28,629 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
Art and Medicine: A Collaborative Project Between Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar
Four faculty researchers, two from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and two from Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar developed a one semester workshop-based course in Qatar exploring the connections between art and medicine in a contemporary context. Students (6 art / 6 medicine) were enrolled in the course. The course included presentations by clinicians, medical engineers, artists, computing engineers, an art historian, a graphic designer, a painter, and other experts from the fields of art, design, and medicine. To measure the student experience of interdisciplinarity, the faculty researchers employed a mixed methods approach involving psychometric tests and observational ethnography. Data instruments included pre- and post-course semi-structured audio interviews, pre-test / post-test psychometric instruments (Budner Scale and Torrance Tests of Creativity), observational field notes, self-reflective blogging, and videography. This book describes the course and the experience of the students. It also contains images of the interdisciplinary work they created for a culminating class exhibition. Finally, the book provides insight on how different fields in a Middle Eastern context can share critical /analytical thinking tools to refine their own professional practices
An Intervening Ethical Governor for a Robot Mediator in Patient-Caregiver Relationships
© Springer International Publishing AG 2015DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-46667-5_6Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience challenges when interacting with
caregivers due to their declining control over their musculature. To remedy those challenges, a
robot mediator can be used to assist in the relationship between PD patients and their caregivers.
In this context, a variety of ethical issues can arise. To overcome one issue in particular,
providing therapeutic robots with a robot architecture that can ensure patients’ and caregivers’
dignity is of potential value. In this paper, we describe an intervening ethical governor for a
robot that enables it to ethically intervene, both to maintain effective patient–caregiver
relationships and prevent the loss of dignity
Autonomy Infused Teleoperation with Application to BCI Manipulation
Robot teleoperation systems face a common set of challenges including
latency, low-dimensional user commands, and asymmetric control inputs. User
control with Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) exacerbates these problems
through especially noisy and erratic low-dimensional motion commands due to the
difficulty in decoding neural activity. We introduce a general framework to
address these challenges through a combination of computer vision, user intent
inference, and arbitration between the human input and autonomous control
schemes. Adjustable levels of assistance allow the system to balance the
operator's capabilities and feelings of comfort and control while compensating
for a task's difficulty. We present experimental results demonstrating
significant performance improvement using the shared-control assistance
framework on adapted rehabilitation benchmarks with two subjects implanted with
intracortical brain-computer interfaces controlling a seven degree-of-freedom
robotic manipulator as a prosthetic. Our results further indicate that shared
assistance mitigates perceived user difficulty and even enables successful
performance on previously infeasible tasks. We showcase the extensibility of
our architecture with applications to quality-of-life tasks such as opening a
door, pouring liquids from containers, and manipulation with novel objects in
densely cluttered environments
A Narrative Approach to Human-Robot Interaction Prototyping for Companion Robots
© 2020 Kheng Lee Koay et al., published by De Gruyter This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This paper presents a proof of concept prototype study for domestic home robot companions, using a narrative-based methodology based on the principles of immersive engagement and fictional enquiry, creating scenarios which are inter-connected through a coherent narrative arc, to encourage participant immersion within a realistic setting. The aim was to ground human interactions with this technology in a coherent, meaningful experience. Nine participants interacted with a robotic agent in a smart home environment twice a week over a month, with each interaction framed within a greater narrative arc. Participant responses, both to the scenarios and the robotic agents used within them are discussed, suggesting that the prototyping methodology was successful in conveying a meaningful interaction experience.Peer reviewe
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