Hu, John

Dr. John Hu has over 20 years of research and development experience in robotics and control systems.  He performed research for the Human Machine Systems Lab at MIT, where he integrated a master-slave telerobotic surgery system with a pair of Phantom robots. He also participated in simulated laparoscopic surgery experiments with an MGH physician and developed algorithms for the successful force feedback control of a telerobotic surgery system.  In 1996 he joined the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, where he worked on leg locomotion and stable walking of legged robots with biological inspired control approaches like central pattern generator (CPG), as well as conventional control approaches. At Nortel Networks, as a senior automation engineer, he led research and development for the automated manufacturing line for fiber optic communication components with high precision nano-stages and Adept robot systems. At Energid, Dr. Hu directed the R&D on surgical simulation, haptics, and medical robotics. He was the PI for nine projects with DoD and NASA on robotic control, surgical robotics, telepresence robotic operation, haptics and surgery simulation training systems etc. In 2007, Dr. Hu co-founded Hstar Technologies Corp, a medical robotics company developing assistive robotic technologies and products for nursing, healthcare enhancement and rehabilitation. His main interests are in interactive robotics, telepresence robotic control, autonomous robotics, rehabilitation robots, mobile manipulation, compliant actuation and robotic systems, and assistive robotic technologies for healthcare. He is the co-founder, president and CEO of Hstar Technologies Corp, Cambridge, MA, and Handy Robotics Technologies in China, and also a visiting scientist at MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics and an adjunct professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.