Research Associate

Brandon Peterson is the software and controls lead on IHMC’s exoskeleton team. He graduated from Pace High School and has been a Pensacola native for almost 20 years. He earned bachelor’s degrees in both Computer Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Florida in 2017 and a master’s degree in Robotics from the University of Michigan in 2019.

Brandon first started working on assistive devices as a software engineering intern at IHMC in 2018. He spent eight months advancing the capabilities of the Mina v2 exoskeleton, including integrating pressure-sensing feet, an improved user interface with new walking modes, and a standing balance controller. During his time at UMich, Brandon studied under Dr. Elliott Rouse in the Neurobionics Lab, a group focusing on the intersection between biomechanical science and wearable robotics. Brandon’s efforts focused on the design and control of an electromechanical testbench comprised of series elastic actuators that aimed to experimentally validate an optimal stiffness value of the series elastic element for a given biomechanical task. He started full-time at IHMC in May 2019, and his current priority is to develop the control software to prepare the Quix exoskeleton for competition at the Cybathlon in Zurich, Switzerland in May 2020.