Autonomous Continuum Manipulation
Jing Xiao, University of North Carolina
Wednesday, May 27
13:50-14:20
WSCC 6C
Abstract: Autonomous manipulation remains one of the most challenging tasks for robots, especially in cluttered environments with uncertainty. In this talk, I’ll introduce our related research work in autonomous manipulation using a continuum manipulator. Continuum manipulators are inspired by the invertebrate structures found in nature, such as an elephant trunk or octopus arm. As a continuum manipulator is deformable and passively compliant, it is more apt to work in a cluttered environment. My talk will be focused on autonomous grasping and inspection in real time in cluttered space, with extension to sensing-based autonomous manipulation in unknown environments.
Biography: Jing Xiao received her Ph.D. degree in Computer, Information, and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. She is a Professor of Computer Science, College of Computing and Informatics (CCI), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. She is also the Site Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Robots and Sensors for the Human Well-being. She served as the Program Director of the Robotics and Human Augmentation Program at the NSF for two and half years (8/1998-12/2000). Jing Xiao’s research spans robotics, haptics, and intelligent systems. She has recently co-authored a monograph Haptic Rendering for Simulation of Fine Manipulation (Springer) and has over 130 publications in major robotics conferences, journals, and books and holds one patent. Jing Xiao is an IEEE Fellow. She has been elected twice as an AdCom Member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and currently serves as the Vice President for Member Activities of RAS.
