Grant wins robot pitch competition

2/25/2022

MechSE sophomore Maya Grant teamed with Gies graduate student Ilalee Harrison James to win first place in the Stretch Robot Pitch Competition.

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Harrison James, Grant
Ilalee Harrison James (left) and Maya Grant.

MechSE sophomore Maya Grant teamed with Gies graduate student Ilalee Harrison James to win first place in the Stretch Robot Pitch Competition.

The competition was sponsored by TechSAge (an academic grant center developed between UIUC and Georgia Tech) in collaboration with companies Hello Robot and P&G. TechSAge works to understand the needs of, and develop supportive technologies for, people aging with long-term vision, hearing, and mobility disabilities. TechSAge is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

Wendy Rogers, professor of kinesiology and community health and a co-director of TechSAge, said the research center has sponsored other, more broadly focused design competitions in the past.

“This year, we decided to focus on using Stretch, a robot with which we’ve been working in the McKechnie Family LIFE Home,” she said. “In a meeting with P&G, we learned that they’re very interested in robotics in the home to help people use their products, so we asked students to pitch an idea for Stretch that would help adults with vision or hearing disabilities to use P&G products.”

Stretch can be moved and manipulated with a game controller to sense, reach for, and grasp objects to support people in performing a wide range of tasks. It is manufactured by Hello Robot, a company founded by Charlie Kemp, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, and Aaron Edsinger, former robotics director at Google.

The UIUC duo’s winning project was named, “Rethinking Household Tasks For Elders with Soft Robotics.” The concept is a hands-free method to open bottles and tops using Stretch. The team conceptualized an enhanced gripping mechanism comprised of a vacuum and suction gripper to increase friction for twisting applications and an end effector that can conform to a variety of objects.

The soft, malleable gripper can adapt to different shapes and sizes, offering the potential to support opening and closing tops on a variety of household products. 

The team’s partnership began in the soft robotics lab of Holly Golecki, teaching professor of bioengineering, through a program she started to introduce robotics to students from underrepresented groups. Harrison James attended the introductory session for the competition, where she learned about some of the robotics research that took place at Georgia Tech and led to the development of Stretch.

“When I was introduced to this opportunity, I got really excited,” Harrison James said. “In the lab, I asked, ‘Who wants to work on this?’ Maya immediately said, ‘I do!’ It has given us a chance to work together as peers.”

They began to brainstorm about challenges older adults face in the home and decided to tackle the issue of opening medication bottles. From her involvement with drone research, Grant had become familiar with jamming grippers, which consist of flexible containers of granular material, such as ground coffee. When air is added to the container, it becomes pliant enough to surround an object of any shape or size. When air is removed, the granular material compresses around the object, allowing for it to be held and moved.

“It’s really affordable for prototyping and it’s very effective,” Grant said. “The malleability of the grains can go around anything and the vacuum provides a very strong hold. It will be really good for picking up bottles.”

Added Harrison James, “When you consider Stretch’s gripping end effector, there’s so much that can be done with the two in combination.”

For their successful effort, Harrison James and Grant received $1000 and 20 hours of access to McKechnie LIFE Home facilities and resources to develop and test their design. Harshal Mahajan, assistant director of research in the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, will provide consulting support for the project. At present, they are assembling a team to address both mechanical and software needs, and they are brainstorming ways to further improve their design.


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This story was published February 25, 2022.