Mitja Trkov: How Can Robots Prevent Us From Falling Over?

The American Slovenian Education Foundation (ASEF) organizes a new ASEF Speaker Series event. This time prof. dr. Mitja Trkov will deliver a lecture titled “Robotic Interventions to Prevent Slip-Induced Falls During Bipedal Locomotion”. The lecture will be held on Wednesday, February 25, at 7 PM CET / 10 AM PST.

ABSTRACT

Human bipedal locomotion involves complex underlying dynamics. Perturbations during walking, such as slips or trips, require rapid whole-body adjustments and significantly increase task complexity. Capturing these movements and designing devices to assist during such perturbations presents a challenge. Successful design and implementation of such devices requires understanding of human motion dynamics, balance stability and human-machine interactions. In this talk, I will present sensing, modeling and control approaches for characterization of human walking with foot slip. Development of a robotic assistive device to prevent slip-induced falls will be presented.

BIO

Mitja Trkov is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University, NJ, USA. He obtained his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2007 and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA, in 2016. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Prior to his graduate studies, he worked as an R&D engineer in the naval industry. His research interests include human-machine interactions, wearable and soft robotics, mechatronics, and biomechanics.