{"692635":{"#nid":"692635","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumnus Credits Taido Class as Crucial Part of Ph.D. Journey","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESince he was a child, Varun Agrawal wanted to learn martial arts but never had the opportunity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was something I had wanted since I was a kid,\u201d he said. \u201cGrowing up in India, it wasn\u0027t known for martial arts.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgrawal knew he needed something to help him balance his physical health with the challenges of graduate school. He checked the list of classes offered by Georgia Tech\u2019s Campus Recreation. One stood out: Georgia Tech Taido.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaido is a niche martial art that applies a modern, scientific approach to traditional Okinawan karate. There is only one school in the U.S. that teaches it \u2014 Taido Karate in Peachtree Corners, Ga., which is currently the world\u2019s largest taido school.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaido means \u201cthe way of the body and the mind.\u201d It was invented in the 1960s by Seiken Shukumine.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of Shukumine\u2019s students, Mitsunobu Uchida, brought the new martial art to the U.S. when he immigrated in 1975. Uchida decided that Atlanta would be an ideal place to open a new school.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESince then, generations of students have trained at Taido Karate, including Georgia Tech alumnus Bryan Sparks (EE 2000), and Andy Fossett, who started as a student at Tech in 1996 before transferring to Georgia State.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESparks and Fossett learned taido together as kids. Both became black belts before graduating high school.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShortly after becoming students at Tech, they started an official taido club on campus. They taught their first class in 1996, which only had one student. By the next semester, they had almost a dozen.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe class was held in an open area, and a lot of people would walk by and see us training,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cThat was the best advertisement we could ever have. We\u2019d invite them to work out, and it grew from there. We did some demonstrations around campus in the early days.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe taido club is still going strong and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgrawal discovered it in 2018 as a first-year Ph.D. student. He earned his doctorate in robotics from Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing in 2025.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile keeping his Ph.D. studies first, Agrawal trained for five years to earn a black belt. He said the process was the most physically and mentally challenging he\u2019s ever experienced.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe tenets of taido teach you how to compose yourself and how to have a good mindset, which becomes helpful in dealing with daily life stress,\u201d Agrawal said. \u201cIt helps you focus on what\u2019s important in the moment.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere were times when I felt like nothing was going right, and I kept asking \u2018What am I even doing?\u2019 But I knew if I could do some of the harder things in taido, there\u2019s no reason I couldn\u2019t do the same thing in my Ph.D.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgrawal\u2019s commitment paid off in 2022 when he became one of five students from Tech Taido to pass the black belt test that year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe test is grueling,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s four hours long. It\u2019s the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done physically, and I\u2019ve run several marathons. They test you on everything you\u2019ve learned from white belt level to brown belt level. I was training five days a week for five months.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was one of the best days of my life. It felt like no matter what happened, I could move forward with my life and be proud of that accomplishment.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgrawal landed a remote job with a robotics startup after graduating. His new position allowed him to stay in Atlanta and continue with Georgia Tech Taido as an instructor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe said the unique aspect of taido is its emphasis on community and culture, which can be attributed to Uchida\u2019s influence.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of times, American senseis open dojos after learning martial arts overseas. They bring the techniques and the discipline over, but they don\u2019t bring the culture that comes with it. I love how taido is a part of our lives. It\u2019s not a separate workout; it\u2019s a communal thing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgrawal teaches classes with Lacy Hardcastle, who took over as lead instructor when Sparks moved out of the area in 2019. Hardcastle took her first Taido class at Tech in 2007.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHardcastle said students trying taido for the first time will get a challenging workout.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI didn\u2019t know how weak my legs were until I took taido,\u201d she said. \u201cIt kicked my butt the first semester. We do whole body conditioning with lots of push-ups, lunges, squats and other exercises. It\u2019s a very athletic martial art and requires whole-body fitness and control.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHardcastle describes the environment as welcoming and supportive, with regular get-togethers outside of class and a biennial trip to Japan with the Taido Karate school.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have a great social community where we support each other,\u201d she said. \u201cWe occasionally go out to social events together. Sometimes we\u2019ll get together to watch MMA fights, things like that. But we also work out hard.