Labs

Week # Topics Lab Topics
1 What is Exercise? Lab - Tour of DAPER facilities as "incoming research/design collective"

Seminar - Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation on the history of exercise in Western civilization
2 The Physical Intelligence Model Lab - Tooling: Using Theraband, students build machines designed to exercise key aspects of physical intelligence (e.g., the body's relation to gravity, whole body movement, the role of sense perception)

Seminar - Survey of exercise machines/devices past and present
3 Visual and Kinesthetic Perception Lab - Subjective and Objective Experiences of the Body: Walking running, leaping, while blindfolded yields dramatic physical experiences

Seminar - Review of preliminary project proposals: concept drawings of three exercise machines/devices designed to cultivate physical intelligence
4 Physical Thinking Lab - Thinking through the body for engineering insights: exploring our precognitive understanding of physical principles/properties (e.g., torsion, tension, weight, etc.)

Seminar - Brainstorming session on project sketch prototypes
5 Orientation Strategies: Balancing Lab - Olympic Stumbling Competition: Playing the line between the maintenance and loss of balance as captured by high-speed video system. Best "compensatory dance" wins

Seminar - The motor system at work: strategies for balance; review of student prototypes
6 Learning Movement Lab - Exploring unexplored movement: increasingly complex/unusual movements reveal the highly evolved process of feedback involved in physical learning

Seminar - Peer review of class projects with prepared questionnaire
7 Designing Physical Intelligence Lab - Reworking traditional exercise machines for Physical Intelligence

Seminar - Review of critical module; progress reports on projects
8 E-motion Lab - Walking a 4 inch beam 40 ft. in the air highlights the physical sensation of emotion and its effect on movement

Seminar - May exhibition planning
9 Applying Physical Intelligence Lab - Fieldtrip to the MIT Museum: Attempts to build a running robot highlight key points of Physical Intelligence considered in past weeks

Seminar - Sketch design session for May exhibition posters
10 Complex Coordination: Walking

Guest Speaker: Dr. Rob Playter, '90, Boston Dynamics Inc. "Physical Intelligence and the Design of Running Robots"
Lab - High-speed video imaging explores bipedal locomotion and the spinal engine model

Seminar - Visit to the MIT Biomechatronics Lab for an on-site introduction to current projects (exoskeleton, "smart" prosthetics, etc.)
11 Final Project and Peer Poster Review
12 Overview and Summary