Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Don M. Cunningham Endowed Professorship in Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
hstuart@berkeley.edu
(510) 643-9786
For more information see: Embodied Dexterity Group (EDG)
Current Classes Taught
Hannah Stuart received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the George Washington University in 2011. She then completed her MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University in 2013 and 2018 respectively.
Research Description:
Professor Stuart’s research interests include: Dexterous manipulation; Bioinspired design; Soft and multi-material mechanisms; Skin contact conditions; Tactile sensing and haptics.
Mobile robots face a rapidly expanding range of potential applications, including remote exploration, search-and-rescue and household assistance. In many of these cases, the focus of interaction is via the robot’s end-effectors. However, current manipulators have limited capabilities in comparison to their biological counterparts. Our group is interested in improving robot dexterity through building end-effectors with embodied intelligence and robustness, especially for challenging submerged or wet environments. This includes the design of (1) novel grippers and hands, (2) touch perception for autonomous or teleoperated interventions and (3) bioinspired manipulation strategies. This vision includes the advancement of relevant design analysis tools and the validation of concepts by applying technologies in the field.
Key Publications:
Stuart, H. S., Wang, S., & Cutkosky, M. R. (2018). Tunable contact conditions and grasp hydrodynamics using gentle fingertip suction. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 35(2), 295-306. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/
Stuart, H., Wang, S., Khatib, O., Cutkosky, M.R. (2017). “The Ocean One hands: An adaptive design for robust marine manipulation.” The International Journal of Robotics Research, 36(2):150-166. https://journals.sagepub.com/