Nick Bianco
Research Engineer
Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance
nbianco@stanford.edu
Clark Center, Room S322
Research Interests
I am interested in building tools for simulating human movement and using these tools to study walking exoskeleton devices. I co-developed OpenSim Moco, a software package for creating biomechanical simulations using direct collocation optimal control. I have used direct collocation to simulate exoskeletons that reduce the energy cost of walking and change walking kinematics to influence balance.
Degrees
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2022
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2018
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida, 2015
Honors and Awards
Stanford Bio-X Student Travel Award (ISB, Calgary), 2019
Runner Up – ASME-BED PhD Level Student Paper Competition (WCB, Dublin), 2018
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2015
Stanford Graduate Fellowship, 2015
Winner – Undergraduate Level Paper Competition (SB3C, Utah), 2015
NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates Award Recipient, 2014
Publications
Bianco, N.A, Collins, S.H., Liu, K., Delp, S.L., 2023. Simulating the effect of ankle plantarflexion and inversion-eversion exoskeleton torques on center of mass kinematics during walking. PLoS Computational Biology 19(8): e1010712. Download PDF.
Bianco, N.A, Franks, P.W., Hicks, J.L., Delp, S.L., 2022. Coupled exoskeleton assistance simplifies control and maintains metabolic benefits: A simulation study. PloS ONE 17 (1), e026131822022. Download PDF.
Johnson, R.T., Bianco, N.A., Finley, J.M., 2022. Patterns of asymmetry and energy cost generated from predictive simulations of hemiparetic gait. PLoS Computational Biology 18(9): e1010466. Download PDF.
Dembia, C.L.*, Bianco, N.A.*, Falisse, A., Hicks, J.L., Delp, S.L., 2020. OpenSim Moco: Musculoskeletal optimal control. PLoS Computational Biology 16(12): e1008493. * contributed equally. Download PDF.
Bianco, N.A., Patten, C., Fregly, B.J., 2017. Can Measured Synergy Excitations Accurately Construct Unmeasured Muscle Excitations? Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. doi:10.1115/1.4038199. Download PDF.
Conference Presentations
Bianco, N.A., Franks, P.W., Hicks, J.L., Delp, S.L., 2020. Simulated exoskeletons with coupled degrees-of-freedom reduce the metabolic cost of walking. 5th International Symposium on Wearable Robotics (WeRob). Virtual format.
Franks, P.W., Bianco, N.A., Bryan, G.M., Hicks, J.L., Delp, S.L., Collins, S.H., 2020. Testing simulated assistance strategies on a hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton emulator: a case study. Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob). New York, New York. Download PDF.
Bianco, N.A., Hicks, J.L., Delp, S.L., 2019. Musculoskeletal simulations reveal the metabolic benefits of assistive strategies that couple multiple degrees-of-freedom. XXVII Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics. Calgary, Canada.
Bianco, N.A., Jackson, R.W., Dembia, C.L., Delp, S.L., 2018. Optimization of a simulated ankle-hip exosuit reveals benefit of flexible torque assistance strategies for reducing the metabolic cost of walking. Proceedings of the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics. Dublin, Ireland.
Dembia, C.L., Bianco, N.A., Hicks, J.L., Delp, S.L., 2017. Can musculoskeletal models and optimal control reproduce results from an experimental exoskeleton study? XXVI Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics. Brisbane, Australia.
Bianco, N.A., Patten, C., Fregly, B.J., 2015. Can measured muscle synergies reconstruct unmeasured muscle excitations? Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C). Snowbird, Utah.