Hannah Stuart
Hannah will start as an Assistant Professor at the University of California Berkeley in January 2018.
Research
I focus primarily on improving the dexterity of highly under-actuated fingers and hands, with a special interest in marine applications. More information at: Underwater Manipulation
Marine manipulation: Ocean One hands and suction flow
My primary motivation has been the submersible humanoid Ocean One, a robot intended to bring intuitive telepresence to delicate marine environments. The adaptive, multifinger, tendon-driven Ocean One Hands are controlled from a haptic console. They can perform both precision pinches and strong wrap grasps with a single actuator. My thesis includes (1) task-specific finger and transmission design for controllable grasp force distribution, (2) evaluation of performance intended to guide teleoperator control of the hands, and (3) field testing during Ocean One’s maiden mission to the La Lune shipwreck. I am also exploring the addition of gentle suction flow to the fingertips as a way to enhance and sense contact, especially with light and slippery objects underwater. I have implemented dynamic simulations to efficiently analyze grasp performance and understand complex parametric design trends. These are validated with experimental methods and multi-material mechanism prototyping using a mix of 3D printing and conventional fabrication techniques.
hstuart [sticky] stanford [bot] edu
During the La Lune mission. Stanford Press Release
Publications
Patents
Stuart, H. and Cutkosky, M. A compliant underactuated hand with an adjustable dual-stiffness spring transmission. (Patent pending)
Journal Articles
Stuart, H., Wang, S., Khatib, O., Cutkosky, M. (2017). The Ocean One hands: An adaptive design for robust marine manipulation. The International Journal of Robotics Research 36(2):150-166. (Link)
Khatib, O., Yeh, X., Brantner, G., Soe, B., Kim, B., Ganguly, S., Stuart, H., Wang, S., Cutkosky, M., Edsinger, A., Mullins, P., Barham, M., Voolstra, C., Salama, K., L’Hour, M., Creuze, V. (2016). “Ocean One: A Robotic Avatar for Oceanic Discovery.” Robotics & Automation Magazine. Link
Aukes, D. M., Heyneman, B., Ulmen, J., Stuart, H., Cutkosky, M. R., Kim, S., Garcia, P., Edsinger, A. (2014). Design and testing of a selectively compliant underactuated hand. The International Journal of Robotics Research. Link
Conference Publications
Stuart, H. S., Bagheri, M., Wang, S., Barnard, H., Sheng, A. L., Jenkins, M., Cutkosky, M. R. (2015). “Suction Helps in a Pinch: Improving Underwater Manipulation with Gentle Suction Flow.” In 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Proceedings. Link
Stuart, H. S., Wang, S., Gardineer, B. G., Christensen, D. L., Aukes, D. M., & Cutkosky, M. A compliant underactuated hand for underwater mobile manipulation. In 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Link
Stuart, H., Inman, K., & Wang, X. (2013). Initial Development of a Method for Optical Measurement of Water Droplet Formation in the Cathode Flow Channel of a PEM Fuel Cell. In ASME 2013 11th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology. Link
Dastoor, S., Weiss, S., Stuart, H., Cutkosky, M. (2012). Jumping Robot with a Tunable Suspension Based on Artificial Muscles. Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 7375: pp 95-106. Link
Reports
Stuart, H., Karplus, P., Beg, H. (2012). “Haptic Classification and Faulty Sensor Compensation for a Robotic Hand.” CS229 Link
Press
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/01/tech/oceanone-robo-mermaid/index.html
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/04/28/this-humanoid-robot-diver-is-submersible-avatar.html
IEEE Spectrum: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/stanford-ocean-one-humanoid-diving-robot
Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/tag/oceanone
Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/27/stanford-humanoid-robotic-diver-oceanone/