Dr. Yujiang (Mike) Xiang

This seminar will focus on predictive modeling for biped motion planning and human movement biomechanics. The predictive modeling is essentially an optimal control approach applied to the motion planning problems. It has two major applications: biped motion planning and human movement biomechanics. Biped motion planning focuses on controls for the planned motion. Instead, human movement biomechanics emphasize muscle and joint forces. A novel inverse-dynamics-based optimization method is introduced for predictive modeling. This method has real-time simulation capability which makes it superior than other approaches in the literature. First, it is demonstrated for biped motion planning with walking, lifting, stair climbing, and box delivering tasks. Next, it is used to study human movement biomechanics to predict muscle forces. With this superior motion prediction capability, the developed predictive modeling method has wide applications in injury risk prediction, assistive robot design, medical device design, and human-robot collaboration planning.

Dr. Yujiang (Mike) Xiang is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Before joining UAF, he was a research engineer in the Center for Computer-Aided Design at University of Iowa. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Automotive Engineering at Tsinghua University in 2001 and 2004 respectively. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 2008. His current research interests include biodynamics and control, robot motion planning, musculoskeletal modeling, locomotion biomechanics, and human-robot interaction.