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Taido classes are held every Monday and Wednesday from 8:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. in Studio A of the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center. The registration cost for the fall semester is $75. To register, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/crc.gatech.edu\/martial-arts-4\/\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/crc.gatech.edu\/martial-arts-4\/\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Taido allowed Varun Agrawal to pursue a Ph.D. and a black belt as a graduate student at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech Taido allowed Varun Agrawal to pursue a Ph.D. and a black belt as a graduate student at Georgia Tech"}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-09-17 13:41:18","changed_gmt":"2026-09-18 12:45:02","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681181":{"id":"681181","type":"image","title":"GT-Taido-Class_86A0245.jpg","body":null,"created":"1789652591","gmt_created":"2026-09-17 13:43:11","changed":"1789652591","gmt_changed":"2026-09-17 13:43:11","alt":"Varun Agrawal","file":{"fid":"265546","name":"GT-Taido-Class_86A0245.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/17\/GT-Taido-Class_86A0245.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/17\/GT-Taido-Class_86A0245.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":122978,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/17\/GT-Taido-Class_86A0245.jpg?itok=eaFFqVwK"}}},"media_ids":["681181"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692319":{"#nid":"692319","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Associate Professor Sees Research Becoming More Human-Centered","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJesse Thomason has seen his research evolve over the last decade.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt began with a focus on helping computer systems incorporate human language into their perception of the world. Could a robot tell humans that a heavy object is straining its arm? Does it know that a container makes a sound when it is picked up or dropped?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, Thomason\u2019s research has become more human-centered, which is one reason he feels at home as he joins the faculty at Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing as an associate professor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThomason comes to Georgia Tech after spending five years as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California\u2019s Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe will move his Grounding Language in Actions, Multimodal Observation, and Robots (GLAMOR) lab to Tech. The lab explores methods for connecting natural language processing to robotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile pursuing his computer science Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Thomason researched early NLP systems before large-language models such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini were introduced.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThomason then expanded into robotics to explore how roboticists can create new ways to communicate with robots using computational representations of language.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe idea was you could do something that looked like robot programming without as much engineering work if you used one of these coding modules to create a language-code interface,\u201d Thomason said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen OpenAI and Google released their commercial LLMs in 2022, Thomason felt a seismic shift.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat area of NLP and robotics became more crowded and accessible with the advent of (LLMs),\u201d Thomason said. \u201cIt created a huge inroad to roboticists being able to plug and play language technologies in a way they couldn\u2019t before. Robotics hardware has also become much cheaper and more standardized.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut as LLMs became universal tools accessible to everyone, Thomason said he started thinking more about how he could improve optimization for users.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI became most interested in how language interfaces, starting in 2022, were suddenly everywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody had a chatbot on their phone. I wanted to see what we could do as researchers to make the interaction between an AI system like a language model and a person smoother and more beneficial.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThomason said he felt he needed a new environment where end users were at the center of the technology design process. He was drawn to the School of Interactive Computing for its reputation in human-computer interaction research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat was a big factor in my decision to move to the School of Interactive Computing, where you value that kind of human-centered computing,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWith the strong HCI researchers here, I have an opportunity to learn more from my colleagues about how to run high-quality human-subject studies, conduct participatory design, and identify actual users of a potential system and talk to them about what would be helpful.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJesse Thomason comes to Georgia Tech after spending five years as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California\u2019s Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Jesse Thomason comes to Georgia Tech after spending five years as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California\u2019s Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-09-04 13:14:34","changed_gmt":"2026-09-04 13:16:02","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-04T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-04T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681069":{"id":"681069","type":"image","title":"Jesse-Thomason_86A6990-copy.jpg","body":null,"created":"1788527693","gmt_created":"2026-09-04 13:14:53","changed":"1788527693","gmt_changed":"2026-09-04 13:14:53","alt":"Jesse Thomason","file":{"fid":"265421","name":"Jesse-Thomason_86A6990-copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/04\/Jesse-Thomason_86A6990-copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/04\/Jesse-Thomason_86A6990-copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":122256,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/04\/Jesse-Thomason_86A6990-copy.jpg?itok=7bxT6Bs5"}}},"media_ids":["681069"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692137":{"#nid":"692137","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Incoming Professor Envisions World of Humans and Robots Working Together","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen Siddharth Karamcheti watches robot demonstration videos, he pays attention to how close humans are to the robot.