Coupling Robot-aided assessment and surface electromyography to evaluate wrist and forearm muscles activity, muscle fatigue and its effect on proprioception

Sensorimotor functions and an intact neural control of muscles are essential for the effective execution of movements during daily living tasks. However, despite the ability of human sensorimotor system to cope with a great diversity of internal and external demands and constraints, these mechanisms can be altered as a consequence of neurological disorders, injuries or just due to excessive effort leading to muscle fatigue. A precise assessment of both motor and sensory impairment is thus needed in order to provide useful cues to monitor the progression of the disease in pathological populations or to prevent injuries in case of workers. In particular, considering muscle fatigue, an objective assessment of its manifestation may be crucial when dealing with subjects with neuromuscular disorders for understanding how specific disease features evolve over time or for testing the efficacy of a potential therapeutic strategy. Indeed, muscle fatigue accounts for a significant portion of the disease burden in populations with neuromuscular diseases but, despite its importance, a standardized, reliable and objective method for fatigue measurement is lacking in clinical practice. The work presented in this thesis investigates a practical solution through the use of a robotic task and parameters extracted by surface electromyography signals. Moreover, a similar approach that combines robot-mediated proprioception test and muscle fatigue assessment has been developed and used in this thesis to objectively investigate the influence of muscle fatigue on position sense. Finally, the effect of posture on muscle activity, from a perspective of injuries prevention, has been examined. Data on adults and children have been collected and quantitative and objective information about muscle activity, muscle fatigue and joint sensitivity were obtained gaining useful insight both in the clinical context and in the prevention of workplace injuries. A novel method to assess muscle fatigue has been proposed together with the definition of an easy readable indicator that can help clinicians in the assessment of the patient. As for the impact of fatigue on the sensorimotor system, results obtained showed a decrease in wrist proprioceptive acuity which led also to a decline in the performance of a simple tracing task. Regarding the adoption of different muscle strategies depending on postures, results showed that muscle activity of forearm muscles was overall similar regardless from the postures

Getting Smart: Learning From Technology-Empowered Frontline Interactions

Smart technologies are rapidly transforming frontline employee-customer interactions. However, little academic research has tackled urgent, relevant questions regarding such technology-empowered frontline interactions. The current study conceptualizes (1) smart technology use in frontline employee-customer interactions, (2) smart technology–mediated learning mechanisms that elevate service effectiveness and efficiency performance to empower frontline interactions, and (3) stakeholder interaction goals as antecedents of smart technology–mediated learning. We propose that emerging smart technologies, which can substitute for or complement frontline employees’ (FLEs) efforts to deliver customized service over time, may help resolve the long-standing tension between service efficiency and effectiveness because they can learn or enable learning from and across customers, FLEs, and interactions. Drawing from pragmatic and deliberate learning theories, the authors conceptualize stakeholder learning mechanisms that mediate the effects of frontline interaction goals on FLEs’ and customers’ effectiveness and efficiency outcomes. This study concludes with implications for research and practice

A Conceptual Analysis of Otakar Ševčík’s Method : A Cognitive Approach to Violin Teaching and Learning

Among music educators and particularly violinists, Otakar Ševčík and his violin method are accepted as important parts of the music education heritage. Starting from the initial stages of teaching and learning the violin, and reaching the most advanced thematic constructs, Ševčík’s educational work is the only one which covers in its content the widest – if not the whole – breadth of violin education, and debates in the most fervent way many variable approaches on musical and technical topics. However, even if its educational value is constantly acknowledged, nowadays it is not widely used in music teaching, as it is characterised by many instrumentalists as boring, complex, or difficult to understand. The surprising fact to all this is that during the end of the nineteenth and till the mid-­‐twentieth century, more than a thousand registered students were effectively taught directly by Ševčík through this method, while many others supported, used and were devoted to it, reaching through its path of knowledge their highest performing or teaching potential. My research, seeking to define a deeper understanding of the Ševčík ‘phenomenon’, offers a conceptual analysis to his entire educational approach, based on correlated to his life and work explicit and implicit links of information. Using three different but equally important sets of data – the context of the method’s existence, the content of the method’s 26 Opuses, and the method’s aspects of teaching and learning – my thesis finally justifies the hypothesis that Ševčík’s work, indeed, comprises a complete teaching and learning method, which provides the opportunity for a solid and holistic study on violin performance. *[N.B.: A DVD was attached to this thesis at the time of its submission. Please refer to the author for further details: 'A Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) is attached to this thesis for further reference. Please consult it according to the core text. All material included in the DVD is either the author’s mental property, or – in case of other sources – [legally] released to the author by the legal authorities. Please email the author for more information (www.violinist.gr)']

