Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Patrick A. Forbes is a leading researcher in the sensorimotor control of human standing balance, with a career dedicated to understanding how the nervous system integrates sensory feedback—particularly vestibular signals—to maintain upright posture. His most cited work, “Sensorimotor control of standing balance” (151 citations), provides a foundational framework for this field, while his 2016 paper on the transformation of vestibular signals (80 citations) reveals how the brain converts head-motion cues into whole-body postural commands. Forbes is renowned for using robotic systems to manipulate the balance control loop, exposing participants to unexpected sensorimotor delays to probe the brain’s adaptive mechanisms. His innovative approach has shown that humans can learn to stand with artificially induced delays, and that these learned strategies generalize across movement directions and even from hand to leg effectors—a finding with profound implications for rehabilitation and prosthetics. More recently, his 2025 work on robotic manipulation of bipedalism uncovers overlapping internal representations of space and time in balance control. With a growing citation impact exceeding 370 total citations, Forbes continues to push the boundaries of how we understand the brain’s remarkable ability to keep us upright in a dynamic world.