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Sahba Aghajani Pedram

PhD Candidate at UCLA Majoring in Systems, Controls, and Robotics

Bionics Lab

Biography

I am a last year Ph.D. candidate at Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at UCLA, majoring in Systems, Controls, and Robotics. For my Ph.D. research, I work with Prof. Jacob Rosen and Prof. Jason Speyer in the Bionics Lab. My research focuses on developing novel estimation, control, motion planning and machine/robot learning algorithms to introduce unpresedented robotic capabilities into various surgical interventions. In particular, I am exploring:

  • Automation of surgical subtasks including suturing, and tissue manipulation in soft tissue surgery.
  • Accurate position control of cable-driven surgical robots for automation purposes in soft tissue surgery.
  • Real-time shape estimation of a continuum surgical manipultar for total hip replacement surgery.
  • Fast position estimation of a surgical probe in automated cataract surgery.

Interests

  • Robotics
  • Stochastic Estimation
  • Optimal Control
  • Motion Planning
  • Machine Learning

Education

  • Ph.D. in Mechanical Eng., 2020 (Exp.)

    UCLA

  • M.Sc. in Mechanical Eng., 2018

    UCLA

  • M.Sc. in Mechanical Eng., 2016

    University of Hawaii at Manoa

  • B.Sc. in Mechanical Eng., 2012

    Sharif University of Technology

Recent News

Jan 26, 2020

New paper accepted to 2020 ICRA

Our paper Temporal Segmentation of Surgical Sub-tasks through Deep Learning with Multiple Data Sources has been accepted to 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Control (ICRA).

Jan 24, 2020

New paper submitted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics

Our paper Autonomous Control of Cable-driven Surgical Robots With Online Residual Learning submitted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) and is under review..

Oct 2, 2019

New paper accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics

Our paper SCADE: Simultaneous Sensor Calibration and Deformation Estimation of FBG-Equipped Unmodeled Continuum Manipulators has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO).

Aug 10, 2019

New paper submitted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics

Our paper Autonomous Suturing Framework and Quantification Using a Cable-driven Surgical Robot submitted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) and is under review.

Internships

 
 
 
 
 

Robotics Software Engineering Intern

Intuitive

Jun 2019 – Sep 2019 Sunnyvale, California
Responsibilities include:

  • Development of distributed software to control multiple robotic arms and endoscopic camera.
  • Development of motion planning and hand-eye calibration algorithms.
  • Development of advanced perception system with deep learning algorithms.
 
 
 
 
 

Robotics Software Engineering Intern

Intuitive

Jun 2018 – Sep 2018 Sunnyvale, California
Responsibilities include:

  • Development of augmented reality algorithms to enhance surgeons’ performance.
  • Development of robotics software algorithms for the surgical robotic system.

Publications

Farshid Alambeigi *, Sahba Aghajani Pedram *, Jason L. Speyer, Jacob Rosen, Ioan Iulian Iordachita, Russell H. Taylor, Mehran Armand . SCADE: Simultaneous Sensor Calibration and Deformation Estimation of FBG-Equipped Unmodeled Continuum Manipulators. Accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2019.

Chagyeob Shin, Peter Ferguson, Sahba Aghajani Pedram, Ji Ma, Erik Dutson, Jacob Rosen . Autonomous Tissue Manipulation via Surgical Robot Using Learning Based Model Predictive Control. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2019.

Video arXiv IEEE BibTex

Sahba Aghajani Pedram, Peter Ferguson, Ji Ma, Erik Dutson, Jacob Rosen . Autonomous suturing via surgical robot: An algorithm for optimal selection of needle diameter, shape, and path. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2017.

IEEE BibTex

Sahba Aghajani Pedram, Roberta Klatzky, Peter Berkelman . Torque Contribution to Haptic Rendering of Virtual Textures. IEEE Transanctions on Haptics, 2017.

IEEE BibTex

See all publications

Courses

Math & Machine Learning


  • Matrix Analysis
  • Probability & Statistics
  • Stochastic Processes
  • Neural Networks & Deep Learning
  • Machine Learning

Systems & Controls


  • Linear Dynamics Systems
  • Introduction to Feedback & Control Systems
  • System Identification
  • Guidance, Navigation & Control
  • Linear Optimal Control
  • Nonlinear Optimal Control
  • Stochastic Optimal Control
  • Stochastic Estimation

Robotics


  • Robotics & Lab
  • Computational Robotics
  • Control of Mobile Robots
  • Software Design for Robotics
  • Medical Robotics

Contact

  • Room 18-111 (Bionics Lab), 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States