Exploring haptic interfacing with a mobile robot without visual feedback

Search and rescue scenarios are often complicated by low or no visibility conditions. The lack of visual feedback hampers orientation and causes significant stress for human rescue workers. The Guardians project [1] pioneered a group of autonomous mobile robots assisting a human rescue worker operating within close range. Trials were held with fire fighters of South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue. It became clear that the subjects by no means were prepared to give up their procedural routine and the feel of security they provide: they simply ignored instructions that contradicted their routines

Design and Development of a Hand Exoskeleton Robot for Active and Passive Rehabilitation

The present work, which describes the mechatronic design and development of a novel rehabilitation robotic exoskeleton hand, aims to present a solution for neuromusculoskeletal rehabilitation. It presents a full range of motion for all hand phalanges and was specifically designed to carry out position and force-position control for passive and active rehabilitation routines. System integration and preliminary clinical tests are also presented

Biomimetic rehabilitation engineering: the importance of somatosensory feedback for brain-machine interfaces.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) re-establish communication channels between the nervous system and an external device. The use of BMI technology has generated significant developments in rehabilitative medicine, promising new ways to restore lost sensory-motor functions. However and despite high-caliber basic research, only a few prototypes have successfully left the laboratory and are currently home-deployed. The failure of this laboratory-to-user transfer likely relates to the absence of BMI solutions for providing naturalistic feedback about the consequences of the BMI's actions. To overcome this limitation, nowadays cutting-edge BMI advances are guided by the principle of biomimicry; i.e. the artificial reproduction of normal neural mechanisms. Here, we focus on the importance of somatosensory feedback in BMIs devoted to reproducing movements with the goal of serving as a reference framework for future research on innovative rehabilitation procedures. First, we address the correspondence between users' needs and BMI solutions. Then, we describe the main features of invasive and non-invasive BMIs, including their degree of biomimicry and respective advantages and drawbacks. Furthermore, we explore the prevalent approaches for providing quasi-natural sensory feedback in BMI settings. Finally, we cover special situations that can promote biomimicry and we present the future directions in basic research and clinical applications. The continued incorporation of biomimetic features into the design of BMIs will surely serve to further ameliorate the realism of BMIs, as well as tremendously improve their actuation, acceptance, and use

Advances in wearable technology and applications in physical medicine and rehabilitation

The development of miniature sensors that can be unobtrusively attached to the body or can be part of clothing items, such as sensing elements embedded in the fabric of garments, have opened countless possibilities of monitoring patients in the field over extended periods of time. This is of particular relevance to the practice of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Wearable technology addresses a major question in the management of patients undergoing rehabilitation, i.e. have clinical interventions a significant impact on the real life of patients? Wearable technology allows clinicians to gather data where it matters the most to answer this question, i.e. the home and community settings. Direct observations concerning the impact of clinical interventions on mobility, level of independence, and quality of life can be performed by means of wearable systems. Researchers have focused on three main areas of work to develop tools of clinical interest: 1)the design and implementation of sensors that are minimally obtrusive and reliably record movement or physiological signals, 2)the development of systems that unobtrusively gather data from multiple wearable sensors and deliver this information to clinicians in the way that is most appropriate for each application, and 3)the design and implementation of algorithms to extract clinically relevant information from data recorded using wearable technology. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation has devoted a series of articles to this topic with the objective of offering a description of the state of the art in this research field and pointing to emerging applications that are relevant to the clinical practice in physical medicine and rehabilitation

Assistive mobility devices focusing on smart walkers : classification and review

In an aging society it is extremely important to develop devices, which can support and aid the elderly in their daily life. This demands means and tools that extend independent living and promote improved health. Thus, the goal of this article is to review the state of the art in the robotic technology for mobility assistive devices for people with mobility disabilities. The important role that robotics can play in mobility assistive devices is presented, as well as the identification and survey of mobility assistive devices subsystems with a particular focus on the walkers technology. The advances in the walkers’ field have been enormous and have shown a great potential on helping people with mobility disabilities. Thus it is presented a review of the available literature of walkers and are discussed major advances that have been made and limitations to be overcome

A novel human-machine interface for guiding : the NeoASAS Smart Walker

In an aging society it is extremely important to develop devices, which can support and aid the elderly in their daily life. This demands tools that extend independent living and promote improved health. In this work it is proposed a new interface approach integrated into a walker. This interface is based on a joystick and it is intended to extract the user’s movement intentions. The interface is designed to be userfriendly, simple and intuitive, efficient and economic, meeting usability aspects and focused on a commercial implementation, but not being demanding at the user cognitive level. Preliminary sets of experiments were performed which showed the sensibility of the joystick to extract navigation commands from the user. These signals presented a higher frequency component that was attenuated by a Benedict-Bordner g-h filter. The presented methodology offers an effective cancelation of the undesired components from joystick data, allowing the system to extract in real-time voluntary user’s navigation commands. Based on this real-time identification of voluntary user’s commands, an approach to the control architecture of the robotic walker is being developed, in order to obtain stable and safe user assisted locomotion.(undefined

Southwest Research Institute assistance to NASA in biomedical areas of the Technology Utilization program

Technology utilization in biomedical areas, particularly for infants and handicapped person

Design Criteria of Soft Exogloves for Hand Rehabilitation- Assistance Tasks

This paper establishes design criteria for soft exogloves (SEG) to be used as rehabilitation or assistance devices. This research consists in identifying, selecting, and grouping SEG features based on the analysis of 91 systems that have been proposed during the last decade. Thus, function, mobility, and usability criteria are defined and explicitly discussed to highlight SEG design guidelines. Additionally, this study provides a detailed description of each system that was analysed including application, functional task, palm design, actuation type, assistance mode, degrees of freedom (DOF), target fingers, motions, material, weight, force, pressure (only for fluids), control strategy, and assessment. Such characteristics have been reported according to specific design methodologies and operating principles. Technological trends are contemplated in this contribution with emphasis on SEG design opportunity areas. In this review, suggestions, limitations, and implications are also discussed in order to enhance future SEG developments aimed at stroke survivors or people with hand disabilities

Pain Management Resource Guide for Caregivers of Children with Phantom Limb Pain

Approximately 80% of children, under the age of 18, develop phantom limb pain within one year after receiving an amputation (Burgoyne, Billups, Jiron, Kaddoum, Wright, Bikhazi, Parish, & Pereiras, 2012; Krane & Heller, 1995). Research on treating phantom limb pain has been focused on the adult population and often includes the use of pharmacological interventions (Subedi & Grossberg, 2011). Because phantom limb pain can cause psychological and physical dysfunction, it can negatively impact a child\u27s ability to engage in everyday life. Currently, no holistic treatment guides are available for caregivers to refer to when helping their child manage his or her phantom limb pain. The P.L.P. (Play Learn Persevere) is a resource guide created for occupational therapists to give to caregivers of children with phantom limb pain. This product is intended to be introduced by occupational therapists working in acute care settings with children who have undergone a unilateral amputation. The P.L.P. is designed to help caregivers manage their child\u27s phantom limb pain by using the physical and psychosocial activities provided in the resource guide

Technology applications

A summary of NASA Technology Utilization programs for the period of 1 December 1971 through 31 May 1972 is presented. An abbreviated description of the overall Technology Utilization Applications Program is provided as a background for the specific applications examples. Subjects discussed are in the broad headings of: (1) cancer, (2) cardiovascular disease, (2) medical instrumentation, (4) urinary system disorders, (5) rehabilitation medicine, (6) air and water pollution, (7) housing and urban construction, (8) fire safety, (9) law enforcement and criminalistics, (10) transportation, and (11) mine safety