John Wen, the head of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named the winner of the 2020 International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications Best Paper.

Wen received this honor for his article, “Human-directed coordinated control of an assistive mobile manipulator,” which was published in the International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications. In the paper, Wen and his lab demonstrate the success of an algorithm they designed to control a mobile manipulator — like a robotic arm — in assisting a mobility impaired user in completing a task. The researchers mounted a robotic arm onto a wheelchair, and were able to control its movement in retrieving and placing objects with the algorithm they developed.

Wen’s co-author on this paper was Lu Lu, an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Lu was previously a postdoctoral researcher in Wen’s lab. The team will receive the award for this paper during the annual International Conference of Intelligent Robotics and Applications in August 2021.