3,812 research outputs found
User-centered design of a dynamic-autonomy remote interaction concept for manipulation-capable robots to assist elderly people in the home
In this article, we describe the development of a human-robot interaction concept for service robots to assist elderly people in the home with physical tasks. Our approach is based on the insight that robots are not yet able to handle all tasks autonomously with sufficient reliability in the complex and heterogeneous environments of private homes. We therefore employ remote human operators to assist on tasks a robot cannot handle completely autonomously. Our development methodology was user-centric and iterative, with six user studies carried out at various stages involving a total of 241 participants. The concept is under implementation on the Care-O-bot 3 robotic platform. The main contributions of this article are (1) the results of a survey in form of a ranking of the demands of elderly people and informal caregivers for a range of 25 robot services, (2) the results of an ethnography investigating the suitability of emergency teleassistance and telemedical centers for incorporating robotic teleassistance, and (3) a user-validated human-robot interaction concept with three user roles and corresponding three user interfaces designed as a solution to the problem of engineering reliable service robots for home environments
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
Towards Assistive Feeding with a General-Purpose Mobile Manipulator
General-purpose mobile manipulators have the potential to serve as a
versatile form of assistive technology. However, their complexity creates
challenges, including the risk of being too difficult to use. We present a
proof-of-concept robotic system for assistive feeding that consists of a Willow
Garage PR2, a high-level web-based interface, and specialized autonomous
behaviors for scooping and feeding yogurt. As a step towards use by people with
disabilities, we evaluated our system with 5 able-bodied participants. All 5
successfully ate yogurt using the system and reported high rates of success for
the system's autonomous behaviors. Also, Henry Evans, a person with severe
quadriplegia, operated the system remotely to feed an able-bodied person. In
general, people who operated the system reported that it was easy to use,
including Henry. The feeding system also incorporates corrective actions
designed to be triggered either autonomously or by the user. In an offline
evaluation using data collected with the feeding system, a new version of our
multimodal anomaly detection system outperformed prior versions.Comment: This short 4-page paper was accepted and presented as a poster on
May. 16, 2016 in ICRA 2016 workshop on 'Human-Robot Interfaces for Enhanced
Physical Interactions' organized by Arash Ajoudani, Barkan Ugurlu, Panagiotis
Artemiadis, Jun Morimoto. It was peer reviewed by one reviewe
Open World Assistive Grasping Using Laser Selection
Many people with motor disabilities are unable to complete activities of
daily living (ADLs) without assistance. This paper describes a complete robotic
system developed to provide mobile grasping assistance for ADLs. The system is
comprised of a robot arm from a Rethink Robotics Baxter robot mounted to an
assistive mobility device, a control system for that arm, and a user interface
with a variety of access methods for selecting desired objects. The system uses
grasp detection to allow previously unseen objects to be picked up by the
system. The grasp detection algorithms also allow for objects to be grasped in
cluttered environments. We evaluate our system in a number of experiments on a
large variety of objects. Overall, we achieve an object selection success rate
of 88% and a grasp detection success rate of 90% in a non-mobile scenario, and
success rates of 89% and 72% in a mobile scenario
Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people
This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of
elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly
people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new
applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses
the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and
users for which service robots are and are not suitable
Human-centred design methods : developing scenarios for robot assisted play informed by user panels and field trials
Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/ Copyright ElsevierThis article describes the user-centred development of play scenarios for robot assisted play, as part of the multidisciplinary IROMEC1 project that develops a novel robotic toy for children with special needs. The project investigates how robotic toys can become social mediators, encouraging children with special needs to discover a range of play styles, from solitary to collaborative play (with peers, carers/teachers, parents, etc.). This article explains the developmental process of constructing relevant play scenarios for children with different special needs. Results are presented from consultation with panel of experts (therapists, teachers, parents) who advised on the play needs for the various target user groups and who helped investigate how robotic toys could be used as a play tool to assist in the children’s development. Examples from experimental investigations are provided which have informed the development of scenarios throughout the design process. We conclude by pointing out the potential benefit of this work to a variety of research projects and applications involving human–robot interactions.Peer reviewe
A List of Household Objects for Robotic Retrieval Prioritized by People with ALS (Version 092008)
This technical report is designed to serve as a citable reference for the
original prioritized object list that the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia
Tech released on its website in September of 2008. It is also expected to serve
as the primary citable reference for the research associated with this list
until the publication of a detailed, peer-reviewed paper.
The original prioritized list of object classes resulted from a needs
assessment involving 8 motor-impaired patients with amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS) and targeted, in-person interviews of 15 motor-impaired ALS
patients. All of these participants were drawn from the Emory ALS Center.
The prioritized object list consists of 43 object classes ranked by how
important the participants considered each class to be for retrieval by an
assistive robot. We intend for this list to be used by researchers to inform
the design and benchmarking of robotic systems, especially research related to
autonomous mobile manipulation
Healthcare Robotics
Robots have the potential to be a game changer in healthcare: improving
health and well-being, filling care gaps, supporting care givers, and aiding
health care workers. However, before robots are able to be widely deployed, it
is crucial that both the research and industrial communities work together to
establish a strong evidence-base for healthcare robotics, and surmount likely
adoption barriers. This article presents a broad contextualization of robots in
healthcare by identifying key stakeholders, care settings, and tasks; reviewing
recent advances in healthcare robotics; and outlining major challenges and
opportunities to their adoption.Comment: 8 pages, Communications of the ACM, 201
How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers
Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program
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