Dr. John E. Speich

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
E-mail jespeich@vcu.edu
Phone: (804) 827-7036
Fax: (804) 827-7030

Visit Dr. Speich’s Web site

Address

401 W. Main Street, Room E3240
P.O. Box 843015
Richmond, Virginia 23284-3015

Education

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2001
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 1997
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN, 1995

Research topics

Smooth muscle biomechanics
Developing robotic devices for medical applications
Robotic devices for delivering rehabilitation therapy
Robot-assisted surgery
Robotic devices to aid persons with disabilities
Telemanipulation - especially scaled bilateral telemanipulation
Human-robot interaction and haptic interfaces
Compliant-mechanism-based robots and devices

Classes taught

EGRM 201 Dynamics and Kinematics
EGRM 202 Mechanics of Deformables
EGRM 300 Mechanical Systems Design
ENGR 315 Process and System Dynamics
ENGR 427 Robotics
ENGR 568 Robotic Manipulators

Journal publications

Speich, J., Quintero, K., Dosier, C., Borgsmiller, L., Koo, H. and Ratz, P. A Mechanical Model for Adjustable Passive Stiffness in Rabbit Detrusor. Journal of Applied Physiology, in press, Epub ahead of print June 15, 2006.
Call, C., Han, S., Speich, J., Eddinger, T. and Ratz, P. Resistance to Pressure-Induced Dilatation in Femoral But Not Saphenous Artery: Physiological Role of Latch? American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology, in press, Epub ahead of print May 26, 2006.
Han, S., Speich, J., Eddinger, T., Berg, K., Miner, A., Call, C. and Ratz, P. Evidence for Absence of Latchbridge Formation in the Muscular Saphenous Artery. American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology, vol. 291, no. 1, pp. H138-H146, 2006.
McLeskey, J., Speich, J., Richardson, J. and Gad-el-Hak, M. Evaluation of an Experiential Engineering Library. International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 247–256, 2006.
Speich, J., Borgsmiller, L., Call, C., Mohr, R. and Ratz, P. ROK-Induced Crosslink Formation Stiffens Passive Muscle: Reversible Strain-Induced Stress Softening in Rabbit Detrusor. American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology, vol. 289, pp. C12-C21, 2005.
Speich, J., Shao, L. and Goldfarb M. Modeling the Human Hand as it Interacts with a Telemanipulation System. Mechatronics, vol. 15, no. 9, pp. 1127-1142, 2005.
Speich, J., Cagle, Y., Rafiq, A., Merrell, R., Doarn C. and Broderick, T. Evaluation of Surgical Skills in Microgravity Using Force Sensing. Medical Engineering and Physics, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 687-693, 2005.
Speich, J. and Goldfarb, M. An Implementation of Loop-Shaping Compensation for Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Macro-Micro Scaled Telemanipulation. IEEE Trans. on Control Systems Technology, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 459-464, 2005.
Panait L., Broderick T., Rafiq A., Speich J., Doarn C.R., Merrell R.C. Measurement of laparoscopic skills in microgravity anticipates the space surgeon. American Journal of Surgery, vol. 188, no. 5, pp. 549-552, 2004.
Speich, J., McLeskey, J., Richardson, J. and Gad-el-Hak, M. The Experiential Engineering Library. International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 1022-1033, 2004.
Fite, K., Speich, J. and Goldfarb, M. Transparency and Stability in Two-Channel Bilateral Telemanipulation. ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, vol. 123, no. 3, pp. 400-407, 2001.
Speich, J. and Goldfarb, M. A Compliant-Mechanism-Based Three Degree-of-Freedom Manipulator for Small-Scale Manipulation. Robotica, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 95-104, 2000.
Goldfarb, M. and Speich, J. A Well-Behaved Revolute Flexure Joint for Compliant Mechanism Design. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 121, no. 3, pp. 424-429, 1999.

Book chapters

Speich, J. and Rosen, J. Medical Robotics. Encyclopedia of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, G. Wnek and G. Bowlin, eds., Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 983-993, 2004.

Conference proceedings

Beck, J., Noras, M., Kieres, J., Speich, J., Mossi, K. and Leang, K. Hysteresis characterization using charge-feedback control for LIPCA a device. Proceedings of the SPIE Conference, Smart Structures and Materials 2006, vol. 6170, pp. 424–433, March 2006.
McJunkin, S., Speich, J. and O'Malley, M. Transparency Extension in Haptic Interfaces Via Adaptive Dynamics Cancellation. In Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November 2005.
McJunkin, S., O’Malley, M. and Speich, J. Transparency of a Phantom Premium Haptic Interface for Active and Passive Human Interaction. In Proceedings of the American Control Conference, June 2005.
McLeskey, J., Speich, J., Richardson, J. and Gad-el-Hak, M. The Creation of an Experiential Engineering Library. In Proceedings of the ASEE 2004 Annual Conference and Exposition, June 2004.
Speich, J. and O’Malley, M. Current Challenges in the Control of Haptic Interfaces and Bilateral Teleoperation Systems. In Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November 2003.
Speich, J. and Goldfarb, M. Implementation of Loop-Shaping Compensators to Increase the Transparency Bandwidth of a Scaled Telemanipulation System. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2002.
Speich, J., Shao, L. and Goldfarb, M. An Experimental Hand/Arm Model for Human Interaction with a Telemanipulation System. In Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November 2001.
Goldfarb, M. and Speich, J. The Development of a Split-Tube Flexure. In Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, pp. 861-866, November 2000.
Fite, K., Speich, J. and Goldfarb, M. On the Use of Two Channels for Bilateral Telemanipulation. In Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, pp. 1231-1238, November 2000.
Speich, J., Fite, K. and Goldfarb, M. A Method for Simultaneously Increasing Transparency Bandwidth and Stability Robustness in Bilateral Telemanipulation. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2671-2676, April 2000.
Goldfarb, M. and Speich, J. Compliant Micromanipulator Design for Scaled Bilateral Telemanipulation of Small-Scale Environments. In Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, DSC-vol. 64, pp. 213-218, November 1998.
Goldfarb, M. and Speich, J. A Three Degree-of-Freedom Flexure-Based Manipulator for High Resolution Spatial Micromanipulation. Microrobotics and Micromanipulation, Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 3519, pp. 82-92, November 1998.
Speich, J. and Goldfarb, M. Compliant Manipulator Design for Spatial Micromanipulation. International Advanced Robotics Programme, Second International Workshop on Microrobotics and Systems, pp. 93-103, October 1998, Beijing China.
Goldfarb, M. and Speich, J. Eliminating Non-Smooth Nonlinearities with Compliant Manipulator Design. In Proceedings of the IEEE/ASME American Control Conference, pp. 2118-2122, June 1998.
Goldfarb, M. and Speich, J. Design of a Minimum Surface-Effect Three Degree-of-Freedom Micromanipulator. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 1466-1471, April 1997.