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti said there are times when he doesn\u2019t see any humans at all. Those instances reinforce the perception that robots are replacing humans rather than assisting them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou have humanoid robots doing things like folding laundry, and you see videos of it on social media,\u201d Karamcheti said. \u201cIt bothers me that in all these videos, I see the robot doing these tasks alone without a single person around them. True human-robot collaboration is missing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs he joins the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing as an assistant professor, Karamcheti seeks to improve human-robot collaboration and maximize output through his research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti comes to Tech after earning his Ph.D. in computer science (CS) from Stanford University. He also holds bachelor\u2019s degrees in CS and literary arts from Brown University.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to human-robot interaction, he has conducted research on fine-tuning vision-language-action (VLA) models.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVLAs are artificial intelligence (AI) systems typically built by fine-tuning vision-language models (VLMs) or large language models (LLMs). They use visual perception, natural language, and physical action to perform tasks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI have a high-level vision of what I think robotics should be, but there are many winding paths I like to take along the way as I try to understand why something works the way it does,\u201d Karamcheti said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti said his vision was inspired by the movie \u003Cem\u003EIron Man\u003C\/em\u003E and by how the main character, Tony Stark, interacts with robots in his lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t want a robot that replaces all the work I\u2019m doing in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI want a robot that\u2019s embedded in my life like my laptop or smartphone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey\u2019re making it possible for me to do more things. I also want to make it so that robots start doing more and learning more when I leave the room.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti said the School of IC is a \u201cdream\u201d job for him because of its renowned faculty in human-robot interaction. It\u2019s the ideal place to keep humans at the center of his research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe must design models around interaction and the idea that there\u2019s going to be a person in the room. Robots don\u2019t need to be perfect at any one thing. They just need to be able to ask for help when it\u2019s needed and learn from those teaching interactions.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramecheti said many robotics researchers are pursuing robots that are as close to perfect as possible so they can operate without human oversight. However, the amount\u0026nbsp;of money and data needed to get there is substantial.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think you see diminishing returns with scale. If a robot performs tasks correctly 90% of the time, the data required to go from 90% to 95% is much less than that required to go from 95% to 99%. Many robotics companies and labs are investing to reach a 99% success rate,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti added that the pursuit of perfection shouldn\u2019t prevent a robot from being deployed. They could be deployed at 95% and increase their success rate by working with and learning from humans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOnce I have a robot that\u2019s 95% capable, I understand that 5% of failures will occur for a specific task. If I know a human is always going to be near the robot, I can design a system that sequences tasks and anticipates human intervention.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti is recruiting students to join his lab who bring new perspectives to robotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m looking for students who aren\u2019t afraid to challenge common assumptions and who enjoy hacking and building,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to work with students who have strong opinions about how robotics should look.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs he joins the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing as an assistant professor, Karamcheti seeks to improve human-robot collaboration and maximize output through his research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKaramcheti comes to Tech after earning his Ph.D. in computer science (CS) from Stanford University. He also holds bachelor\u2019s degrees in CS and literary arts from Brown University.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to human-robot interaction, he has conducted research on fine-tuning vision-language-action (VLA) models.