Illinois Mobile App Master Calendar

Abstract 

The convergence of humans and robots holds promise for a sustainable future of our aging society. My group therefore focuses on engineering soft electronics that can be seamlessly integrated on either humans or robots to facilitate their understanding and interaction capabilities. We have modeled and fabricated e-tattoos, which are ultrathin, stretchable, and even breathable sensors and circuits that can conform to human skin like a temporary tattoo sticker. This talk will introduce various types of pre- or on-body fabricated e-tattoos for cardiovascular health and brain performance monitoring. In parallel, we are investigating stretchable e-skins to endow robots with soft touch-sensitive skins similar to human skin. Despite extensive researches on e-skins, contamination of pressure readings by lateral stretch or shear force has been a persistant challenge. Our recent work on Stretchable resistive-capacitive Hybrid Response Pressure Sensor (SHRPS) provides a novel solution to this issue. SHRPS mechanism is elucidated through analytical and numerical modeling and SHRPS application is demonstrated through an inflatable robotic probe checking human vital signs and providing physical care. We further discovered that architected SHRPS or ASHRPS can enhance its performance. With e-tattoos digitizing the human body and e-skins sensorizing the robots, we hope to bridge the gap between humans and robots for a symbiotic and sustainable future.

 About the Speaker 

Dr. Nanshu Lu is Professor and the Carol Cockrell Curran Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin). She received her B.Eng. with honors from Tsinghua University, Beijing, her Ph.D. from Harvard University, and then Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship at UIUC. Her research concerns the mechanics, materials, manufacture, and human- or robot-integration of soft electronics. She is a Clarivate (Web of Science) highly cited researcher, a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She is on the Board of Directors of the Society of Engineering Science (SES). She has been named 35 innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review (TR 35) and iCANX/ACS Nano Inaugural Rising Star. She has received the US NSF CAREER Award, ONR and AFOSR Young Investigator Awards, and the ASME Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award. She has been named one of the five great innovators on campus and five world-changing women at UT-Austin.

Host: Professor Taher Saif