John “Peter” Whitney
Associate Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Office
- 519 ISEC
- 617.373.3427
Lab
- 560B ISEC
Research Focus
Human-safe robots, medical robotics, soft robotics and soft material manufacturing, MEMS, microrobotics, bio-inspired design, flapping aerodynamics and insect flight
About
Joins the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering department in January 2016.
Education
- PhD Engineering Sciences, Harvard University, 2012
- SM Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, 2006
Honors & Awards
- 2023 Impact Award
- Best paper award finalist, International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Research Overview
Human-safe robots, medical robotics, soft robotics and soft material manufacturing, MEMS, microrobotics, bio-inspired design, flapping aerodynamics and insect flight
Selected Research Projects
- NRI: FND: Controllable Compliance: A New Robotic Arm for Contact-Rich Manipulation
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Remote-Direct-Drive Haptic Manipulators for Learning Augmented Explosive Ordinance Disposal In Unstable and Visually-Denied Environments
- – Principal Investigator, Office of Naval Research
- CHS: Small: Collaborative: Teleoperation with Passive, Transparent Force Feedback for MR-Guided Interventions
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Research Centers and Institutes
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- E. Schwarm, K. Gravesmill, J.P. Whitney, A Floating-Piston Hydrostatic Linear Actuator and Remote-Direct-Drive 2-DOF Gripper, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2019
- E. Mendoza, J.P. Whitney, A Testbed for Haptic and Magnetic Resonance Imaging- Guided Percutaneous Needle Biopsy, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 4(4), 2019, 3177-3183
- N. Burkhard, S. Frishman, A. Gruebele, J.P. Whitney, R. Goldman, B.L. Daniel, M.R. Cutkosky, A Rolling-Diaphragm Hydrostatic Transmission for Remote MR-Guided Needle Insertion, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2017
- J.P. Whitney, T. Chen, J. Mars, J.K. Hodgins, A Hybrid Hydrostatic Transmission and Human- Safe Haptic Telepresence Robot, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2016
- N.O. Perez-Arancibia, J.P. Whitney, R.J. Wood, Lift Force Control of Flapping-Wing Microrobots Using Adaptive Feedforward Cancellation Schemes, IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics, 18, 2013, 1-14
- P.S. Sreetharan, H. Tanaka, J.P. Whitney, et al., Progress on “Pico” Air Vehicles, International Journal of Robotics Research, 31(11), 2012, 1292-1302
Jan 24, 2023
Faculty and Staff Awards 2023
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2022-2023 academic school year. COE Distinguished Faculty Award Yun Raymond Fu, ECE Auroop Ganguly, CEE Luke Landherr, ChE Sinan Müftü, MIE Mark Niedre, BioE Alison Nogueira, Co-op Nian Sun, ECE Constantinos Mavroidis Translational […]
Dec 20, 2022
Rover Team Prepares for Next Competition
After competing at the global Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge earlier this year, the Northeastern Mars Rover Team, advised by MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney, is gearing up for next year’s competition.
Nov 08, 2022
Northeastern Robotics Team Wins $1M for Third-place Finish in Global Competition
Team Northeastern won $1 million in third place among 17 finalists from around the globe in the ANA Avatar XPrize robotics competition.
Jun 09, 2022
Rover Team Competes at Global Challenge
The Northeastern Mars Rover Team, advised by MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney, competed last week at the Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge with their robot named Watney Mark 3.0. From concrete to Martian dust, students prepare a rover for the upcoming global University Rover Challenge In recent weeks, those walking around Northeastern University’s Boston campus […]
Apr 28, 2022
FY23 TIER 1 Award Recipients
Congratulations to the 15 COE faculty and affiliates who were recipients of FY23 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 13 different projects.
Nov 03, 2021
Northeastern University Team Working to Create Robotic Avatar in Multi-year Competition
Northeastern team advised by ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir and MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney featured in WCVB article “Northeastern University team working to create robotic avatar in multi-year competition.”
Oct 22, 2021
Northeastern Team Advances to Finals of ANA Avatar XPRIZE
Team Northeastern is one of 15 teams selected as finalists in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE. Finalist teams will equally share a milestone prize purse of $2M and move on to Finals Testing in Fall 2022 for their chance to win part of the $8M Finals prize purse.
Sep 10, 2021
Creating a Human Avatar in Remote Locations
A group of Northeastern University students led by MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney, has made it to the semifinals of the global Avatar XPrize competition which aims to create an avatar system that can transport human presence to a remote location in real-time.
Jul 28, 2021
Northeastern Engineers Developing Nimble Robotic Arms
MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney was featured in the Robotics & Innovation article “Northeastern engineers developing nimble robotic arms.”
Jul 28, 2021
Advancing Remote Robotic Technology
MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney has been working to design lightweight nimble robotic arms that could be capable of remote surgery or other situations where safety might be a factor. Nimble robotic arms that perform delicate surgery may be one step closer to reality Main photo: Robotics researchers at Northeastern are advancing a technology to […]