Welcome to the Enhanced NeuroRobotics Autonomy and Biomechanical Engineering (ENABLE) Lab

We combine human beings and robotics to improve the quality of life.

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO

Welcome!

We develop robotic devices and control strategies to provide personalized assistance and overcome mobility challenges with the fundamental goal of improving the quality of life for the aged population and people with mobility deficits, like stroke, spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis. 

We accomplish this goal by combining robotics, biomechanics, neuromuscular modeling/control, human-centered artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and biomedical engineering to create effective and efficient systems. 

Latest News

  • March 5, 2025 – Congrats on our collaborative paper titled “Reinforcement Learning Methods for Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotic Systems: Survey” being accepted to IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems.
  • March 3, 2025 – Congrats on our collaborative paper titled “Biomechanics-informed mechatronics design of comfort-centered portable hip exoskeleton: Actuator, wearable interface, controller” being accepted to IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics.
  • January 31, 2025 – Congrats on Oluwasegun Akinniyi’s paper titled “Lower Limb Muscle Activities and Contractility during Stepping Response to Unexpected Waist-Pull Perturbations” being accepted in the Proceedings of 2025 International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR).
  • January 27, 2025 – Congrats on Yun Chen’s paper titled “Towards Neurorobotic Interface for Finger Joint Angle Estimation: A Multi-Stage CNN-LSTM Network with Transfer Learning” being accepted in the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
  • December 11, 2024 – Congrats on our paper titled “AnkleImage – An ultrafast ultrasound image dataset to understand the ankle joint muscle contractility” being accepted to Scientific Data.
  • December 5, 2024 – Dr. Zhang’s and the ENABLE Lab’s profiles are included in the Winter 2024 issue of the ASME DSCD Newsletter (New Faces Spotlights). 
  • October 30, 2024 – Congrats on Dr. Zhang’s Book Chapter “Closing the Loop Between Wearable Robots and Machine Learning: A New Paradigm for Steering Assistance Personalization Control” being published in the book “Discovering the Frontiers of Human-Robot Interaction“. 
  • October 28, 2024 – Our ENABLE Lab has been highlighted in the 2024 Faculty Research Showcase event hosted by the Office for Undergraduate Research at UA. 
  • September 18, 2024 – Congrats on our paper titled “Towards Task-Independent Optimal Adaptive Control of a Hip Exoskeleton for Locomotion Assistance in Neurorehabilitation” being accepted to IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems.
  • August 14, 2024 – Congrats to Dr. Zhang has been selected as the ASME DSCD Mechatronics TC Secretary Select for 2024. 
  • July 18, 2024 – Congrats to Dr. Zhang has been selected to receive funding from the SEC Faculty Travel Program and the ORED at UA for 2024. 
  • June 28, 2024 – Congrats to Yun Chen’s paper titled “Enhancing Prosthetic Control with Ultrasound Images: A Convolutional Neural Network Approach for Hand Gesture Recognition” being accepted at the 2024 Modeling, Estimation, and Control Conference (MECC 2024).
  • May 24, 2024 – Congrats to both Yun’s abstract and Sahar’s abstract being accepted for oral or poster presentations at the 2024 American Society of Biomechanics (ASB 2024) annual meeting.
  • May 22, 2024 – Congrats to our collaborator Fujian Yan’s paper titled “Learning Motion Primitives for the Quantification and Diagnosis of Mobility Deficits” being accepted to IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2024.3404357.
  • April 21, 2024 – Congrats to Oluwasegun Akinniyi’s paper titled “Development and Control of a Cable-Driven Robotic Platform for Studying Human Balance and Gait” being accepted at the 2024 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM) (AIM 2024).
  • January 30, 2024 – Dr. Qiang Zhang is appointed as an affliated Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UA. 
  • January 22, 2024 – Welcome Yun Chen join the ENABLE Lab as the second Ph.D. student. 
  • January 03, 2024 – Dr. Qiang Zhang is appointed as associate editor for the ​IEEE RAS EMBS 10th International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob 2024).
  • November 20, 2023 – Welcome Oluwasegun Akinniyi to join the ENABLE Lab as the first Ph.D. student. 
  • October 30, 2023 – Dr. Qiang Zhang gives an oral presentation titled “A Model-free Reinforcement Learning-based Control Approach to Provide Personalized Assistance for People with Stroke” at the 2023 ACRM Annual Conference.
  • October 07, 2023 – Dr. Qiang Zhang is appointed as the Technical Committee member of the 2023 3rd International Conference on Industrial Automation, Robotics and Control Engineering.
  • October 03, 2023 – Dr. Qiang Zhang gives an oral presentation titled “A Robotic Assistance Personalization Control Approach of Hip Exoskeletons for Gait Symmetry Improvement” at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023).
  • October 03, 2023 – Dr. Qiang Zhang gives an oral presentation titled “Evaluation of a fused sonomyography and electromyography-based control on a cable-driven ankle exoskeleton” at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023).
  • August 16, 2023 – Dr. Qiang Zhang joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UA as an Assistant Professor.