Towards artificial creativity: evolutionary methods for generating robot choreographies

Today robotics is widely used in many fields, from simple houseworks like floor cleaning to more complex tasks like rescuing people in dangerous situations such as earthquakes. Recently it has been expanding to a more creative field: entertainment. For this reason we have thought of developing a genetic algorithm that allows the robot to dance, starting from the codification of movements in order to achieve the creation of true choreographies.We start by analysing Noh choreographies, and then we transpose them ontoa humanoid robot, Nao. We then proceed by going through the implementation of an algorithm that allows the creation of choreographies. One of the hardest challenges that we will face is to create choreographies that are both faithful to Noh theater and new at the same time. We will conclude focusing on the evaluation criteria of the results and presenting some hypothesis for future developments in this field

Accomplishing task-invariant assembly strategies by means of an inherently accommodating robot arm

Despite the fact that the main advantage of robot manipulators was always meant to be their flexibility, they have not been applied widely to the assembly of industrial components in situations other than those where hard automation might be used. We identify the two main reasons for this as the 'fragility' of robot operation during tasks that involve contact, and the lack of an appropriate user interface. This thesis describes an attempt to address these problems.We survey the techniques that have been proposed to bring the performance of cur¬ rent industrial robot manipulators in line with expectations, and conclude that the main obstacle in realising a flexible assembly robot that exhibits robust and reliable behaviour is the problem of spatial uncertainty.Based on observations of the performance of position-controlled robot manipulators and what is involved during rigid-body part mating, we propose a model of assembly tasks that exploits the shape invariance of the part geometry across instances of a task. This allows us to escape from the problem of spatial uncertainty because we are 110 longer working in spatial terms. In addition, because the descriptions of assembly tasks that we derive are task-invariant, i.e. they are not dependent on part size or location, they lend themselves naturally to a task-level programming interface, thereby simplifying the process of programming an assembly robot.the process of programming an assembly robot. However, to test this approach empirically requires a manipulator that is able to control the force that it applies, as well as being sensitive to environmental constraints. The inertial properties of standard industrial manipulators preclude them from exhibiting this kind of behaviour. In order to solve this problem we designed and constructed a three degree of freedom, planar, direct-drive arm that is open-loop force-controllable (with respect to its end-point), and inherently accommodating during contact.In order to demonstrate the forgiving nature of operation of our robot arm we imple¬ mented a generic crank turning program that is independent of the geometry of the crank involved, i.e. no knowledge is required of the location or length of the crank. I11 order to demonstrate the viability of our proposed approach to assembly we pro¬ grammed our robot system to perform some representative tasks; the insertion of a peg into a hole, and the rotation of a block into a corner. These programs were tested on parts of various size and material, and in various locations in order to illustrate their invariant nature.We conclude that the problem of spatial uncertainty is in fact an artefact of the fact that current industrial manipulators are designed to be position controlled. The work described in this thesis shows that assembly robots, when appropriately designed, controlled and programmed, can be the reliable and flexible devices they were always meant to be

Advances in Neural Signal Processing

Neural signal processing is a specialized area of signal processing aimed at extracting information or decoding intent from neural signals recorded from the central or peripheral nervous system. This has significant applications in the areas of neuroscience and neural engineering. These applications are famously known in the area of brain–machine interfaces. This book presents recent advances in this flourishing field of neural signal processing with demonstrative applications