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"As he joins the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing as an assistant professor, Siddharth Karamcheti seeks to improve human-robot collaboration and maximize output through his research. "}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-08-31 22:06:47","changed_gmt":"2026-08-31 22:09:07","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-31T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-31T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681022":{"id":"681022","type":"image","title":"Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","body":null,"created":"1788214030","gmt_created":"2026-08-31 22:07:10","changed":"1788214030","gmt_changed":"2026-08-31 22:07:10","alt":"Siddharth Karamcheti","file":{"fid":"265370","name":"Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/31\/Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/31\/Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":135773,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/31\/Siddarth-Karamcheti_86A6595.jpg?itok=hMwXvcuz"}}},"media_ids":["681022"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"691156":{"#nid":"691156","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumna Ann Dunkin to Chair Inaugural Emerging Technologies Virtual Forum  ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAnn Dunkin, P.E. (BSIE 1986, MSIE 1988), will serve as event chair for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers\u2019 (IISE) inaugural Emerging Technologies Forum on Aug. 26.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDunkin is an IISE Fellow, the highest classification of IISE membership that recognizes outstanding leaders of the profession who have made significant, nationally recognized contributions to industrial and systems engineering. She has served as chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as chief strategy and innovation officer at Dell Technologies. She has also held numerous leadership positions at Hewlett Packard, largely in the areas of manufacturing, research and development and IT. She currently serves as a distinguished external fellow with \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/energy.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s Strategic Energy Institute\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDunkin holds appointments as a distinguished professor of the practice in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/spp.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EJimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy\u003C\/a\u003E. She is also a distinguished external fellow at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gtri.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe Emerging Technologies forum is a great opportunity for practicing ISEs to get exposure to a range of emerging technologies in a short period of time and identify those that they want to experiment with and implement in their organizations,\u201d Dunkin said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Aug. 26 event, which will be held virtually from 1-5 p.m. EDT, will explore technologies shaping the future of industrial and systems engineering, including artificial intelligence, digital twins, and robotics and autonomy.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs event chair, Dunkin will be joined by experts from the healthcare, aerospace, logistics, manufacturing and technology industries, including representatives from Royal Caribbean, The Boeing Company, UPS and other organizations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe complimentary event is open to engineers and improvement professionals of all backgrounds. Registration is available through the IISE Emerging Technologies Forum \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/events.teams.microsoft.com\/event\/da4e0df1-dcfe-4f8a-afd7-e7f2187d5b54@1bf21f59-ba3f-4757-8a65-44b4acb89f42\u0022\u003Ewebsite\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EISyE alumna Ann Dunkin, P.E. (BSIE 1986, MSIE 1988), will lead discussions on emerging technologies as chair of IISE\u0027s inaugural forum.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"ISyE alumna Ann Dunkin, P.E. (BSIE 1986, MSIE 1988), will lead discussions on emerging technologies as chair of IISE\u0027s inaugural forum."}],"uid":"35874","created_gmt":"2026-07-20 13:06:12","changed_gmt":"2026-07-23 21:28:44","author":"Anna Akins","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-07-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-07-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680654":{"id":"680654","type":"image","title":"Ann Dunkin, P.E. (BSIE 86, MSIE 88)","body":null,"created":"1784828578","gmt_created":"2026-07-23 17:42:58","changed":"1784828578","gmt_changed":"2026-07-23 17:42:58","alt":"Ann Dunkin, P.E. (BSIE 86, MSIE 88)","file":{"fid":"264945","name":"AnnDunkin.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/07\/23\/AnnDunkin.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/07\/23\/AnnDunkin.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1608010,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/07\/23\/AnnDunkin.jpg?itok=Ac3E1P50"}}},"media_ids":["680654"],"groups":[{"id":"1237","name":"College of Engineering"},{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:anna.akins@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAnna Akins\u003C\/a\u003E \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Manager I\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690754":{"#nid":"690754","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Wearable Reroutes Lost Sensation, Restores Stability","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMisjudge a curb or miss a step on the stairs, and there is a split second of panic as your foot doesn\u2019t land when you expect it to. That brief loss of pressure can be enough to throw off your balance entirely.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor most, that heart-pounding uncertainty ends the moment the foot finds solid ground. But for many individuals living with conditions like stroke or spinal cord injury (SCI), that sense of disconnect is a permanent reality.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese conditions of course have a huge effect on our ability to move around and be independent \u2014 but the other side of it is the sensory feedback that we lose,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.research.gatech.edu\/matthew-t-flavin\u0022\u003EMatthew Flavin\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E. Most rehabilitation treatments primarily focus on restoring movement, but \u201ceven if you have motor control, if you can\u2019t feel when your foot\u0027s touching the ground it can be really hard for you to move around safely.