This exhibition presents two projects. The first project is a framework and associated tooling for the extraction of system specifications from test data that has been automatically generated from automated executions of the system. The test data in our framework consists of sequences of inputs to and the corresponding outputs from the system. From an initial collection of test data, data-mining techniques are used to infer the invariants; then the system is instrumented with the invariants and new test data is generated to try to invalidate the mined invariants.

Part 1: Upper-limb motor impairments arise from a wide range of clinical conditions including amputations, spinal cord injury, or stroke. Addressing lost hand function, therefore, is a major focus of rehabilitation interventions; and research in robotic hands and hand exoskeletons aimed at restoring fine motor control functions gained significant speed recently. Integration of these robots with neural control mechanisms is also an ongoing research direction.

Oceans are drivers of global climate; they are home to some of our most important and diverse ecosystems; and they provide a substantial amount to the world’s economy as a major source of food and employment. Sound plays a vital role in the ocean ecosystem, as many organisms rely on the acoustic environment for navigation, communication, detecting predators and finding food. Therefore, the 3D underwater soundscape, i.e., the combination of sounds present in the immersive underwater environment, is of extreme importance to ultimately understanding and protecting underwater ecosystems.

 We transitioned from a tethered system to a fully wearable mobile one, which is suitable for clinical applications. We designed the textile components of the exosuit to provide unilateral assistance to the paretic limb of persons poststroke during walking. The suit provides partial assistance to ankle dorsiflexion (DF) and ankle plantarflexion (PF) and encourages a more symmetric and natural gait. The results of our treadmill-based study show that the exosuit could improve interlimb propulsion symmetry and ankle kinematics of seven chronic poststroke patients.

The project studies techniques for constructing guaranteed-safe control algorithms for maneuvering autonomous vehicles ("self-driving cars") under a variety of environmental conditions. Existing autonomous vehicles are able to navigate highways and surface streets reliably when the driving conditions do not pose significant challenges. However, future vehicles will need to handle pot-holes, snow, high winds, driving rain, darting animals, fog and all the other impediments that make driving in the real world challenging in the first place.

Large scale applications of cyber physical systems (CPS) such as commercial buildings with Building Automation System (BAS)-based demand response (DR) can play a key role in alleviating demand peaks and associated grid stress, increased electricity unit cost, and carbon emissions. However, benefits of BAS alone are often limited because their demand peak reduction cannot be maintained long enough without unduly affecting occupant comfort. This project seeks to develop control algorithms to closely integrate battery storage-based DR with existing BAS capabilities.