Sparse Eigenmotions derived from daily life kinematics implemented on a dextrous robotic hand

Our hands are considered one of the most complex to control actuated systems, thus, emulating the manipulative skills of real hands is still an open challenge even in anthropomorphic robotic hand. While the action of the 4 long fingers and simple grasp motions through opposable thumbs have been successfully implemented in robotic designs, complex in-hand manipulation of objects was difficult to achieve. We take an approach grounded in data-driven extraction of control primitives from natural human behaviour to develop novel ways to understand the dexterity of hands. We collected hand kinematics datasets from natural, unconstrained human behaviour of daily life in 8 healthy in a studio flat environment. We then applied our Sparse Motion Decomposition approach to extract spatio-temporally localised modes of hand motion that are both time-scale and amplitude-scale invariant. These Sparse EigenMotions (SEMs)[1] form a sparse symbolic code that encodes continuous hand motions. We mechanically implemented the common SEMs on our novel dexterous robotic hand [2] in open-loop control. We report that without processing any feedback during grasp control, several of the SEMs resulted in stable grasps of different daily life objects. The finding that SEMs extracted from daily life implement stable grasps in open-loop control of dexterous hands, lends further support for our hypothesis the brain controls the hand using sparse control strategies

EthoHand: A dexterous robotic hand with ball-joint thumb enables complex in-hand object manipulation

Our dexterous hand is a fundmanetal human feature that distinguishes us from other animals by enabling us to go beyond grasping to support sophisticated in-hand object manipulation. Our aim was the design of a dexterous anthropomorphic robotic hand that matches the human hand's 24 degrees of freedom, under-actuated by seven motors. With the ability to replicate human hand movements in a naturalistic manner including in-hand object manipulation. Therefore, we focused on the development of a novel thumb and palm articulation that would facilitate in-hand object manipulation while avoiding mechanical design complexity. Our key innovation is the use of a tendon-driven ball joint as a basis for an articulated thumb. The design innovation enables our under-actuated hand to perform complex in-hand object manipulation such as passing a ball between the fingers or even writing text messages on a smartphone with the thumb's end-point while holding the phone in the palm of the same hand. We then proceed to compare the dexterity of our novel robotic hand design to other designs in prosthetics, robotics and humans using simulated and physical kinematic data to demonstrate the enhanced dexterity of our novel articulation exceeding previous designs by a factor of two. Our innovative approach achieves naturalistic movement of the human hand, without requiring translation in the hand joints, and enables teleoperation of complex tasks, such as single (robot) handed messaging on a smartphone without the need for haptic feedback. Our simple, under-actuated design outperforms current state-of-the-art prostheses or robotic and prosthetic hands regarding abilities that encompass from grasps to activities of daily living which involve complex in-hand object manipulation

"Wink to grasp" – comparing eye, voice & EMG gesture control of grasp with soft-robotic gloves

The ability of robotic rehabilitation devices to support paralysed end-users is ultimately limited by the degree to which human-machine-interaction is designed to be effective and efficient in translating user intention into robotic action. Specifically, we evaluate the novel possibility of binocular eye-tracking technology to detect voluntary winks from involuntary blink commands, to establish winks as a novel low-latency control signal to trigger robotic action. By wearing binocular eye-tracking glasses we enable users to directly observe their environment or the actuator and trigger movement actions, without having to interact with a visual display unit or user interface. We compare our novel approach to two conventional approaches for controlling robotic devices based on electromyo-graphy (EMG) and speech-based human-computer interaction technology. We present an integrated software framework based on ROS that allows transparent integration of these multiple modalities with a robotic system. We use a soft-robotic SEM glove (Bioservo Technologies AB, Sweden) to evaluate how the 3 modalities support the performance and subjective experience of the end-user when movement assisted. All 3 modalities are evaluated in streaming, closed-loop control operation for grasping physical objects. We find that wink control shows the lowest error rate mean with lowest standard deviation of (0.23 ± 0.07, mean ± SEM) followed by speech control (0.35 ± 0. 13) and EMG gesture control (using the Myo armband by Thalamic Labs), with the highest mean and standard deviation (0.46 ± 0.16). We conclude that with our novel own developed eye-tracking based approach to control assistive technologies is a well suited alternative to conventional approaches, especially when combined with 3D eye-tracking based robotic end-point control

HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF THE AEGEAN – ERGANI: DOCUMENTATION, MANAGEMENT AND PUBLICATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE RESOURCES ON THE SEMANTIC WEB

This paper introduces the Historical Archive of the Aegean, its archival resources and the ways in which this material is treated using Semantic Web technologies and tools to the benefit of a wide community of users and researchers

Integrated signaling and transcriptome analysis reveals Src family kinase individualities and novel pathways controlled by their constitutive activity

The Src family kinases (SFKs) Lck and Lyn are crucial for lymphocyte development and function. Albeit tissue-restricted expression patterns the two kinases share common functions; the most pronounced one being the phosphorylation of ITAM motifs in the cytoplasmic tails of antigenic receptors. Lck is predominantly expressed in T lymphocytes; however, it can be ectopically found in B-1 cell subsets and numerous pathologies including acute and chronic B-cell leukemias. The exact impact of Lck on the B-cell signaling apparatus remains enigmatic and is followed by the long-lasting question of mechanisms granting selectivity among SFK members. In this work we sought to investigate the mechanistic basis of ectopic Lck function in B-cells and compare it to events elicited by the predominant B-cell SFK, Lyn. Our results reveal substrate promiscuity displayed by the two SFKs, which however, is buffered by their differential susceptibility toward regulatory mechanisms, revealing a so far unappreciated aspect of SFK member-specific fine-tuning. Furthermore, we show that Lck- and Lyn-generated signals suffice to induce transcriptome alterations, reminiscent of B-cell activation, in the absence of receptor/co-receptor engagement. Finally, our analyses revealed a yet unrecognized role of SFKs in tipping the balance of cellular stress responses, by promoting the onset of ER-phagy, an as yet completely uncharacterized process in B lymphocytes

Downscaling Climate Change Impacts, Socio-Economic Implications and Alternative Adaptation Pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the future scenarios of climate change and management concerns associated with climate change impacts on the blue economy of European islands and outermost regions. The publication collects major findings of the SOCLIMPACT project’s research outcomes, aiming to raise social awareness among policy-makers and industry about climate change consequences at local level, and provide knowledge-based information to support policy design, from local to national level. This comprehensive book will also assist students, scholars and practitioners to understand, conceptualize and effectively and responsibly manage climate change information and applied research. This book provides invaluable material for Blue Growth Management, theory and application, at all levels. This first edition includes up-to-date data, statistics, references, case material and figures of the 12 islands case studies. ¨Downscaling climate change impacts, socio-economic implications and alternative adaptation pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions¨ is a must-read book, given the accessible style and breadth and depth with which the topic is dealt. The book is an up-to-date synthesis of key knowledge on this area, written by a multidisciplinary group of experts on climate and economic modelling, and policy design

Understanding the hand: robotics, virtual reality and the neuroscience of control

Our primary interaction with the world is through the spontaneous generation of movement. In particular, the hand is a critical tool allowing humans to perform a myriad of dexterous manipulations. The brain's ability to control and coordinate movement across the multiple joints of the hand seems effortless and it remains unrivalled by any other artificial system when confronted with such a high dimensional-structure. Thus, replicating the naturalistic control functionality in a prosthetic hand poses a major challenge. While previous research focused on studying the hand in constrained laboratory conditions, this thesis is focused on analysing hand movements obtained from free behaviour. Using various statistical analyses, the kinematic structure of hand movements is examined across participants. By exploiting the kinematic correlation of natural hand movements, we demonstrated the capability of a data driven method to efficiently reconstruct missing digits using information from intact fingers. Subsequently, to overcome the laborious process required to effectively label free behaviour, a semi-supervised approach was developed allowing us to accurately measure the frequency and duration of various grasps throughout everyday life. Through further analysis, we found no significant differences in terms of movement complexity between dominant and non-dominant hand. Additionally, we found that a small number of kinematic synergies are consisted across participants yet the rest of their kinematic spaces seemed to be dominated by individuality. To address these findings, we developed an ecologically valid Virtual Reality (VR) platform (EthoPlatform) that directly involves the human in the control loop. Using EthoPlatform, subjects' performances were objectively quantified while their joint angles were manipulated through dimensionality reduction algorithms and reconstructed on the VR hand in real-time. Using this paradigm, we tested the ability of personalised models versus models trained on databases of aggregate data. We found that models from dominant and non-dominant hand produce similar performances as opposed to models trained on an aggregate of data. Subsequently, we examined the impact of non-linear dimensionality reduction algorithms on human performance. From this experiment, we found that reconstruction error is directly related to subjects' performances. These findings are of high importance for the development of prosthetic hand controllers, as we now can create the most tailored model to control the prosthesis via the dataset acquired from the non-amputated hand. Furthermore, we can deploy non-linear models that can better capture the kinematic structure of hand movements while requiring less information. To validate the results obtained from the VR experiments as well as to close the gap between experimental paradigms and real world applications, a dexterous artificial hand (EthoHand) was developed. Contrary to other robot hands that focus on grasping, EthoHand was developed to facilitate complex in-hand manipulations. For this reason, an appropriate thumb articulation was implemented allowing EthoHand to go beyond grasping and to perform multi-planar thumb movements similar to the real hand. Lastly, the ability of dimensionality reduction algorithms to successfully control a dexterous artificial hand was demonstrated on the physical hand. The findings throughout this thesis demonstrate a coherent approach for analysing the complex structure of natural hand movements. Furthermore, an alternative avenue towards developing superior prosthetic hand controllers is provided through personalised models.Open Acces

The effect of Covid-19 on the operation of Cypriot businesses

Περίληψη: Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία ασχολείται με την επιρροή του Covid-19 στις κυπριακές επιχειρήσεις. Για το λόγο αυτό πραγματοποιήθηκε έρευνα με σκοπό να διερευνηθεί πόσο επηρεάστηκε ο κύκλος εργασιών των επιχειρήσεων, ο σχεδιασμός των μελλοντικών οικονομικών τους δραστηριοτήτων, το πλάνο της στελέχωσής τους και η μείωση του εργατικού τους δυναμικού, αλλά και αν η περίοδος της πανδημίας αποτέλεσε το έναυσμα ώστε να υιοθετήσουν νέες μεθόδους στον εργασιακό χώρο ως μέτρα πρόληψης του Covid-19 αλλά και πρακτικές για την αύξηση των πωλήσεών τους. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξα πως ο Covid-19 επηρέασε τις κυπριακές επιχειρήσεις ποικιλοτρόπως, και ιδιαίτερα εκείνες που υπέστησαν μειώσεις στον κύκλο εργασιών τους κατά τη περίοδο της πανδημίας και εκείνες που στηρίζονταν στην κοινωνική επαφή. Επιπλέον, φάνηκε πως ένας σημαντικός αριθμός επιχειρήσεων ήταν δύσπιστος ως προς την υιοθέτηση νέων μεθόδων για την αύξηση των πωλήσεών τους, ενώ δεν συνέβη το ίδιο με την υιοθέτηση πρακτικών για την πρόληψη του Covid-19, με τις επιχειρήσεις να καταφεύγουν σε διάφορες λύσεις.Summarization: This thesis deals with the impact of Covid-19 on Cypriot businesses. For this reason, a survey was carried out in order to be investigated how much the businesses’ turnover, the planning of their future economic activities, their stuffing plan and the reduction of their workforce was affected, but also whether the period of the pandemic was the trigger so that to adopt new methods in the workplace like measures to prevent Covid-19 but also practices to increase their sales. The results showed that Covid-19 affected Cypriot businesses in different ways, especially those that suffered reductions in their turnover during the pandemic and those that relied on social contact. In addition, it appeared that a significant number of businesses were skeptical about adopting new methods to increase their sales, while the same was not the case when it came to adopting practices that would prevent Covid-19, with businesses resorting to various solutions