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a new study published in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2536577123\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Flavin and an interdisciplinary team of researchers introduce a way to bridge this gap: a wearable \u201csensory substitution\u201d system that translates foot pressure into high-tech patterns of heat and vibration they can feel elsewhere.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe system uses high-resolution pressure-sensing insoles designed by the team, which are placed inside a user\u0027s shoes to record how their weight shifts in real-time. This data is streamed via Bluetooth to a flexible, skin-conformable array of haptic receivers worn on the forearms, a part of the body that often retains sensation in SCI. The receivers give quick pressure feedback through vibration, while also alerting the user to longer-term pressure \u201chotspots\u201d through heat.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne of the limitations of a lot of approaches in haptics is that you\u0027re having to map a missing sense onto a completely different sense,\u201d says Flavin. \u201cWe\u2019re keeping the type of information that we\u0027re missing, which is the distribution of pressure, and we\u0027re just basically putting it on a different part of their body.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERerouting the lost sensation was key to making the device intuitive to learn. Participants were able to correctly identify the \u201cfeel\u201d of the ground through their arms with high accuracy within a mere two-hour session. When tested with a small group of participants with stroke or SCI, the wearable significantly improved standing balance and led to steadier walking.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat\u2019s encouraging about these early results is that participants appeared to use the feedback in ways that supported balance and walking,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mccormick.northwestern.edu\/research-faculty\/directory\/profiles\/rogers-john.html\u0022\u003EJohn Rogers\u003C\/a\u003E, a materials science and engineering professor at Northwestern University who collaborated on this study. \u201cOur study suggests that providing pressure information through another part of the body could be a practical path for helping people compensate for lost sensation.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile vibration provides immediate feedback for walking and balance, the team views the thermal feedback as a tool for long-term health. Heat is a slower, low-frequency signal that could alert patients to pressure hotspots, potentially preventing diabetic foot ulcers or pressure injuries for those who are bedridden or use wheelchairs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe small, lightweight system is completely untethered, making it suitable for use during daily activities in and outside the clinic. It\u2019s also highly adaptable to different injury types, which is ideal for conditions as variable as stroke, SCI, and diabetic neuropathy. Placement of the haptic receivers can be adjusted based on where a patient has the most sensation, and the sensitivity of the insoles can be tailored to each patient.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a member of several of Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/interdisciplinary-research-institutes\u0022\u003EInterdisciplinary Research Institutes\u003C\/a\u003E \u2014 the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EInstitute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society\u003C\/a\u003E, the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/robotics\u0022\u003EInstitute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines\u003C\/a\u003E, and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bioresearch.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences\u003C\/a\u003E \u2014 Flavin credits the project\u2019s success to an interdisciplinary effort and deep engagement with clinicians and patients.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis reinforces the importance of really engaging with your stakeholders very early on,\u201d says Flavin. \u201cIf you\u0027re not continually refining that concept with those stakeholders, you quickly find that they might be looking for something that your device isn\u0027t delivering.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith new funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the team is now working to make the technology even smaller and more reconfigurable, moving closer to a standard wearable for daily clinical use.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDOI: \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2536577123\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2536577123\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers have developed a wireless wearable that translates foot pressure into heat and vibration, helping individuals with sensory impairments regain balance and mobility.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers have developed a wireless wearable that translates foot pressure into heat and vibration, helping individuals with sensory impairments regain balance and mobility."}],"uid":"35575","created_gmt":"2026-06-15 20:56:13","changed_gmt":"2026-06-16 12:16:33","author":"adavidson38","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-06-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-06-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680466":{"id":"680466","type":"image","title":"Flavin-Device-Under-Microscope.png","body":"\u003Cdiv\u003EThe system converts pressure underfoot into vibration and heat felt elsewhere on the body, helping people with sensory loss regain awareness of their footing and improve balance.\u003C\/div\u003E","created":"1781557523","gmt_created":"2026-06-15 21:05:23","changed":"1781557523","gmt_changed":"2026-06-15 21:05:23","alt":"Close-up of hands positioning a flexible haptic device with embedded electronics under a microscope, highlighting the small components and patterned array used to deliver sensory feedback.","file":{"fid":"264732","name":"Flavin-Device-Under-Microscope.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Under-Microscope.