LocationMIT Media Lab, E14 Lobby DescriptionFrom lightweight, shared, electric vehicles that fold, to artificial limbs that not only emulat…

Throughout the ages bioluminescence has inspired myths. Long ago, sailors in the Indian Ocean encountered massive bioluminescent blooms as …

Schmitt, P. "Just Build It! A Fully Functional Concept Vehicle Using Robotic Wheels"

P. G. Weyand, M. W. Bundle, C. P. McGowan, A. Grabowski, M. B. Brown, R. Kram, and H. Herr. The fastest runner on artificial legs: Different limbs, similar function?, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 903–911, Sep. 2009.

R. Kram, A. M. Grabowski, C. P. McGowan, M. B. Brown, and H. M. Herr. Counterpoint: Artificial legs do not make artificially fast running speeds possible, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 1012–1014, Apr. 2010.

Morgan Stickney is an elite swimmer who's helping pave the way for the next generation of bionic prosthetics and para-athletes.

You’ll likely hear Hugh Herr before you see him.The charismatic leader of MIT’s biomechatronics research group wears two next-generation pr…

Former Research Affiliate

Former Research Scientist

Former Research Assistant

Hugh Herr pioneers brain-controlled prosthetics, merging tech and biology to restore mobility and enhance human potential beyond limits.

C. P. McGowan, A. M. Grabowski, W. J. McDermott, H. M. Herr, and R. Kram. Leg stiffness of sprinters using running-specific prostheses, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 9, no. 73, pp. 1975-1982, 2012.

A. M. Grabowski, H. M. Herr

Ride into the Future: Discover the MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project!NOTE: This version of the website has been specifically designed for the …

Sun, A. "Programmable Surfaces"

Embark on a Journey of Invention

Terrestrial tests help to ensure that the AstroAnt's teeny-tiny wheels keep turning when it reaches the moon.

K. Endo, D. Paluska, and H.M. Herr. A quasi-passive model of human leg function in level-ground walking, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Beijing, China, Oct. 2006.

A space architecture project for the Mechanical Artifact: Ultra Space course in partnership with the Center for Collaborative Arts and Medi…

Biomechatronics head Hugh Herr discusses his research with the No Barriers USA podcast.

H. M. Herr and T. A. McMahon. A trotting horse model, The International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 566–581, Jun. 2000.

The MIT Media Lab’s Open Ocean Initiative is no longer active. This site provides background on some of the people and projects that were a…

"Autonomous operations are critical for the success, safety, and crew survival of NASA deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit, includin…

Will we all be cyborgs one day? Hugh Herr says he has the answer.

​Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy, 2022, is a live performance by Kawita Vatanajyankur made in collaboration with Pat Patara…

A. M. Grabowski, C. P. McGowan, W. J. McDermott, M. T. Beale, R. Kram, and H. M. Herr. Running-specific prostheses limit ground-force during sprinting, Biology Letters, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 201-204, 2010.

Cristina Quinn profiles Morgan Stickney, an elite swimmer who's the first person to undergo a bilateral Ewing amputation.

Media Lab researcher Kate Darling looks at the current state of household robots and considers how we may interact with them in the future.

Dementyev, Artem, et al. "Rovables: Miniature On-Body Robots as Mobile Wearables." Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. ACM, 2016.

Wicaksono, I., Shtarbanov, A., Slater, R., Ranade, E. and Paradiso, J., 2022. Peristaltic (PS) Suit: Active Bioelectronic Sensing-Compression Spacesuit for Microgravity Adaptation and Cardiovascular Deconditioning. In ASCEND 2022 (p. 4208).

"No one would ever expect people to build their own heart valves at home"-- Francesca Riccio-Ackerman on inequity in the prosthetic field.

Core77 reports on the Fluid Interfaces group’s work in cyborg botany.

A selection of recent press coverage on Elowan, a plant-robot hybrid designed by Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes.

A Parsons and MIT researcher hooked up electrodes to a plant’s leaves to turn it into a robotic sensor.

Cocoon is our vision of a programmable dream machine from the future. This device would be enabled by the synthesis of many devices under d…

Wicaksono, I., Shtarbanov, A., Slater, R., Ranade, E., Newman, D., and Paradiso, J., 2023. Design, Development, and Testing of Peristaltic Suit: Active-Dynamic Compression and Physiological Sensing Intra-vehicular Activity Spacesuit for Cardiovascular Deconditioning. In ICES 2023.

Professor Hugh Herr and graduate student Christopher Shallal are working on next-generation biomimetic limbs.

The City Science group uses simulations and visualizations to explain to stakeholders, including citizens, the various "what if" scenarios …

"Augmented" is a Nova PBS documentary episode that premiers Wednesday, 2/23, featuring Biomechatronics group head Hugh Herr.

Rosalind Picard and Kate Darling join other experts to discuss how and why humans empathize with machines.

A. E. Kerdok, A. A. Biewener, T. A. McMahon, P. G. Weyand, and H. M. Herr. Energetics and mechanics of human running on surfaces of different stiffnesses, Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 469-478, 2002.

A. Hofmann, M. Popovic, and H. Herr. Humanoid standing control: learning from human demonstration, Journal of Automatic Control, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 16–22, 2002.

Space architecture projects for the Mechanical Artifact: Ultra Space course in partnership with the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media…

AlMaeeni, Sara, Sebastian Els, Javier Stober, Amna Busoud, Yarjan Abdul Samad, Carlo Iorio, Danielle Wood, Hamad Almarzooqi. "MAD: An Experiment For Material Adhesiveness Determination On-Board The Emirates Lunar Mission's Rashid Rover," IAC 2021, October 2021.

Raffle, H. "Topobo: A 3-D Constructive Assembly System with Kinetic Memory"

Hayes Raffle S., Parkes, A. J., and Ishii, H.

Dhruv Jain, Misha Sra, Jingru Gro, Rodrigo Marques, Raymond Wu, Justin Chiu, Chris Schmandt

T. Farrell, H. Herr

Lin, M. "The RoboScooter"

K. Endo and H. Herr. A model of muscle-tendon function in human walking, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Kobe, Japan, May 2009.

H. Herr, G. P. Whiteley, and D. Childress. Chapter 5: Cyborg Technology – Biomimetic Orthotic and Prosthetic Technology, SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA, 2003.

H. M. Herr, G. T. Huang, and T. A. McMahon. A model of scale effects in mammalian quadrupedal running, Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 205, no. 7, pp. 959-967, 2002.

MIT students, faculty, and collaborators gave Lightning Talks during Here be Dragons 2018

Lark, W. "The Anatomy of an Urban Modular Electric Vehicle: How the Architecture of the CityCar Enhances Personal Mobility and Supporting Industries"

Everett Lawson and Matt Carney worked with Biomechatronics group head Hugh Herr to fit Everett with a bionic prosthesis.

Social robots could potentially aid therapists working with autistic children in the future.

Open-Source Instructions for Building SPRING System

"Think—what are people not expecting to happen yet and how can I make that happen?"

The artist and MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative Arts curator makes work that explores why the seemingly impossible is possible.

H. M. Herr, A. Wilkenfeld, and J. Blaya. Patient-adaptive prosthetic and orthotic leg systems, Proceedings of the 12th Nordic Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, Reykjavik, Iceland, pp. 123-128, Jun. 2002.

C. Walsh, K. Endo, and H. M. Herr. A quasi-passive leg exoskeleton for load-carrying augmentation, International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 487-506, 2007.

A lightweight research platform to develop autonomous technology Designed to transform bicycle-sharing systems into an on-demand mobil…