1,521 research outputs found
In-home and remote use of robotic body surrogates by people with profound motor deficits
By controlling robots comparable to the human body, people with profound
motor deficits could potentially perform a variety of physical tasks for
themselves, improving their quality of life. The extent to which this is
achievable has been unclear due to the lack of suitable interfaces by which to
control robotic body surrogates and a dearth of studies involving substantial
numbers of people with profound motor deficits. We developed a novel, web-based
augmented reality interface that enables people with profound motor deficits to
remotely control a PR2 mobile manipulator from Willow Garage, which is a
human-scale, wheeled robot with two arms. We then conducted two studies to
investigate the use of robotic body surrogates. In the first study, 15 novice
users with profound motor deficits from across the United States controlled a
PR2 in Atlanta, GA to perform a modified Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) and a
simulated self-care task. Participants achieved clinically meaningful
improvements on the ARAT and 12 of 15 participants (80%) successfully completed
the simulated self-care task. Participants agreed that the robotic system was
easy to use, was useful, and would provide a meaningful improvement in their
lives. In the second study, one expert user with profound motor deficits had
free use of a PR2 in his home for seven days. He performed a variety of
self-care and household tasks, and also used the robot in novel ways. Taking
both studies together, our results suggest that people with profound motor
deficits can improve their quality of life using robotic body surrogates, and
that they can gain benefit with only low-level robot autonomy and without
invasive interfaces. However, methods to reduce the rate of errors and increase
operational speed merit further investigation.Comment: 43 Pages, 13 Figure
Combining brain-computer interfaces and assistive technologies: state-of-the-art and challenges
In recent years, new research has brought the field of EEG-based Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) out of its infancy and into a phase of relative maturity through many demonstrated prototypes such as brain-controlled wheelchairs, keyboards, and computer games. With this proof-of-concept phase in the past, the time is now ripe to focus on the development of practical BCI technologies that can be brought out of the lab and into real-world applications. In particular, we focus on the prospect of improving the lives of countless disabled individuals through a combination of BCI technology with existing assistive technologies (AT). In pursuit of more practical BCIs for use outside of the lab, in this paper, we identify four application areas where disabled individuals could greatly benefit from advancements in BCI technology, namely,“Communication and Control”, “Motor Substitution”, “Entertainment”, and “Motor Recovery”. We review the current state of the art and possible future developments, while discussing the main research issues in these four areas. In particular, we expect the most progress in the development of technologies such as hybrid BCI architectures, user-machine adaptation algorithms, the exploitation of users’ mental states for BCI reliability and confidence measures, the incorporation of principles in human-computer interaction (HCI) to improve BCI usability, and the development of novel BCI technology including better EEG devices
AdaptiX -- A Transitional XR Framework for Development and Evaluation of Shared Control Applications in Assistive Robotics
With the ongoing efforts to empower people with mobility impairments and the
increase in technological acceptance by the general public, assistive
technologies, such as collaborative robotic arms, are gaining popularity. Yet,
their widespread success is limited by usability issues, specifically the
disparity between user input and software control along the autonomy continuum.
To address this, shared control concepts provide opportunities to combine the
targeted increase of user autonomy with a certain level of computer assistance.
This paper presents the free and open-source AdaptiX XR framework for
developing and evaluating shared control applications in a high-resolution
simulation environment. The initial framework consists of a simulated robotic
arm with an example scenario in Virtual Reality (VR), multiple standard control
interfaces, and a specialized recording/replay system. AdaptiX can easily be
extended for specific research needs, allowing Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
researchers to rapidly design and test novel interaction methods, intervention
strategies, and multi-modal feedback techniques, without requiring an actual
physical robotic arm during the early phases of ideation, prototyping, and
evaluation. Also, a Robot Operating System (ROS) integration enables the
controlling of a real robotic arm in a PhysicalTwin approach without any
simulation-reality gap. Here, we review the capabilities and limitations of
AdaptiX in detail and present three bodies of research based on the framework.
AdaptiX can be accessed at https://adaptix.robot-research.de.Comment: Accepted submission at The 16th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering
Interactive Computing Systems (EICS'24
Electrotactile feedback applications for hand and arm interactions: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and future directions
Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of
human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low
portability/wearability of haptic devices remain unresolved issues, severely
limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile
interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable due to their
reduced actuators' size, as well as their lower power consumption and
manufacturing cost. The applications of electrotactile feedback have been
explored in human-computer interaction and human-machine-interaction for
facilitating hand-based interactions in applications such as prosthetics,
virtual reality, robotic teleoperation, surface haptics, portable devices, and
rehabilitation. This paper presents a technological overview of electrotactile
feedback, as well a systematic review and meta-analysis of its applications for
hand-based interactions. We discuss the different electrotactile systems
according to the type of application. We also discuss over a quantitative
congregation of the findings, to offer a high-level overview into the
state-of-art and suggest future directions. Electrotactile feedback systems
showed increased portability/wearability, and they were successful in rendering
and/or augmenting most tactile sensations, eliciting perceptual processes, and
improving performance in many scenarios. However, knowledge gaps (e.g.,
embodiment), technical (e.g., recurrent calibration, electrodes' durability)
and methodological (e.g., sample size) drawbacks were detected, which should be
addressed in future studies.Comment: 18 pages, 1 table, 8 figures, under review in Transactions on
Haptics. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication.
Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no
longer be accessible.Upon acceptance of the article by IEEE, the preprint
article will be replaced with the accepted versio
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