News
2019
Please see our latest news on the AIM Lab's Twitter feed: @mrirobot
2018
Please see our latest news on the AIM Lab's Twitter feed: @mrirobot
2017
April
Very excited to be launching PracticePoint!!
Read more about it here:
https://www.wpi.edu/news/lt-gov-karyn-polito-announces-5-million-capital-grant-practicepoint-wpi
2016
December
Article in Robotics Trends: PABI Penguin Robot Making Autism Therapy More Affordable
November
PABI the Penguin Brings Intensive Therapies to Autistic Children
CBS News Story: Penguin Robot Provides Help For Children With Autism
August
Excited to be starting our pilot studies with the PABI (Penguin for Autism Behavioral Interventions) robot this summer! The robot will be assisting in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for children with Autism at a local school.
Follow the work here: PABI's Twitter Feed
July
Check out AIM Lab PhD students in Robotics Engineering being interviewed by Robot Magazine!!
EDU BOTS - SHAPING THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS: Q & A With Members Of WPI's AIM Lab
February
Congrats to AIM Lab members Nirav Patel, Andan Munawar, and Chris Nycz for being voted as finalists for WPI's Graduate Research Innovation Exchange (GRIE) research presentations:
https://www.wpi.edu/academics/provost/poster-showcase.html
2015
October
Nice article on our work on MRI-compatible surgical robots published by ASME...
Surgical Robot Works
Within MRI
July
Check out the article on our MRI-compatible robot for prostate cancer biopsy in IEEE Spectrum: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/inside-an-mri-a-nonmetallic-robot-performs-prostate-surgery
2014
December
Congratulations to Weijian Shang for defending his dissertation "Teleoperation of MRI-Compatible Robots with Hybrid Actuation and Haptic Feedback"!!!
October
Article about our work in the Boston Globe:
Devices Integrate MRIs Into Surgeries
September
Clinical Trial Begins in Boston for MRI-Compatible Robot
Press Release for our first in man trials for robotic MRI-guided prostate cancer biopsy.WBZ News Radio:
Listen to the audio clip from WBZ radio on September 16, 2014.
April
Major Qualifying Project (MQP) Presentations
Ritesh Adhikari, Mike Cross, Tim Forrest, Hosung Im, Jason Klein, Anselm Mak, and Julieth Ochoa presented their project on: Exomuscular Sleeve for Upper Limb Stroke Rehabilitation.
Chris Dunkers, Brian Hetherman, Paul Monahan, and Samuel Naseef presented their project on: Indoor Navigation and Manipulation using a Segway RMP Platform.
2013
December
The AIM got to show off its work on Wearable Soft Robotic Rehabilitation Robots and also our MRI-Compatible Prostate Cancer Robot at the MassTLC Future of Robotics Summit.
June
Happy to announce that we were awarded an NIH Research Grant through the Academic-Industrial Partnerships for Translation of in vivo Imaging Systems for Cancer Investigations program to support "MR-Guided Precision Conformal Ablation Therapy for Brain Tumors"
WPI Press Release: ME Professor to Receive NIH Research Project Grant
May
Congratulations to all those from the AIM Lab graduating!!! We had our first two PhD students from the AIM Lab Greg Cole and Hao Su!
We also want to congratulate our Master's graduates: Hanlin Hong, Wenzhi Ji, Annette Rivera, Yunzhao Ma, and Satya Janga!
2012
December
Congratulations to Hao Su for defending his dissertation "Force Sensing and Teleoperation of Continuum Robot for MRI-Guided Surgery"
September
Congratulations to Greg Cole for defending his dissertation "Modular MRI Guided Device Development System: Evolution, Validation And Applications," the first PhD student in WPI Robotics Engineering and the AIM Lab!
March
Congratulations to Hao Su for winning the 2012-2013 Advanced Simulation and Training Fellowship from the Link Fondation! The award will support his work on "Haptic Training and Interventional System for MRI-guided Percutaneous Needle Placement."
February
The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative SFARI featured the article "Robot Renaissance" about socialy assistive robots (SARs) for working with chodren with Autism disorder. Our robot PABI, a.k.a Penguin for Autism Behavioral Interventions, was featured.
Hao Su and Weijian Shang presented their work at SPIE Medical Imaging in San Diego, CA.
A High Accuracy Multi-image Registration Method for Tracking MRI-guided robots PDF
A Networked Modular Hardware and Software System for MRI-guided Robotic Prostate Interventions PDF
2011
November
Prof. Fischer's RBE 3001 (Unified Robotics III) course is featured in the New York Times as part of the article Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It's Just So Darn Hard).
June
The AIM Lab supported Bancroft High School's Senior Co-Op program. Tommy Pham, Alex Lucena and Connor Richmond work with Greg Cole on the Neuro Robot.
See their video here: Youtube video of co-op.