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Under-Microscope.png","mime":"image\/png","size":10816942,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Under-Microscope.png?itok=7OCs2RGM"}},"680467":{"id":"680467","type":"image","title":"Flavin-Device-Portrait.png","body":"\u003Cdiv\u003EMatthew Flavin, assistant professor in electrical engineering and lead author of the study, holds the flexible haptic device.\u003C\/div\u003E","created":"1781557731","gmt_created":"2026-06-15 21:08:51","changed":"1781557731","gmt_changed":"2026-06-15 21:08:51","alt":"A researcher stands in a laboratory holding a flexible, transparent wearable device embedded with small electronic nodes, with microscopes and lab equipment visible in the background.","file":{"fid":"264733","name":"Flavin-Device-Portrait.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Portrait.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Portrait.png","mime":"image\/png","size":12093054,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Portrait.png?itok=7qCineau"}},"680468":{"id":"680468","type":"image","title":"Flavin-Device-Schematic.png","body":"\u003Cdiv\u003EPressure-sensing insoles in the shoes transmit real-time data to flexible haptic arrays worn on the forearms, where patterns of vibration and heat recreate a sense of foot-ground contact through sensory substitution.\u003C\/div\u003E","created":"1781571167","gmt_created":"2026-06-16 00:52:47","changed":"1781571167","gmt_changed":"2026-06-16 00:52:47","alt":"Schematic diagram of a wearable sensory substitution system showing pressure-sensing insoles placed inside shoes, flexible haptic arrays worn on both forearms, and a smartphone interface. Close-up views highlight the insole sensor layout and a dense grid of small actuators on the forearm device that deliver vibration and heat.","file":{"fid":"264734","name":"Flavin-Device-Schematic.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Schematic.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Schematic.png","mime":"image\/png","size":2450907,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/06\/15\/Flavin-Device-Schematic.png?itok=U8hkGUYv"}}},"media_ids":["680466","680467","680468"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/new-wearable-device-monitors-skin-health-real-time","title":"New Wearable Device Monitors Skin Health in Real Time"},{"url":"https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/confronting-roadblocks-medical-technology-innovation","title":"Confronting the Roadblocks in Medical Technology Innovation"},{"url":"https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/head-toe-georgia-tech-researchers-treat-entire-human-body-through-neuroscience-research","title":"Head to Toe: Georgia Tech Researchers Treat the Entire Human Body Through Neuroscience Research"}],"groups":[{"id":"66220","name":"Neuro"},{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"193656","name":"Neuro Next Initiative"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter and Media Contact:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:audra.davidson@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAudra Davidson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EResearch Communications Program Manager\u003Cbr\u003EInstitute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society (INNS)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPhotos:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EMaxwell Guberman\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["audra.davidson@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690589":{"#nid":"690589","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Ph.D. Student Gets the Assist as Bike Robot Performs First Front Flip","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA bicycle robot from the Robotics and AI Institute (RAI) in Cambridge, Mass., has become the first to perform an unassisted acrobatic front flip.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERAI calls the bicycle robot an ultra-mobility vehicle (UMV). It can reach a height of 3 feet and can jump from the floor onto a platform.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe contributions of a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student helped make these feats possible through a robot control policy he developed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJeonghwan Kim, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in robotics under the advisement of Associate Professor Sehoon Ha, spent two semesters interning at RAI. His task was to design a policy to teach the UMV to land after a flip.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe result was iterative motion imitation (IMI), a novel method that imitates flip trajectories generated from prior examples. Kim said the robot bases its flip on a demonstration, and human engineers reconstruct and refine the flip path through simulation to fill in the gaps.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTo guide the robot to flip, we started with an imperfect trajectory generated by a motor-based controller and then ran simulations,\u201d Kim said. \u201cIt\u2019s an unstable trajectory, but we use it as a guide to train a single policy that can track it as it lands and tries to balance itself.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESticking the Landing\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKim interned under the supervision of Shamel Fahmi, a research scientist at the RAI Institute. RAI has been developing the UMV for nearly three years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe wanted to work on a different robot morphology that wasn\u2019t legs or legs with wheels,\u201d Fahmi said. \u201cThat\u2019s when we thought of working with bikes.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe want to merge the athleticism of (Boston Dynamics\u2019) Atlas with the mobility of a bike. We wanted a robot that can go anywhere, do parkour, and acrobatics.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFahmi said that before Kim arrived, the research team had trouble getting the UMV to land consistently without breaking or falling.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe UMV has two joints \u2014 an upper and a lower. The upper joint contains the motors and pulls the lower joint along as it propels into the air. The problem is getting the lighter lower joint to absorb the impact of landing without being crushed by the heavier upper joint.