Ben Brown

Office phone: (412) 268-7658
Lab phone: (412) 268-3652
Fax: (412) 268-6436
Email: hbb@cs.cmu.edu
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~hbb

My research interests are in the areas of design of mechanical and electromechanical systems in robotics. I am particularly interested in high-performance structures and mechanisms, elastic and kinetic energy storage, and dynamic stabilization of wheeled and legged robots. I began my robotics career working with Marc Raibert's Leg Lab at CMU, and we built some exciting running legged robots. (The lab has since moved to MIT, but you can still see some of our old robots on their website.) Recent projects include the development of a high-precision (micron resolution) manipulator for the Minifactory project and a  third-generation gyroscopically stabilized wheel (Gyrover).  Current projects  include a highly efficient hopping robot, (Bow Leg Hopper); the human-scale BowGo that employs Bow Leg technology; the Millibot Train, and the student Mobot competition. See the Gyrover on South Park!
 

Gyrover  5.6 MB mpeg 4.2 MB Media Player	Bow Leg Hopper	Bow Go	Millibot Train (1.1MB .pdf paper)	Mobot

Affiliations

• Carnegie Mellon University
• CMU School of Computer Science
• The Robotics Institute.
• Vision and Autonomous Systems Center (VASC)
• Advanced Mechatronics Laboratory(AML)

Publications and Research

• Publications
• AAA Minifactory Project
• Self-Mobile Space Manipulator (SM2)
• Single-wheel, Gyroscopically Stabilized Robot
• Toy Robot Initiative
• Snake Robot Design
• RHex hexapod

Other Activities

• Mobot Slalom Competition
• International Human Powered Vehicle Association
• Nutrition and Health: American Natural Hygiene Society, Hallelujah Acres

Personal

• Leslie Bockman and family (daughter) and twins
• David B. Brown (son), PhD Candidate at MIT

Miscellaneous

• Bibligraphy of Literature on Capacitive Sensing