Thomas Sugar

How to build a better ballplayer

So you want to build a better baseball player. How do you proceed? Maybe you'd combine the hitting eye of Alex Rodriguez with the fielding range of Derek Jeter. ASU robotics expert Tom Sugar is building a better ballplayer with a four-wheel drive transmission and a camera with a zoom lens. --by Skip Derra

Can the robot come out to play?

Major league baseball players like Derek Jeter make actions like catching a fly ball look effortless. But if you want to understand the complexity underlying these moves, try teaching them to a robot. By combining expertise in engineering and psychology, ASU researchers have created Catchbot, a baseball-playing robot. In the process, they have learned a lot about how people perceive and respond to a moving target. --by Skip Derra

Researchers design new prosthesis

Researchers from ASU and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center are teaming up to create the next generation of powered prosthetic devices based on lightweight, energy-storing springs. --by Christine Lambrakis

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