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s what brings reinforcement learning into the equation,\u201d Fahmi said. \u201cWe teach the robot to minimize its impact on the ground to land gracefully.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFahmi said that Kim proved the imitation examples the robot learns from don\u2019t have to be perfect. The process takes some time, but all it needs is a rough idea to get started.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can have an imperfect sketch and then constantly refine it,\u201d Fahmi said. \u201cThe first time, it\u2019s not going to go well.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe don\u2019t care about torque or power limits as long as it does the motion. Then we\u2019ll have a slightly better reference, repeat it, and imitate it again. In every iteration, we can add more parameters.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EUp Against the Clock\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKim said he felt the pressure of time constraints during his two semesters with RAI as he worked to achieve consistent, successful landings. Even though he had multiple UMVs to experiment with, they broke down dozens of times. Each time one broke, a hardware team at RAI had to repair it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere was a lot of pressure to not only get this working before my internship ended, but also knowing there are costs behind every failed attempt, and every time the robot breaks, it takes time to repair it,\u201d Kim said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt took almost five months for it to land without breaking. Then we needed two more months for it to stay balanced after the landing. It requires a lot of engineering effort to achieve a robust control policy for a safe flip.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy the time Kim left RAI, the IMI policy had achieved consistent, seamless landings.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe jump right now is what we call the visitor demo,\u201d Fahmi said. \u201cIf there are guests coming over to see it, we want to show them something that is extremely impressive, but also, more importantly, extremely reliable. It never fails.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was only possible because of the huge effort we put into designing, maintaining, and continuously improving the robot.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKim authored a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/imi-umv.github.io\/\u0022\u003Epaper\u003C\/a\u003E on his framework and will present it at this week\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/2026.ieee-icra.org\/\u0022\u003EInternational Conference on Robotics and Automation\u003C\/a\u003E (ICRA) in Vienna.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor more information about the UMV project, please visit the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/rai-inst.com\/resources\/blog\/designing-wheeled-robotic-systems\/\u0022\u003ERAI blog\u003C\/a\u003E or watch their\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cjaZUFMZWOY\u0026amp;t=95s\u0022\u003Evideo\u003C\/a\u003E on YouTube.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA bicycle robot from the Robotics and AI Institute (RAI) in Cambridge, Mass., has become the first to perform an unassisted acrobatic front flip.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJeonghwan Kim, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in robotics under the advisement of Associate Professor Sehoon Ha, spent two semesters interning at RAI. His task was to design a policy to teach the UMV to land after a flip.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A Georgia Tech Ph.D. student\u0027s robot control policy helped the Robotics and AI Institute develop the first bike robot capable of an unassisted front flip."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-06-02 13:06:16","changed_gmt":"2026-06-02 13:11:56","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-06-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-06-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680398":{"id":"680398","type":"image","title":"DSC07117-2048x1365.jpg-copy.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EPhoto courtesy of the Robotics and AI Institute\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1780405593","gmt_created":"2026-06-02 13:06:33","changed":"1780405662","gmt_changed":"2026-06-02 13:07:42","alt":"Bike robot","file":{"fid":"264654","name":"DSC07117-2048x1365.jpg-copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/02\/DSC07117-2048x1365.jpg-copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/02\/DSC07117-2048x1365.jpg-copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":131530,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/06\/02\/DSC07117-2048x1365.jpg-copy.jpg?itok=12RGh4JN"}}},"media_ids":["680398"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"187991","name":"go-robotics"},{"id":"184632","name":"mobile robotics"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690553":{"#nid":"690553","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New App Allows Anyone to Operate a Robot From Their Phone","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESomeone with no computing experience may soon be able to remotely control a robot from anywhere on the planet using a smartphone, thanks to new technology developed by Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe new technology is also set to revolutionize the scale of policy training data collection, which is essential to advancing robotic capabilities and meeting growing production demand.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cobalt-teleop.github.io\/\u0022\u003ECOBALT\u003C\/a\u003E is a mobile app that turns smartphones into controllers for robot arms. With a secure Wi-Fi connection to a server, users can move their phones in any direction, and the robot arm will mirror the motion \u2014 from anywhere in the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAyush Agarwal, a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing who leads a research team developing COBALT, said it works like the games people play on smartphones. Users can press a button to have the arm grasp an object, move it, and release it with another button.