Event

Wheels + Legs

LocationMIT Media Lab, E14 Lobby DescriptionFrom lightweight, shared, electric vehicles that fold, to artificial limbs that not only emulat…

Friday — Friday
December 21, 2012 —
April 11, 2014
Project

Wheels of Poseidon

Throughout the ages bioluminescence has inspired myths. Long ago, sailors in the Indian Ocean encountered massive bioluminescent blooms as …

Publication

Just Build It! A Fully Functional Concept Vehicle Using Robotic Wheels

Schmitt, P. "Just Build It! A Fully Functional Concept Vehicle Using Robotic Wheels"

Publication

The fastest runner on artificial legs: Different limbs similar function?

P. G. Weyand, M. W. Bundle, C. P. McGowan, A. Grabowski, M. B. Brown, R. Kram, and H. Herr. The fastest runner on artificial legs: Different limbs, similar function?, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 903–911, Sep. 2009.

Publication

Counterpoint: Artificial legs do not make artificially fast running speeds possible

R. Kram, A. M. Grabowski, C. P. McGowan, M. B. Brown, and H. M. Herr. Counterpoint: Artificial legs do not make artificially fast running speeds possible, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 1012–1014, Apr. 2010.

Article

Swimmer with bionic legs plans to keep on swimming

Morgan Stickney is an elite swimmer who's helping pave the way for the next generation of bionic prosthetics and para-athletes.

Article

A bionic man: Hugh Herr strides forward on next-generation robotic legs

You’ll likely hear Hugh Herr before you see him.The charismatic leader of MIT’s biomechatronics research group wears two next-generation pr…

Article

MIT Inching Closer to Making CityCars a Reality on Wheels

Article

Bionic Legs, i-Limbs, and Other Super Human Prostheses You'll Envy

Person

Daniel Oran

Former Research Affiliate

Person

Daniel Novy

Former Research Scientist

Person

Rachel Smith

Former Research Assistant

Publication

Leg stiffness of sprinters using running-specific prostheses

C. P. McGowan, A. M. Grabowski, W. J. McDermott, H. M. Herr, and R. Kram. Leg stiffness of sprinters using running-specific prostheses, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 9, no. 73, pp. 1975-1982, 2012.

Publication

Leg exoskeleton reduces the metabolic cost of human hopping

A. M. Grabowski, H. M. Herr

Publication

Programmable Surfaces

Sun, A. "Programmable Surfaces"

Publication

A quasi-passive model of human leg function in level-ground walking

K. Endo, D. Paluska, and H.M. Herr. A quasi-passive model of human leg function in level-ground walking, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Beijing, China, Oct. 2006.

Article

Episode 46: Pioneer through the pandemic with professor + innovator, Dr. Hugh Herr

Biomechatronics head Hugh Herr discusses his research with the No Barriers USA podcast.

Publication

A trotting horse model

H. M. Herr and T. A. McMahon. A trotting horse model, The International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 566–581, Jun. 2000.

Group

Open Ocean

The MIT Media Lab’s Open Ocean Initiative is no longer active. This site provides background on some of the people and projects that were a…

Article

The Cyborg and the Singularity

Will we all be cyborgs one day? Hugh Herr says he has the answer.

Project

AstroAnt

"Autonomous operations are critical for the success, safety, and crew survival of NASA deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit, includin…

Project

Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy

​Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy, 2022, is a live performance by Kawita Vatanajyankur made in collaboration with Pat Patara…

Project

Space Vase

A space architecture project for the Mechanical Artifact: Ultra Space course in partnership with the Center for Collaborative Arts and Medi…

Publication

Running-specific prostheses limit ground-force during sprinting

A. M. Grabowski, C. P. McGowan, W. J. McDermott, M. T. Beale, R. Kram, and H. M. Herr. Running-specific prostheses limit ground-force during sprinting, Biology Letters, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 201-204, 2010.

