Robot and augmented-reality programming for sensorimotor neuroscience research

This project involves programming a robot in Simulink and MATLAB for sensorimotor neuroscience research. The robot is called the KINARM Endpoint robot (KINARM LAB/) and it is widely used in the field of sensorimotor neuroscience to understand brain function. The robot is programmed so that healthy adults and children as well as patients with neurological disorders can manually interact with it by grabbing a manipulandum. The robot applies gentle forces and participants have to react to those forces.

This work will be done in the Sensorimotor Neuroscience and Learning Laboratory in the Department of Kinesiology. The laboratory director is Dr. Tarkesh Singh.  The laboratory is in the basement of the Recreation Building. You can find more information about the laboratory at the lab website. 

Students can do this research either for credit or start on a volunteer basis and then take a research course for credit.

Relevant publications:

  1. Barany, D. A., Gómez-Granados, A., Schrayer, M., Cutts, S. A., & Singh, T. (2020). Perceptual decisions about object shape bias visuomotor coordination during rapid interception movements. Journal of Neurophysiology, 123(6), 2235-2248.
  2. Scheidt, R. A., Reinkensmeyer, D. J., Conditt, M. A., Rymer, W. Z., & Mussa-Ivaldi, F. A. (2000). Persistence of motor adaptation during constrained, multi-joint, arm movements. Journal of Neurophysiology, 84(2), 853-862.

 

 

Campus(es): 
University Park
Work Setting(s): 
On campus
Area(s): 
Engineering, Life Sciences
Description of responsibilities and minimum qualifications: 

The main responsibilities are to program the robot to do certain tasks. The advisor (Dr. Singh) will provide all the resources, computers, training videos, and programming manuals for students to learn how to program.

Students are expected to work between 8-9 hours per week over the course of a semester to make reasonable progress with learning how to program the robot and then program an experimental task for a research study.

Minimum Qualifications: 
  1. The student should be pursuing a degree in computer science or engineering (electrical or mechanical) and should be at least in their second year.
  2. The student should have previous programming background in MATLAB and/or Python. They should preferably have at least 1-2 years of programming experience in these languages.
  3. The student should be able to communicate in English.
  4. The student should have a minimum GPA of 3.0.
Other Requirements: 
  1. The student will be required to attend a one hour weekly lab meeting.
  2. The student should preferably commit for two semesters of research. Most experimental tasks take time to program, debug, and test. A one year commitment will ensure that the student will make substantial contribution to a research project and hopefully be a co-author on a research study.
  3. The student should be self-driven and motivated. The advisor will provide direction and guidance but will not manage the student's work on a daily basis. The advisor will meet the student on a weekly basis to assess their progress and provide direction.
  4. The student should have attention to detail, should be organized, and have the habit of documenting their code in detail. Documenting code well would help future students to build on their research and use their code.
Available Term(s): 
Academic Year, Fall, On-going, Spring, Summer
Position Type(s): 
Credit, Variable, Volunteer
Number of positions available: 
1
Requested Materials: 
  1. Resume
  2. Letter of interest
  3. Reference letters are not required, but will be accepted.
Application Instructions: 

Interested students should send all the application material to tsingh@psu.edu. Selected candidates will be interviewed over Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring Office
321 Boucke Building
University Park, PA 16802
814-863-8199 | urfm@psu.edu

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