Accessibility requirements for human-robot interaction for socially assistive robots

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorPrograma de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Informática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: María Ángeles Malfaz Vázquez.- Secretario: Diego Martín de Andrés.- Vocal: Mike Wal

Robust Immersive Telepresence and Mobile Telemanipulation: NimbRo wins ANA Avatar XPRIZE Finals

Robotic avatar systems promise to bridge distances and reduce the need for travel. We present the updated NimbRo avatar system, winner of the $5M grand prize at the international ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, which required participants to build intuitive and immersive robotic telepresence systems that could be operated by briefly trained operators. We describe key improvements for the finals, compared to the system used in the semifinals: To operate without a power- and communications tether, we integrated a battery and a robust redundant wireless communication system. Video and audio data are compressed using low-latency HEVC and Opus codecs. We propose a new locomotion control device with tunable resistance force. To increase flexibility, the robot's upper-body height can be adjusted by the operator. We describe essential monitoring and robustness tools which enabled the success at the competition. Finally, we analyze our performance at the competition finals and discuss lessons learned.Comment: M. Schwarz and C. Lenz contributed equall

Development of new intelligent autonomous robotic assistant for hospitals

Continuous technological development in modern societies has increased the quality of life and average life-span of people. This imposes an extra burden on the current healthcare infrastructure, which also creates the opportunity for developing new, autonomous, assistive robots to help alleviate this extra workload. The research question explored the extent to which a prototypical robotic platform can be created and how it may be implemented in a hospital environment with the aim to assist the hospital staff with daily tasks, such as guiding patients and visitors, following patients to ensure safety, and making deliveries to and from rooms and workstations. In terms of major contributions, this thesis outlines five domains of the development of an actual robotic assistant prototype. Firstly, a comprehensive schematic design is presented in which mechanical, electrical, motor control and kinematics solutions have been examined in detail. Next, a new method has been proposed for assessing the intrinsic properties of different flooring-types using machine learning to classify mechanical vibrations. Thirdly, the technical challenge of enabling the robot to simultaneously map and localise itself in a dynamic environment has been addressed, whereby leg detection is introduced to ensure that, whilst mapping, the robot is able to distinguish between people and the background. The fourth contribution is geometric collision prediction into stabilised dynamic navigation methods, thus optimising the navigation ability to update real-time path planning in a dynamic environment. Lastly, the problem of detecting gaze at long distances has been addressed by means of a new eye-tracking hardware solution which combines infra-red eye tracking and depth sensing. The research serves both to provide a template for the development of comprehensive mobile assistive-robot solutions, and to address some of the inherent challenges currently present in introducing autonomous assistive robots in hospital environments.Open Acces

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

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

BNCI Horizon 2020 - Towards a Roadmap for Brain/Neural Computer Interaction

In this paper, we present BNCI Horizon 2020, an EU Coordination and Support Action (CSA) that will provide a roadmap for brain-computer interaction research for the next years, starting in 2013, and aiming at research efforts until 2020 and beyond. The project is a successor of the earlier EU-funded Future BNCI CSA that started in 2010 and produced a roadmap for a shorter time period. We present how we, a consortium of the main European BCI research groups as well as companies and end user representatives, expect to tackle the problem of designing a roadmap for BCI research. In this paper, we define the field with its recent developments, in particular by considering publications and EU-funded research projects, and we discuss how we plan to involve research groups, companies, and user groups in our effort to pave the way for useful and fruitful EU-funded BCI research for the next ten years

Enhancing tele-operation - Investigating the effect of sensory feedback on performance

The decline in the number of healthcare service providers in comparison to the growing numbers of service users prompts the development of technologies to improve the efficiency of healthcare services. One such technology which could offer support are assistive robots, remotely tele-operated to provide assistive care and support for older adults with assistive care needs and people living with disabilities. Tele-operation makes it possible to provide human-in-the-loop robotic assistance while also addressing safety concerns in the use of autonomous robots around humans. Unlike many other applications of robot tele-operation, safety is particularly significant as the tele-operated assistive robots will be used in close proximity to vulnerable human users. It is therefore important to provide as much information about the robot (and the robot workspace) as possible to the tele-operators to ensure safety, as well as efficiency. Since robot tele-operation is relatively unexplored in the context of assisted living, this thesis explores different feedback modalities that may be employed to communicate sensor information to tele-operators. The thesis presents research as it transitioned from identifying and evaluating additional feedback modalities that may be used to supplement video feedback, to exploring different strategies for communicating the different feedback modalities. Due to the fact that some of the sensors and feedback needed are not readily available, different design iterations were carried out to develop the necessary hardware and software for the studies carried out. The first human study was carried out to investigate the effect of feedback on tele-operator performance. Performance was measured in terms of task completion time, ease of use of the system, number of robot joint movements, and success or failure of the task. The effect of verbal feedback between the tele-operator and service users was also investigated. Feedback modalities have differing effects on performance metrics and as a result, the choice of optimal feedback may vary from task to task. Results show that participants preferred scenarios with verbal feedback relative to scenarios without verbal feedback, which also reflects in their performance. Gaze metrics from the study also showed that it may be possible to understand how tele-operators interact with the system based on their areas of interest as they carry out tasks. This findings suggest that such studies can be used to improve the design of tele-operation systems.The need for social interaction between the tele-operator and service user suggests that visual and auditory feedback modalities will be engaged as tasks are carried out. This further reduces the number of available sensory modalities through which information can be communicated to tele-operators. A wrist-worn Wi-Fi enabled haptic feedback device was therefore developed and a study was carried out to investigate haptic sensitivities across the wrist. Results suggest that different locations on the wrist have varying sensitivities to haptic stimulation with and without video distraction, duration of haptic stimulation, and varying amplitudes of stimulation. This suggests that dynamic control of haptic feedback can be used to improve haptic perception across the wrist, and it may also be possible to display more than one type of sensor data to tele-operators during a task. The final study carried out was designed to investigate if participants can differentiate between different types of sensor data conveyed through different locations on the wrist via haptic feedback. The effect of increased number of attempts on performance was also investigated. Total task completion time decreased with task repetition. Participants with prior gaming and robot experience had a more significant reduction in total task completion time when compared to participants without prior gaming and robot experience. Reduction in task completion time was noticed for all stages of the task but participants with additional feedback had higher task completion time than participants without supplementary feedback. Reduction in task completion time varied for different stages of the task. Even though gripper trajectory reduced with task repetition, participants with supplementary feedback had longer gripper trajectories than participants without supplementary feedback, while participants with prior gaming experience had shorter gripper trajectories than participants without prior gaming experience. Perceived workload was also found to reduce with task repetition but perceived workload was higher for participants with feedback reported higher perceived workload than participants without feedback. However participants without feedback reported higher frustration than participants without feedback.Results show that the effect of feedback may not be significant where participants can get necessary information from video feedback. However, participants were fully dependent on feedback when video feedback could not provide requisite information needed.The findings presented in this thesis have potential applications in healthcare, and other applications of robot tele-operation and feedback. Findings can be used to improve feedback designs for tele-operation systems to ensure safe and efficient tele-operation. The thesis also provides ways visual feedback can be used with other feedback modalities. The haptic feedback designed in this research may also be used to provide situational awareness for the visually impaired