BMEG 425 Biomedical Robotics

Over the past half a century, many aspects of industrial manufacturing have been automated through the application of robotics. This has resulted in increased precision, efficiency and safety, and decreased need for human interaction and intervention. Autonomous cars and robotic drones are already making inroads into our everyday lives. Biological and medical applications represent a new frontier for robotic applications. Surgical robots, assistive devices and prosthetics have been a part of this new wave of innovation.

This Biomedical Robotics course at UBC will be in its third year in Spring 2024, and serves as a primer on this emerging field. The first half of the course focuses on the mathematical fundamentals and simulation of kinematics, control, and teleoperation of robotic manipulators. The second half of the course will introduce state-of-the-art applications in cooperative, assistive, rehabilitative, neuroprosthetic and surgical robotics, and discuss the real-world challenges of directly interfacing a biological system with an artificially engineered system. Lab sessions will engage students in implementing haptic feedback for robotic control. The course project will challenge students to propose a design for a biomedical robotic solution and evaluate each other’s proposals.