April
Major Qualifying Project (MQP) Presentations
Hamresh Lutchmun presented his project on: Stent Design for Percutaneous Valve.
Major Qualifying Project (MQP) Presentations
Nick Alunni, Eric Jones, Ricky Goloski and Andrew Haggerty presented their project on: Hierarchical Swarm Robots.
Major Qualifying Project (MQP) Presentations
Elizabeth Alexander presented her project on: Affordable Compact Humanoid Robot for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children.
Major Qualifying Project (MQP) Presentations
Dan Jones and Andy Lewis presented their project on: StandAlone Surgical Haptic Arm (SASHA) for Telesurgery.
Design World featured the article "Plastic Bearings and Linear Guides Put the Moves on MRI-guided Robot" about the MRI prostate robot designed by Prof. Gregory Fischer and Hao Su in their medical e-newsletter.
March
Hao Su recieves International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) NSF Travel Fellowships award. Congratulations Hao!
February
Prof. Gregory Fischer and Hao Su attended the 18th Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR 2011) in Newport beach, California. They presented High-Field MRI-Compatible Needle Placement Robot for Prostate Intervention.
January
The AIM Lab's research and Prof. Fischer are featured on the cover of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Program Booklet. The feature highlights the work performed under the CDMRP New Investigator Award (p.19). Program Booklet PDF
2010
December
Greg Cole and Kevin Harrington attended the 12th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER 2010) in Delhi, India. They presented Closed-Loop Actuated Surgical System Utilizing Real-Time In-Situ MRI Guidance.
Surgical Products Magazine posted an article and video Guiding Surgical Robots With MRI Images promoting the work in the WPI AIM Lab.
Video also available here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WPI#p/c/E597F22DB929D8FD.
November
Prof. Fischer and collaborator Dr. Nguyen (Children's Hospital) are featured in an article on Robotic Surgery in BioPhotonics Magazine: A Cut Above: Robotics in Surgery.
July
Prof. Fischer and colleague Robert Webster (Vanderbilt) organized a workshop on Enabling Technologies for Image-Guided Robotic Interventional Procedures at 2010 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference VI RSS 2010 in Zaragoza, Spain.
April
Greg Cole was awarded 1st place at the WPI Graduate Research Achievement Day (GRAD) 2010.
MQP Presentations
Michael DiBlasi, Andrew Nehring, Andrew Smith presented their project on Pneumatic Actuator Development for MRI Robots.
MQP Presentations
Andrew Marchese and Hubbard Hoyt presented their project on Force Sensing and Haptic Feedback for Robotic Telesurgery
The project was a finalist in the Mechanical Engineering Project Presentation Day.
Greg Cole was awarded 1st place at the 2010 Innovation Presentation Competition for his work titled "MRI Compatible Surgical Systems: Analysis of Compatibility Methodologies and System Effectiveness".
March
Prof. Fischer was a conference organizer and session chair. Thanks to Weijian Shang for volunteering to help with the conference.
Hao Su presented his work titled "Haptic System Design for MRI-Guided Needle Based Prostate Brachytherapy" at Haptics Symposium 2010, Waltham, MA.
2009
September
Prof. Fischer, Yi Wang, Hao Su, and Greg Cole represented the AIM Lab and WPI at the 2009 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC 2009) in Minniapolis, Minnesota. Yi Wang presented the paper titled "MRI Compatibility Evaluation of a Piezoelectric Actuator System for a Neural Interventional Robot" by Yi Wang, Greg Cole, Hao Su, Dr. Gregory Fischer, and Dr. Julie Pilitsis.
June
The lab welcomes Master's student Kevin Harrington.
May
Prof. Fischer and Greg Cole represented the AIM Lab and WPI at the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2009) in Kobe, Japan. Greg Cole presented the paper titled "Design of a Robotic System for MRI-Guided Deep Brain Stimulation Electrode Placement" This presentation was also given at Tokyo University on May 12, and AIST on May 22.
April
The MRI-Compatible prostate robot is featured in Medical Design Magazine.
Greg Cole has been awarded the 2nd place award in Engineering at the Annual WPI GRAD Research Day for his poster titled "Design of a Robotic System for MRI-Guided Deep Brain Stimulation Electrode Placement." Read more about the MRI Neurosurgery Robot for DBS.
February
WPI is hosting the first annual Robotics Innovation Competition and Conference (RICC) on Nov. 7-8, 2009. Register at: http://ricc.wpi.edu/
The lab welcomes Doctoral student Hao Su.
January
Prof. Fischer was featured in the FIRST Robotics Competition newsletter. Newsletter
Wang Yi attends the Medical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Interventional Systems (MRCIIS) winter school at Johns Hopkins.
2008
December
Successful joint experiment at Brigham and Women's Hospital with our MRI Robot.
August
The lab welcomes Doctoral student Wang Yi.