DAVIS — A new grant from the Hartwell Foundation will help UC Davis robotics engineer Sanjay Joshi develop machine interfaces that severely disabled children can use to control computers, wheelchairs or other devices, and that adapt as they grow.

The Hartwell Foundation's Biomedical Research Award to Joshi, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is worth $300,000 over three years.

"Children grow every day," Joshi said. "We want the interface computer to learn how the child is growing and adapt accordingly."

In earlier work, Joshi, graduate student Claudia Perez-Maldonado and Professor Tony Wexler of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering developed technology to read electrical signals from a single facial muscle and use them to operate a computer cursor or a wheelchair. (Perez-Maldonado graduated in 2009 with a doctorate in biomedical engineering.)

The Hartwell award will allow Joshi and colleagues to translate their basic research into devices that are compact, adaptable and simple to use.

The lab will develop smart signal processing and computer software that constantly checks how well the user can manipulate the object, compare it to previous data and make adjustments automatically.

"This is straight out of my robotics experience," Joshi said. A robot needs to constantly adapt to its environment to work in the real world, he said. In the same way, the interface needs to adapt to changes as the child using it grows.

Joshi is collaborating with Wexler and Dr. Holly Zhao, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the UC Davis Health System, to develop the system and test it with disabled children. The UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center, which previously supported Joshi and colleagues with one of its seed-funding Highly Innovative Awards, will also assist with testing in patients.

This is the second Biomedical Research Award made by The Hartwell Foundation to a UC Davis researcher. Kent Leach, professor of biomedical engineering, was awarded a grant last year for work on an artificial bone matrix for infant skull deformities.

The primary mission of the Memphis, Tenn.,-based Hartwell Foundation is to grant awards to individuals for innovative and cutting-edge biomedical applied research that potentially benefits children.