The Robotics and Intelligent Learning Lab is dedicated to advancing the human-robot interaction through intelligent control, biomechanical simulation and reinforcement learning. Our research spans a range of domains, including wearable exoskeletons, neuromechanical modeling, low-gravity human locomotion and AI-driven rehabilitation technologies. The lab emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and real-world validation of algorithms in both simulation and hardware systems. Current projects include the development of full lower-limb exoskeleton, hip exoskeleton and upper-limb exoskeletons for mobility assistance, physics-based human-exoskeleton co-simulation frameworks, and learning-based controllers for dynamic and uncertain environments.
The Robotics and Intelligent Learning Lab also has been instrumented with an eight-degrees-of-freedom (8-DOF) portable full lower limb exoskeleton, robotic hip exoskeleton, a four-DOF upper limb exoskeleton, a heavy-duty treadmill, mobile insole sensors, state-of-the-art 3D printers and a low-gravity experimental platform.
Portable, Full Lower Limb Exoskeleton and Suspension-Based, Low-Gravity Experimental Platform
The eight-degrees-of-freedom (8-DOF) portable full lower-limb exoskeleton developed by Dr. Luo's research team provides active torque assistance at the hip, knee and ankle joints. It incorporates high-efficiency Cycloidal drive motors with an optimized gear ratio, enabling torque outputs up to 80 Nm per joint. This design balances compact form factor with high-torque capability, essential for supporting body weight during stance phases or enhancing joint movement during rehabilitation and load-bearing tasks.
This suspension-based, low-gravity simulator (Fig. 1) uses barbell plates to generate the pull-up force, a pulley cable for force transmission, a load cell sensor to measure the force and a harness that applies the force to the subject’s center of mass. The system also includes a treadmill to control the subject’s walking or running speed under different low-gravity conditions. The weight of the barbell plates is customizable, allowing them to apply a pull-up force that counteracts the subject’s body weight and reduces the load on their center of mass.
Wearable Robot Systems
Exoskeletons: Portable robotic hip exosuit (Fig. 2) (24Nm, 2.3kg); Four-DOF upper limb exoskeleton. (top image)
Portable Biomechanics Analysis Equipment
- Wearable motion sensors: A set of customized wireless IMU systems includes eight measurement nodes and 20 Individual IMU measurement nodes.
- Portable Muscle sensors: Noraxon Ultium Electromyography (EMG) Measurement Units; Ultium EMG sensors sample up to 4,000 times per second, synchronize in real-time and demonstrate low baseline noise (<1 μV RMS) with minimal native artifacts.
- Torque and Force Measurement Sensors: Two loadcells (0~50Nm, Futek, Inc.), four customized loadcells (0~50Nm, 0~100Nm) and one six-axis loadcell (Sunrise, Inc.)
Miscellaneous
- Education platform: Advanced biomedical exoskeleton education kits, 20 Arduino Mega2560 R3, Arduino control board-based elbow exoskeleton kits are designed for teaching kits, which can provide elbow joint extension/flexion assistance.
Lab Director
