Luis Sentis, Ph.D

Associate Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering
University of Texas at Austin

Friday, Oct. 30th at 1pm

Zoom: https://utah.zoom.us/j/93193678477

Passcode: 144921

ABSTRACT: Human-size humanoid robots are some of the most complex robotic systems used today in academic laboratories. They promise to shed light in questions connected to bipedalism, legged manipulation and ergonomics. However, providing the power, speed, structure and robustness needed to match some of the human’s neuromuscular capabilities is daunting. In this talk I will address the following questions. How do you teach students (and oneself) to build world-class humanoid robots? Can controllers built for slow humanoid robots be modified for walking and quickly recovering from fall using line foot legged robots? What are some real world tasks that humanoid robots can perform today and how reliable are they performing them? What algorithms are needed for humanoid robots to walk and manipulate simultaneously? How to program multiple humanoid robots in an intuitive manner? Overall, I will delve into these topics describing high-performance experimentation, control architectures and humanoid motion planning algorithms with fun and engaging videos.

BIO: Luis Sentis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and General Dynamics Endowed Faculty Fellow. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University where he was also a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Computer Science Department. He was a La Caixa Foundation Fellow while at Stanford. He holds a B.S. degree in Telecommunications and Electronics Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Before Stanford, he worked in Silicon Valley as a Control Systems Engineer. In Austin, he leads the Human Centered Robotics Laboratory, a laboratory focusing on control and experimentation with walking robots and exoskeletons, design of high-performance ground systems, and algorithms for active sensing in human environments. He is also a founding member of the UT Robotics Portfolio Program and the UT Robotics Center of Excellence. He was the UT Austin’s Lead for DARPA’s Robotics Challenge with NASA Johnson Space Center where he helped to design and test the Valkyrie humanoid robot. His research has been funded by NASA, the Office of Naval Research, Army Futures Command, NSF, DARPA, and private companies. He has been awarded the NASA Elite Team Award for his contributions to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Software Robotics and Simulation

Division. He is also a founding member and scientific advisor for Apptronik Systems, a company focusing on human-centered robotic products and R&D in human-augmentation exoskeletons and humanoids.