13,645 research outputs found
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
3D User Interfaces for General-Purpose 3D Animation
Draft submission, Appeared as "3D User Interfaces for General-Purpose 3D Animation"Modern 3D animation systems let a growing number of people generate increasingly sophisticated animated movies, frequently for tutorials or multimedia documents. However, although these tasks are inherently three dimensional, these systems' user interfaces are still predominantly two dimensional. This makes it difficult to interactively input complex animated 3D movements. We have developed Virtual Studio, an inexpensive and easy-to-use 3D animation environment in which animators can perform all interaction directly in three dimensions. Animators can use 3D devices to specify complex 3D motions. Virtual tools are visible mediators that provide interaction metaphors to control application objects. An underlying constraint solver lets animators tightly couple application and interface objects. Users define animation by recording the effect of their manipulations on models. Virtual Studio applies data-reduction techniques to generate editable representations of each animated element that is manipulated.71-78Pubblicat
Feedback Control of an Exoskeleton for Paraplegics: Toward Robustly Stable Hands-free Dynamic Walking
This manuscript presents control of a high-DOF fully actuated lower-limb
exoskeleton for paraplegic individuals. The key novelty is the ability for the
user to walk without the use of crutches or other external means of
stabilization. We harness the power of modern optimization techniques and
supervised machine learning to develop a smooth feedback control policy that
provides robust velocity regulation and perturbation rejection. Preliminary
evaluation of the stability and robustness of the proposed approach is
demonstrated through the Gazebo simulation environment. In addition,
preliminary experimental results with (complete) paraplegic individuals are
included for the previous version of the controller.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Control System Magazine. This version addresses
reviewers' concerns about the robustness of the algorithm and the motivation
for using such exoskeleton
Exploration of Reaction Pathways and Chemical Transformation Networks
For the investigation of chemical reaction networks, the identification of
all relevant intermediates and elementary reactions is mandatory. Many
algorithmic approaches exist that perform explorations efficiently and
automatedly. These approaches differ in their application range, the level of
completeness of the exploration, as well as the amount of heuristics and human
intervention required. Here, we describe and compare the different approaches
based on these criteria. Future directions leveraging the strengths of chemical
heuristics, human interaction, and physical rigor are discussed.Comment: 48 pages, 4 figure
Automation and robotics for the Space Exploration Initiative: Results from Project Outreach
A total of 52 submissions were received in the Automation and Robotics (A&R) area during Project Outreach. About half of the submissions (24) contained concepts that were judged to have high utility for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and were analyzed further by the robotics panel. These 24 submissions are analyzed here. Three types of robots were proposed in the high scoring submissions: structured task robots (STRs), teleoperated robots (TORs), and surface exploration robots. Several advanced TOR control interface technologies were proposed in the submissions. Many A&R concepts or potential standards were presented or alluded to by the submitters, but few specific technologies or systems were suggested
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
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