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My
research interests are in the area of robotics and
mechatronics, system dynamics and control, haptics, sensors and actuators.
I am
director of the BioRobotics Lab
and am affiliated with the
Robotics Program
at the University of Utah. Descriptions of my
current research projects can be found there.
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Master's Thesis Research:
My master's thesis project was the design
and control of an omnidirectional ball-wheeled vehicle for a reconfigurable wheelchair.
Along with Joe Spano, I created the RHOMBUS (Reconfigurable Holonomic
Omnidirectional Mobile Bed with Unified Seating). If you want to see more, visit the RHOMBUS page. VIDEO:
bed_to_chair.mpg,
bathroom_mobility.mpg,
bedroom_mobility.mpg,
discrete_docking.mpg,
stiffness_control.mpg |
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Ph.D. Research:
My doctoral thesis research project
was the
development of "Fingernail Touch Sensors" for human-machine interaction.
These sensors can detect touch forces at the human fingertip as well as changes in finger
posture by measuring the color pattern of the fingernail. Thus they do not interfere
with the human's natural sense of touch.
VIDEO:
fingernail_sensor.mpg,
virtual_switches_nailsensor.mpg |
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Postdoctoral Research:
My
postdoctoral research focused on the
development of wet Shape Memory Alloy
actuators. These actuators act as artificial muscle
for robotic systems. By embedding SMA wires within networks of
biologically inspired "robotic blood vessels" (compliant tubes of
flowing fluid) I am working to create a fast, efficient, and scalable
system containing vast numbers of actuators. VIDEO:
WetSMA2Hz.mpg,
vastactuators.mpg |
The following pictures of the
Fingernail Sensors were photographed by Sam Ogden during a shoot for Scientific
American. They are property of Sam Ogden and may not be used without his
permission. Visit www.samogden.com
for more info.
Representative
Publications (downloadable in PDF format):
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Mascaro, S. and Asada, H.,
2006. “The
Common Patterns Of Blood Perfusion In The Fingernail Bed Subject To
Fingertip Touch Force And Finger Posture,” Haptics-e: The
Electronic Journal of Haptics Research, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 1-6.
- Flemming, L. and Mascaro, S.,
2005. “Control of Scalable Wet SMA
Actuator Arrays,” Proc. of IEEE International Conference on
Robotics and Automation, pp. 1350-1355.
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Mascaro, S. and Asada, H., 2004. “Measurement
of Finger Posture and Three-Axis Fingertip Touch Force Using
Fingernail Sensors,”
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation,
Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 26-35.
- Mascaro, S., Cho, K., and Asada, H.,
2003. “Design and Control of Vast DOF Wet SMA Array Actuators,”
Proc. IEEE/RSJ International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems,
Vol. 2, pp. 1992-1997.
- Mascaro, S.
and Asada,
H., 2003. “Wet Shape Memory Alloy Actuators for Active Vasculated
Robotic Flesh,”
Proc. IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation,
Vol. 1, pp. 282-287.
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Mascaro, S. and Asada, H., 2002, "Understanding
of Fingernail-Bone Interaction and Fingertip Hemodynamics for Fingernail
Sensor Design," Proceedings of the International 10th
Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator
Systems, pp. 106-113.
- Mascaro, S. and Asada, H., 2001, "Photoplethysmograph Fingernail
Sensors for Measuring Finger Forces Without Haptic Obstruction,"
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation,
Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 698-708.
© 2001-2005 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However,
permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or
for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to
reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the
IEEE.
Complete list of publications |