Article

How a competitive swimmer is helping perfect a new amputation procedure

Cristina Quinn profiles Morgan Stickney, an elite swimmer who's the first person to undergo a bilateral Ewing amputation.

Article

Robot companions are on their way, but don’t worry, they won’t replace humans

Media Lab researcher Kate Darling looks at the current state of household robots and considers how we may interact with them in the future.

Publication

Rovables: Miniature On-Body Robots as Mobile Wearables

Dementyev, Artem, et al. "Rovables: Miniature On-Body Robots as Mobile Wearables." Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. ACM, 2016.

Publication

Peristaltic (PS) Suit: Active Bioelectronic Sensing-Compression Spacesuit for Microgravity Adaptation and Cardiovascular Deconditioning

Wicaksono, I., Shtarbanov, A., Slater, R., Ranade, E. and Paradiso, J., 2022. Peristaltic (PS) Suit: Active Bioelectronic Sensing-Compression Spacesuit for Microgravity Adaptation and Cardiovascular Deconditioning. In ASCEND 2022 (p. 4208).

Article

Why Are Prosthetics So Expensive? Researchers Are Working to Change That

"No one would ever expect people to build their own heart valves at home"-- Francesca Riccio-Ackerman on inequity in the prosthetic field.

Article

Could plants be the future of interface design?

Core77 reports on the Fluid Interfaces group’s work in cyborg botany.

Post

Elowan in the news

A selection of recent press coverage on Elowan, a plant-robot hybrid designed by Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes.

Article

This plant is a cyborg (and it might be the future of interfaces)

A Parsons and MIT researcher hooked up electrodes to a plant’s leaves to turn it into a robotic sensor.

Project

Cocoon: Speculative Dream Engineering

Cocoon is our vision of a programmable dream machine from the future. This device would be enabled by the synthesis of many devices under d…

Publication

Active-Dynamic Compression and Physiological Sensing Intra-vehicular Activity Spacesuit for Cardiovascular Deconditioning

Wicaksono, I., Shtarbanov, A., Slater, R., Ranade, E., Newman, D., and Paradiso, J., 2023. Design, Development, and Testing of Peristaltic Suit: Active-Dynamic Compression and Physiological Sensing Intra-vehicular Activity Spacesuit for Cardiovascular Deconditioning. In ICES 2023.

Article

Bionics Researchers Develop Technologies to Ease Pain and Transcend Human Limitations

Professor Hugh Herr and graduate student Christopher Shallal are working on next-generation biomimetic limbs.

Project

Namaph

The City Science group uses simulations and visualizations to explain to stakeholders, including citizens, the various "what if" scenarios …

Article

Can you murder a robot?

Rosalind Picard and Kate Darling join other experts to discuss how and why humans empathize with machines.

Post

Augmented | Nova PBS episode featuring Hugh Herr

"Augmented" is a Nova PBS documentary episode that premiers Wednesday, 2/23, featuring Biomechatronics group head Hugh Herr.

Publication

Energetics and mechanics of human running on surfaces of different stiffnesses

A. E. Kerdok, A. A. Biewener, T. A. McMahon, P. G. Weyand, and H. M. Herr. Energetics and mechanics of human running on surfaces of different stiffnesses, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 469-478, 2002.

Publication

Humanoid standing control: learning from human demonstration

A. Hofmann, M. Popovic, and H. Herr. Humanoid standing control: learning from human demonstration, Journal of Automatic Control, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 16–22, 2002.

Publication

MAD: An Experiment For Material Adhesiveness Determination On-Board The Emirates Lunar Mission's Rashid Rover

AlMaeeni, Sara, Sebastian Els, Javier Stober, Amna Busoud, Yarjan Abdul Samad, Carlo Iorio, Danielle Wood, Hamad Almarzooqi. "MAD: An Experiment For Material Adhesiveness Determination On-Board The Emirates Lunar Mission's Rashid Rover," IAC 2021, October 2021.

