Portland State Magazine

research

THE ROBOT, REIMAGINED Alex Hunt’s lab has pioneered a new field inspired by the adaptability of animals

ALEXANDER HUNT doesn’t think robots are going to take over the world anytime soon. “People see robot videos and think robots are way better than they actually are,” says Hunt, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and head of Portland State’s Agile and Adaptive Robotics Lab. “Just like anything else you see on the internet, all you see is the good stuf, not the hundred times the robots fell.” Hunt wants to build better robots—robots that are more agile, more adaptable, robots that can go into harsh environments or do jobs that are dangerous

for humans, robots that can help us understand human health. For inspi- ration, he looks to animals that have been tuned for agility by millions of years of evolution. Using data from biologists who study locomotion in rats, cats, dogs and humans, Hunt is reverse engi- neering how animals move. While robots are often designed to look or

behave like humans or other animals, Hunt’s approach is unique. His lab is creating robots with electronic controllers that mirror how neurons in the spinal cord control biological limb movement, allowing for more adaptable robotic movement. Hunt stumbled on the idea of modeling lifelike nervous system control of robotics in graduate school when he and fellow students misinterpreted his adviser’s instructions to “model biological control.” “He had the foresight to not tell us what we were trying to do was impossible,” says Hunt. “It didn’t work for several years, but we eventually fgured out how to make it work.” Now Hunt, along with a handful of colleagues throughout the world, is pioneering a new feld. ENTER THE AGILE and Adaptive Robotics Lab and you’ll encounter Muscle Mutt, a four-legged dog- like robot (pictured here with Hunt). When Hunt and his colleagues discover ways to replicate how the nervous system works, they try them on this robot. Mutt will play a critical role in the NeuroNex project, a fve-year collaboration between labs at nine diferent institutions

KATIE CONLON

SO-MIN KANG

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// PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE