Conditional Task and Motion Planning through an Effort-based Approach

This paper proposes a preliminary work on a Conditional Task and Motion Planning algorithm able to find a plan that minimizes robot efforts while solving assigned tasks. Unlike most of the existing approaches that replan a path only when it becomes unfeasible (e.g., no collision-free paths exist), the proposed algorithm takes into consideration a replanning procedure whenever an effort-saving is possible. The effort is here considered as the execution time, but it is extensible to the robot energy consumption. The computed plan is both conditional and dynamically adaptable to the unexpected environmental changes. Based on the theoretical analysis of the algorithm, authors expect their proposal to be complete and scalable. In progress experiments aim to prove this investigation

RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Navigation, Recognition and Manipulation

This paper proposes RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle able to autonomously navigate through, identify, and reach areas of interest; and there recognize, localize, and manipulate work tools to perform complex manipulation tasks. The proposed contribution includes a modular software architecture where each module solves specific sub-tasks and that can be easily enlarged to satisfy new requirements. Included indoor and outdoor tests demonstrate the capability of the proposed system to autonomously detect a target object (a panel) and precisely dock in front of it while avoiding obstacles. They show it can autonomously recognize and manipulate target work tools (i.e., wrenches and valve stems) to accomplish complex tasks (i.e., use a wrench to rotate a valve stem). A specific case study is described where the proposed modular architecture lets easy switch to a semi-teleoperated mode. The paper exhaustively describes description of both the hardware and software setup of RUR53, its performance when tests at the 2017 Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge, and the lessons we learned when participating at this competition, where we ranked third in the Gran Challenge in collaboration with the Czech Technical University in Prague, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Lincoln (UK).Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in Advanced Robotics, published by Taylor & Franci

Real-world clinical and psychosocial outcomes among people with mild or moderate haemophilia A treated on-demand in the Italian CHESS II cohort: a real-world data analysis

© 2024 Giancarlo Castaman et al., published by SciendoBackground: The burden of severe haemophilia A (HA) has been studied extensively owing to the higher bleeding frequency and associated treatment requirements, leaving a clear unmet need for research focused on the burden of mild and moderate HA. Aims: This study sought to characterise the clinical and psychosocial burden of mild and moderate HA in the Italian cohort of the CHESS II study. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of clinical and psychosocial outcomes in a cohort of male adults (≥18 years old) with mild or moderate HA who participated in the cross-sectional CHESS II study (October 2019-November 2020). Treatment patterns, acute and chronic clinical outcomes and mental health indicators were collected via physician-completed forms. Psychosocial outcomes related to impact of HA on social activities, exercise, opportunities, and lifestyle were collected via a participant self-complete questionnaire. All results were reported descriptively. Results: A total of 113 people with haemophilia A (PwHA) were included, 79 (70%) with moderate HA and 34 (30%) with mild HA, with mean age of 41.4 and 36.6 years, respectively. No one in the sample was receiving a prophylaxis at the time of data capture, with factor VIII use in the 12 months prior reported in 30% and 29% of moderate and mild PwHA, respectively. Ninety-one PwHA (81%) experienced ≥1 bleeding event in the preceding 12 months. People with moderate HA had higher mean annual bleed rate (2.9 vs. 1.1, respectively) and higher prevalence of chronic pain (74% vs. 35%), anxiety (20% vs. 12%), and/or depression (15% vs. 3%). Target joints were reported in 22% and 12% of moderate and mild PwHA, and problem joints in 51% and 12%, respectively. Of 113 participants, 44 (39%) completed the self-complete form (moderate HA, 57%; mild HA, 43%). Overall, 40% vs. 10% of those with moderate vs mild HA reported reducing or giving up social activities, 44% vs. 21% reducing or giving up exercise, 36% vs. 26% missing out on opportunities, and 48% vs. 26% reported HA impacted their lifestyle. Conclusion: Moderate PwHA from the Italian CHESS II cohort appeared to have greater clinical morbidity and lifestyle impact than mild PwHA. Psychosocial outcomes were also worse among moderate PwHA, but significant burden was also observed among mild PwHA. These findings, and the absence of prophylactic treatment in the sample examined, highlight that improving management for potentially undertreated mild/moderate PwHA may aid the avoidance long-term clinical morbidity and negative psychosocial impact.Acknowledgements: This paper reports a retrospective study in which no human participants or animals are directly involved. Medical writing/editorial support was provided by Jeff Frimpter, MPH, funded by HCD Economics. This analysis was funded by Roche SpA, Rozzano, Italy. Roche were involved in the analysis conception, design and interpretation of results, as well as drafting and submission of the manuscript. EFG, TB1, and TB2 are employees of HCD Economics. LS, RT and SB are employees of Roche SpA

From Human Perception and Action Recognition to Causal Understanding of Human-Robot Interaction in Industrial Environments

Human-robot collaboration is migrating from lightweight robots in laboratory environments to industrial applications, where heavy tasks and powerful robots are more common. In this scenario, a reliable perception of the humans involved in the process and related intentions and behaviors is fundamental. This paper presents two projects investigating the use of robots in relevant industrial scenarios, providing an overview of how industrial human-robot collaborative tasks can be successfully addressed

Can Clinical and Surgical Parameters Be Combined to Predict How Long It Will Take a Tibia Fracture to Heal? A Prospective Multicentre Observational Study: The FRACTING Study

Background. Healing of tibia fractures occurs over a wide time range of months, with a number of risk factors contributing to prolonged healing. In this prospective, multicentre, observational study, we investigated the capability of FRACTING (tibia FRACTure prediction healING days) score, calculated soon after tibia fracture treatment, to predict healing time. Methods. The study included 363 patients. Information on patient health, fracture morphology, and surgical treatment adopted were combined to calculate the FRACTING score. Fractures were considered healed when the patient was able to fully weight-bear without pain. Results. 319 fractures (88%) healed within 12 months from treatment. Forty-four fractures healed after 12 months or underwent a second surgery. FRACTING score positively correlated with days to healing: r = 0.63 (p < 0.0001). Average score value was 7.3 \ub1 2.5; ROC analysis showed strong reliability of the score in separating patients healing before versus after 6 months: AUC = 0.823. Conclusions. This study shows that the FRACTING score can be employed both to predict months needed for fracture healing and to identify immediately after treatment patients at risk of prolonged healing. In patients with high score values, new pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments to enhance osteogenesis could be tested selectively, which may finally result in reduced disability time and health cost savings

A Sampling-Based Tree Planner for Navigation Among Movable Obstacles

This paper proposes a planner that solves Navigation Among Movable Obstacles problems giving robots the ability to reason about the environment and choose when manipulating obstacles. It finds a path from a robot start configuration S to a goal configuration G taking into consideration the possibility of moving objects if G cannot be reached or if moving objects may significantly shorten the path. The planner combines the A*-Search and the exploration strategy of the Kinodynamic Motion Planning by Interior-Exterior Cell Exploration algorithm. It is locally optimal and independent from the size of the map and from the number, shape, and position of obstacles. It assumes full world knowledge but it can be easily extended in order to explore unknown environments

Human-Robot Cooperative Interaction Control for the Installation of Heavy and Bulky Components

The paper describes a human-robot cooperative installation methodology of heavy and bulky components based on marker-based visual servoing, force control, and human-robot cooperation. The main advance in the human-robot cooperation is achieved by a shared-control of the interaction during the installation task, relieving the human operator by the manipulated load and giving to the robot a partially autonomous behaviour in the force-tracking direction. Experimental results are shown in the context of the H2020 CleanSky 2 EURECA project in which a side-wall panel is installed in a 1:1 scale mock-up scenario of an A320 plane fuselage environment

ROS-Health: An Open-Source Framework for Neurorobotics

This paper aims at describing ROS-Health, a novel framework for neurorobotics based on the middleware Robot Operating System (ROS). The increased interest in the neurorobotics field and the proliferation of several (neuro)physiological-based applications to control robotics devices made clear the importance to establish a standardized research platform in order to facilitate the distribution of the software, the replication of experimental results and, especially, the creation of an unified community to share and manage the code in the years. For this reason, we propose a common platform developed in the ROS ecosystem that takes advantage of its tools and capabilities. Furthermore, we define the main guidelines to be followed during the design phase of ROS-Health and we describe a preliminary architecture. Finally, we present two illustrative uses cases that highlight the advantages and benefits of the adoption of ROS-Health

Real-world clinical and psychosocial outcomes among people with mild or moderate haemophilia A treated on-demand in the Italian CHESS II cohort: a real-world data analysis

From De Gruyter via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: issue 2024-01-01, cover-date 2024-01-01, epub 2024-04-22Peer reviewed: TrueAcknowledgements: This paper reports a retrospective study in which no human participants or animals are directly involved. Medical writing/editorial support was provided by Jeff Frimpter, MPH, funded by HCD Economics. This analysis was funded by Roche SpA, Rozzano, Italy. Roche were involved in the analysis conception, design and interpretation of results, as well as drafting and submission of the manuscript. EFG, TB1, and TB2 are employees of HCD Economics. LS, RT and SB are employees of Roche SpA.Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedBackground: The burden of severe haemophilia A (HA) has been studied extensively owing to the higher bleeding frequency and associated treatment requirements, leaving a clear unmet need for research focused on the burden of mild and moderate HA. Aims: This study sought to characterise the clinical and psychosocial burden of mild and moderate HA in the Italian cohort of the CHESS II study. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of clinical and psychosocial outcomes in a cohort of male adults (≥18 years old) with mild or moderate HA who participated in the cross-sectional CHESS II study (October 2019-November 2020). Treatment patterns, acute and chronic clinical outcomes and mental health indicators were collected via physician-completed forms. Psychosocial outcomes related to impact of HA on social activities, exercise, opportunities, and lifestyle were collected via a participant self-complete questionnaire. All results were reported descriptively. Results: A total of 113 people with haemophilia A (PwHA) were included, 79 (70%) with moderate HA and 34 (30%) with mild HA, with mean age of 41.4 and 36.6 years, respectively. No one in the sample was receiving a prophylaxis at the time of data capture, with factor VIII use in the 12 months prior reported in 30% and 29% of moderate and mild PwHA, respectively. Ninety-one PwHA (81%) experienced ≥1 bleeding event in the preceding 12 months. People with moderate HA had higher mean annual bleed rate (2.9 vs. 1.1, respectively) and higher prevalence of chronic pain (74% vs. 35%), anxiety (20% vs. 12%), and/or depression (15% vs. 3%). Target joints were reported in 22% and 12% of moderate and mild PwHA, and problem joints in 51% and 12%, respectively. Of 113 participants, 44 (39%) completed the self-complete form (moderate HA, 57%; mild HA, 43%). Overall, 40% vs. 10% of those with moderate vs mild HA reported reducing or giving up social activities, 44% vs. 21% reducing or giving up exercise, 36% vs. 26% missing out on opportunities, and 48% vs. 26% reported HA impacted their lifestyle. Conclusion: Moderate PwHA from the Italian CHESS II cohort appeared to have greater clinical morbidity and lifestyle impact than mild PwHA. Psychosocial outcomes were also worse among moderate PwHA, but significant burden was also observed among mild PwHA. These findings, and the absence of prophylactic treatment in the sample examined, highlight that improving management for potentially undertreated mild/moderate PwHA may aid the avoidance long-term clinical morbidity and negative psychosocial impact