Robotics Department Seminar Series (https://robotics.umich.edu/events/robotics-seminar-series/)
Speaker: Andrew Morgan, Research Scientist - Tech Lead, Robotics and AI Institute (RAI)
Title: "Beyond the Static World: Rethinking Manipulation Through the Lens of Dynamics"
Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm ET
Location: FRB 2300 + Zoom
Zoom Link: https://myumi.ch/WDMJm
Meeting ID: 923 4651 9853
Passcode: 802676

Abstract: Recent advancements in Vision-Language-Action models and Behavior Cloning are reshaping decades-old assumptions in robot manipulation, yet this progress remains largely anchored to a static worldview. The community continues to treat manipulation as an isolated end-effector problem, ignoring the reality that in unstructured environments, every physical contact is a collision and thus a dynamic event. For decades, commercial hardware has been optimized for stiffness and precision, resulting in effective endpoint masses an order of magnitude heavier than a human arm. This creates a severe impedance mismatch: unplanned contact results in undesired energy transfer, especially when interacting with lightweight objects that have fast dynamic timescales. To address this fundamental limitation, we introduce AthenaZero. Designed to minimize system inertia without sacrificing control authority, AthenaZero achieves a human-equivalent effective endpoint mass. This architecture natively supports the physics of impact, enabling a suite of dynamic manipulation tasks including throwing, catching, batting, and juggling. By prioritizing physical fluency over rigid precision, AthenaZero offers a new hardware foundation for contact-rich manipulation.

Speaker Bio: Andrew (Andy) Morgan is a Research Scientist at The Robotics & AI Institute in Cambridge, MA. He received his PhD from Yale University's GRAB Lab under the supervision of Prof. Aaron Dollar in March of 2023. In this adventure, he was the recipient of the NSF GRFP and the RSS: Pioneers awards. His research mainly focuses on planning, control, and design for robot hands and manipulators. During his PhD, he also spent time at Amazon Robotics AI and TU Darmstadt working with Prof. Jan Peters. At RAI, he focuses on the design and control of low-impedance, high-torque manipulators for pushing towards dynamic contact interactions with robots. For more information, visit his website: https://asmorgan24.github.io