123000
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UID:151481-1780921800-1780927200@www.ri.cmu.edu
SUMMARY:Design and Evaluation of Low-Cost\, Open-Source Haptic Interfaces for Diverse Learning Applications
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Touch is a powerful yet underused channel for learning. Prior research shows that haptic interaction can support both sensorimotor skill acquisition and the understanding of abstract concepts by grounding learning in bodily experience. However\, most haptic devices remain expensive\, technically complex\, and difficult to reproduce\, which keeps them largely confined to specialized laboratories. This limits their use in education and rehabilitation and has slowed progress toward scalable\, low-cost\, open-source solutions\, as well as toward a systematic understanding of how affordable haptic devices should be designed to reliably produce learning benefits. As a result\, the broader learning potential of haptics remains underexplored\, especially across diverse domains and beyond measures of immediate task success.\nThis thesis examines the design and evaluation of haptic systems for learning across three distinct domains. The first system\, HaptiClay\, explores how haptics and gesture can support mathematics learning by helping students construct concrete representations of terms in polynomial functions. The thesis traces the iterative design of the device and reports interventions with students that use haptics to encourage gestural movements while molding polynomial functions and relate those gestures to specific terms in the polynomials. We then analyze learning outcomes to understand the effectiveness of the intervention. The second system\, DexKit\, enables students to experience dexterity concepts in dexterous teleoperation through touch\, including robotic manipulation control\, object interaction\, and stiffness variation. It introduces a dexterous manipulation platform that combines a soft robotic hand with a three-finger haptic interface\, including a novel two-degree-of-freedom mechanism for the index and middle fingers and a soft delta mechanism for the thumb. The third system\, VibroGait\, is a wearable haptic device for gait correction that helps users learn improved walking patterns through vibrotactile feedback. The thesis presents the design of a flexible skin-interfacing device\, the gait prediction algorithms and their implementation\, and studies comparing multiple haptic feedback patterns for gait correction. \nAcross these case studies\, the thesis investigates how effective\, low-cost learning tools can be designed\, which design principles generalize across domains\, how haptics influence learning beyond task success\, and how haptic systems for learning can be evaluated rigorously. By bringing together mathematics learning\, robotic teleoperation\, and gait correction\, this work expands the evidence base for accessible haptic learning technologies and contributes practical design knowledge for future low-cost\, open-source haptic systems. \n\nCommittee\nMelisa Orta Martinez (chair)\nJames McCann\nEni Halilaj\nKylie Peppler (University of California\, Irvine)\n\n\nThesis Proposal Draft
URL:https://www.ri.cmu.edu/event/design-and-evaluation-of-low-cost-open-source-haptic-interfaces-for-diverse-learning-applications/
LOCATION:3305 Newell-Simon Hall
CATEGORIES:PhD Thesis Proposal,Student Talks
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260616T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260616T113000
DTSTAMP:20260707T190407
CREATED:20260609T175151Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260609T175151Z
UID:151545-1781604000-1781609400@www.ri.cmu.edu
SUMMARY:Aligning Observations Across Viewpoint\, Time\, and Embodiment for Agricultural Perception and Manipulation
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\n\nAgricultural specialists are actively turning to robotic and computer vision-based systems to reduce the manual labor required to inspect and manipulate crops. These tasks require robots to perceive and interact with plants from partial\, localized observations\, often in dense and cluttered environments. For perception\, a central challenge is that crops are small\, are easily occluded\, and may change in appearance and position over time. For manipulation\, the ability to learn visuomotor policies is limited by the lack of available datasets and the difficulty of collecting robot demonstrations in the field. This thesis addresses these challenges by aligning and associating partial observations across viewpoint and time for agricultural perception\, and across viewpoint and embodiment for learning wrist-camera manipulation policies from human demonstrations. \nIn the first part of this thesis\, we develop perception-based methods for visually inspecting small crops in agriculture from limited observations. We present a 3D reconstruction pipeline for non-destructive seed counting of sorghum panicles\, a next-best-view planning approach for autonomously imaging and sizing apple fruitlets\, and a transformer-based method for spatio-temporally associating apple fruitlets across days and viewpoints. \nThe second part of this thesis shifts towards robot manipulation and learning from human demonstrations. We present a method that transforms monocular egocentric human demonstrations into wrist-camera observations and robot actions for training visuomotor policies\, without requiring depth sensors\, multi-view camera setups\, or custom data collection hardware. Building on this work\, we propose to align egocentric and wrist-camera observations and actions in latent space\, reducing reliance on explicit object tracking and image-space rendering. We further propose to incorporate visuo-tactile sensing for grape cluster inspection and harvesting. Together\, these efforts investigate how aligning observations can support agricultural robots that reason from limited visual information and learn manipulation policies when robot data is difficult to collect. \n\nThesis Committee Members:\nGeorge Kantor (Chair)\nDavid Held\nJeffrey Ichnowski\nSoumik Sarkar (Iowa State University)\n \nThesis Proposal Draft
URL:https://www.ri.cmu.edu/event/aligning-observations-across-viewpoint-time-and-embodiment-for-agricultural-perception-and-manipulation/
LOCATION:1305 Newell Simon Hall
CATEGORIES:PhD Thesis Proposal,Student Talks
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