Project

Yale-MIT Collaboration: UltraSpace

Space architecture projects for the Mechanical Artifact: Ultra Space course in partnership with the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media…

Publication

Topobo: A 3-D Constructive Assembly System with Kinetic Memory

Raffle, H. "Topobo: A 3-D Constructive Assembly System with Kinetic Memory"

Publication

Topobo: A Constructive Assembly System with Kinetic Memory

Hayes Raffle S., Parkes, A. J., and Ishii, H.

Publication

Immersive Terrestrial Scuba Diving Using Virtual Reality

Dhruv Jain, Misha Sra, Jingru Gro, Rodrigo Marques, Raymond Wu, Justin Chiu, Chris Schmandt

Publication

Angular momentum primitives for human turning: Control implications for biped robots

T. Farrell, H. Herr

Publication

The RoboScooter

Lin, M. "The RoboScooter"

Publication

A model of muscle-tendon function in human walking

K. Endo and H. Herr. A model of muscle-tendon function in human walking, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Kobe, Japan, May 2009.

Publication

Chapter 5: Cyborg Technology – Biomimetic Orthotic and Prosthetic Technology

H. Herr, G. P. Whiteley, and D. Childress. Chapter 5: Cyborg Technology – Biomimetic Orthotic and Prosthetic Technology, SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA, 2003.

Publication

A model of scale effects in mammalian quadrupedal running

H. M. Herr, G. T. Huang, and T. A. McMahon. A model of scale effects in mammalian quadrupedal running, Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 205, no. 7, pp. 959-967, 2002.

Post

Here be Dragons 2018: Lightning Talks

MIT students, faculty, and collaborators gave Lightning Talks during Here be Dragons 2018

Publication

The Anatomy of an Urban Modular Electric Vehicle: How the Architecture of the CityCar Enhances Personal Mobility and Supporting Industries

Lark, W. "The Anatomy of an Urban Modular Electric Vehicle: How the Architecture of the CityCar Enhances Personal Mobility and Supporting Industries"

Article

What It Might Take to Reinvent the Wheel

Article

This MIT engineer built his own bionic leg

Everett Lawson and Matt Carney worked with Biomechatronics group head Hugh Herr to fit Everett with a bionic prosthesis.

Publication

Design and Clinical Evaluation of a Digital Transtibial Prosthetic Interface

Article

Intelligent robots could prove to be a boon for autism therapies

Social robots could potentially aid therapists working with autistic children in the future.

Article

Artist Xin Liu lets science-backed absurdity take the wheel

The artist and MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative Arts curator makes work that explores why the seemingly impossible is possible.

Post

Meet the Labbers: Cameron Taylor

"Think—what are people not expecting to happen yet and how can I make that happen?"

Publication

Patient-adaptive prosthetic and orthotic leg systems

H. M. Herr, A. Wilkenfeld, and J. Blaya. Patient-adaptive prosthetic and orthotic leg systems, Proceedings of the 12th Nordic Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, Reykjavik, Iceland, pp. 123-128, Jun. 2002.

Publication

A quasi-passive leg exoskeleton for load-carrying augmentation

C. Walsh, K. Endo, and H. M. Herr. A quasi-passive leg exoskeleton for load-carrying augmentation, International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 487-506, 2007.

Project

Open-Source SPRING

Open-Source Instructions for Building SPRING System

Article

City Car: Reinventing the Wheel

Post

Space Enabled experiments join attempted commercial landing on the moon with iSpace & UAE

Space Enabled will send experiments to the moon on a mission led by the UAE on a rover built by Ispace and launched with SpaceX.

Publication

Graph Dynamics: Learning and Representation

Ribeiro, A. "Graph Dynamics: Learning and Representation"

Article

Leg nerves activated by light offer new path to restoring mobility

New optogenetic technique could help restore limb movement, treat muscle tremor.

Post

What is the MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project?

The MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project proposes that autonomous bicycles could serve as an alternative to current bike sharing models.

Project

The MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project

A lightweight research platform to develop autonomous technology Designed to transform bicycle-sharing systems into an on-demand mobil…