Abstract: Novel haptic interfaces and soft robots are integral to our increasingly digital world. Haptics can enhance robot teleoperation for various tasks including gaming, caregiving, and agriculture, while soft robots enable human-robot interaction and delicate object manipulation due to their flexibility. By leveraging collaborative, community-driven research, we can yield innovative and impactful outcomes aligned with these goals. In this talk, I will highlight several projects spanning mobile tactile displays and soft robotic actuators. Specifically, I will touch upon a 3-DoF wrist-worn haptic device for guidance and communication, a smartphone app used to democratize haptics research, and a versatile soft pneumatic actuator with reconfigurable fiber configurations. Moreover, I will demonstrate how technical expertise derived from research in the lab was coupled with the broader community to propel new research avenues. Making a conscious effort to uncover synergies between community and robotics research provides invaluable opportunities to benefit agriculture, human health, and everyday technology.
Bio: Dr. Kyle Yoshida is a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University and an incoming assistant professor at UCLA. He received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University and his BS in Bioengineering with an African Studies minor at Harvard University. He received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. His work spans soft robotics, haptic perception, and human-robot interfaces. In his free time, he serves as Executive Director of Honua Scholars, a STEM mentorship program recognized as one of the Top 10 Native STEM Enterprises by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.
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IPaT's fall 2024 lunch lecture calendar and lecture/talk (day of) streaming info can be found here: https://research.gatech.edu/ipat/lunch-lectures.
The IPaT: GVU Lunch Lecture Series is free and features guest speakers presenting on topics related to people-centered technologies and their impact on society. Lunch is provided at 12:00 p.m. and the talks begin at 12:30 p.m. Join us weekly or watch video replays.