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgarwal conducted several user studies with participants in nine countries who remotely operated robot arms inside Georgia Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pair.toronto.edu\/\u0022\u003EPeople, AI \u0026amp; Robotics (PAIR) Lab\u003C\/a\u003E. The lab is directed by Assistant Professor Animesh Garg, who advises Agarwal.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe built an entire distribution system for remote teleoperation scaled to where we had people from Indonesia, India, and Pakistan operating for us,\u201d Agarwal said. \u201cThey were novice operators who had never done it before. By collecting data from these new users, we showed that we can train policies to automate certain tasks.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGarg envisions a world where data collection for policy training is done through crowdsourcing. He began working toward this goal 10 years ago as a postdoc at Stanford University, when he developed\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/roboturk.stanford.edu\/\u0022\u003ERoboTurk\u003C\/a\u003E, an earlier version of COBALT.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere is a large-scale data collection requirement for mass robot production to be possible, and it will not be solved purely through simulation,\u201d Garg said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur idea was, what if we could get almost every person on the planet to be a passive source for data collection? There are almost five billion people who have smartphones and know how to use them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEducation and Economy Impact\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother major implication of COBALT could be expanded access to CS and robotics education.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents can learn to operate a robot remotely in any classroom. In fact, Garg and his lab recently hosted students from Midtown High School in Atlanta to demonstrate COBALT and let them control robot arms from a phone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGarg also sees the possibility of a \u201cgig economy\u201d in which people pay remote operators to control assistive robots in their homes and complete household chores for them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt could be Uber for robots,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople who want to log onto the platform can do so at their convenience and for as long as they want.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECompanies with robot-dependent labor tasks could also use the platform to enable human oversight.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf I deploy a robot in a factory that achieves high autonomy for most tasks, but there are still times it needs help, a human could operate the robot from anywhere in the world,\u201d Garg said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBuilding a Network\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgarwal\u2019s studies showed that people prefer to interact with and control a robot using a smartphone rather than virtual reality (VR) headsets, controllers, keyboards, mice, or other devices.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe phone is a more intuitive interface and can provide data quality that\u2019s on par with other commonly used devices,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgarwal also said there is minimal latency in the video feed sent back to operators on the other side of the world. That\u2019s because the amount of data being processed is small.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe data is carried over Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), the same technology used by many streaming services and web conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s a connection from your phone to the teleoperation server, which is connected to the robots,\u201d Agarwal said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThen there\u2019s another connection from the teleoperation server back to the user, which allows for a video stream. We need low latency on both because you don\u2019t want the user to move their phone and wait 10 seconds to see the visual feed.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgarwal is the co-lead author of a paper on COBALT that is being presented at the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/2026.ieee-icra.org\/\u0022\u003EIEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation\u003C\/a\u003E this week in Vienna. He said the paper stands out because it has moved from theory to the implementation of an entire distribution network.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe real novelty of our paper is the systems that we build around it to actually support the scaling of remote operation and data collection at a global level,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWith a secure Wi-Fi connection to a server, users can move their phones in any direction, and the robot arm will mirror the motion \u2014 from anywhere in the world.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new mobile app turns smartphones into controllers for robot arms. "}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-05-29 16:37:15","changed_gmt":"2026-05-29 16:43:09","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680381":{"id":"680381","type":"image","title":"Animesh-Garg-lab_86A8356.jpg","body":null,"created":"1780072785","gmt_created":"2026-05-29 16:39:45","changed":"1780072785","gmt_changed":"2026-05-29 16:39:45","alt":"Three men use their phones to control a robot arm","file":{"fid":"264637","name":"Animesh-Garg-lab_86A8356.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/29\/Animesh-Garg-lab_86A8356.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/29\/Animesh-Garg-lab_86A8356.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":186525,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/29\/Animesh-Garg-lab_86A8356.jpg?itok=8WOofrjN"}}},"media_ids":["680381"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"168927","name":"smartphones"},{"id":"44461","name":"robot arm"},{"id":"93131","name":"ICRA"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}