Episode 66: Peter Neuhaus talks about exoskeletons, robotics, and the development of exercise technologies for space and Earth

In today’s episode, Ken and Dawn interview their colleague Dr. Peter Neuhaus, a senior research scientist here at IHMC. Peter is an engineer well-known for his work on wearable robotic devices. In particular, Peter has focused on lower extremity exoskeleton devices and their applications for mobility assistance for paraplegics and other people with disabilities or partial paralysis.

In 2016, Peter lead an IHMC team that won a silver medal in the international Cybathlon, a competition conducted in Zurich in which people with disabilities used advanced assistive devices, including robotic technologies, to compete against each other.

In today’s interview, Peter talks about IHMC’s humanoid robotic efforts as well as his work with NASA designing an exercise machine for a human mission to Mars or other missions beyond low earth orbit.

Peter also describes the work he is doing with IHMC High-Performance Director Joe Gomes, the former Oakland Raiders strength and conditioning coach. Peter and Joe as well as others at IHMC are designing exercise technologies to extend the resilience of high-performing humans, such as astronauts and elite warfighters. Many of these technologies will eventually be able to be utilized by the general public.

Links:

 Peter Neuhaus IHMC page:

https://www.ihmc.us/groups/pneuhaus/

 DARPA Robotics Challenge videos:

http://robots.ihmc.us/drc/

 Cybathlon videos:

http://robots.ihmc.us/cybathlon/

 IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine article about Cybathlon:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.08656.pdf

 IHMC newsletter article about Cybathlon:

https://www.ihmc.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/IHMCNewslettervol10iss3.pdf

 IHMC newsletter article about DARPA Robotics Challenge:

https://www.ihmc.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IHMCnewslettervol13iss1.pdf

 Show notes:

3:03: Dawn asks Peter about growing up in New York City.

3:33: Ken mentions that after high-school, Peter enrolled at MIT. Ken asks Peter what led him there.

4:04: Ken asks why Peter decided to major in mechanical engineering.

4:35: Dawn asks Peter what led him to travel across the country to attend the University of California, Berkeley for graduate school after he graduated from MIT.

5:10: Dawn asks what it was like for Peter to teach science to 5th- and 6th-graders as well as high-schoolers in Brooklyn after he received his master’s degree from Berkeley.

6:23: Peter talks about how after two years of teaching, he decided his window of opportunity to get a doctorate was shrinking and that it was essentially “now or never,” which led him back to Berkeley.

7:02: Dawn mentions that once Peter finished his doctorate, he went to work for a startup as a mechanical engineer. She asks what sort of work he did there.

7:47: Dawn talks about how a year and a half after getting his doctorate Peter met his future wife, who eventually led him to Pensacola, and in a roundabout way, to IHMC. She asks if he could share how that all came about.

9:22: Ken comments on how since joining IHMC in 2003, Peter has focused on wearable robotics systems and legged robots. Ken further mentions that Peter was one of the lead IHMC researchers participating in the DARPA Learning Locomotion project, where he helped develop quadrupedal locomotion algorithms for the Little Dog robot. Ken asks if Peter could talk about his work on this project?

11:08: Dawn, continuing with the discussion about DARPA projects, mentions that Peter played an important role in both the development of technology and in the management of IHMC’s humanoid robotics effort for the DARPA Robotics Challenge that was held between 2013 and 2015. IHMC placed second and brought home $1 million in prize money. Dawn asks what that experience was like.

12:10: Ken mentions there were three competitions that were part of the robotics challenge, and asks Peter to talk about IHMC’s performance in each of the competitions.