Ben Dodson
Ben Dodson contributed to FEAST, a flexible robot system for mealtime assistance. Dodson was one of ten coauthors of a 2025 paper. FEAST supports feeding, drinking and mouth wiping through modular hardware, several interaction methods and behavior trees that can be adapted with a large language model. Its evaluation included meals in the homes of two care recipients and a check with an occupational therapist. The work received the RSS 2025 Outstanding Paper Award.
Timeline
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2025
Designing for individual care
Dodson coauthored FEAST with a team working on physical caregiving robots. The system supports feeding, drinking and mouth wiping. Its design was informed by care recipients and two community researchers, who helped define the needs of real homes.
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2025
Adapting robot behavior
FEAST combines modular hardware with several control methods, including a web interface, head gestures and physical buttons. Parameterized behavior trees let a large language model help adapt the system while keeping the changes transparent to the user.
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2025
Testing assistance in homes
The team conducted an in-home study with two care recipients, each receiving three meals across different scenarios. They also evaluated the system with an occupational therapist. Users personalized the system to their needs in this small study.
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2025
Shared paper recognition
FEAST won the Robotics: Science and Systems Outstanding Paper Award. Dodson coauthored the paper with nine others. The award recognizes the research system presented by the team.
Sources and credits
Photo: benzen-3.github.io; Ben Dodson profile photograph; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: benzen-3.github.io. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.