Safety experiments for small robots investigating the potential of soft materials in mitigating the harm to the head due to impacts

There is a growing interest in social robots to be considered in the therapy of children with autism due to their effectiveness in improving the outcomes. However, children on the spectrum exhibit challenging behaviors that need to be considered when designing robots for them. A child could involuntarily throw a small social robot during meltdown and that could hit another person's head and cause harm (e.g. concussion). In this paper, the application of soft materials is investigated for its potential in attenuating head's linear acceleration upon impact. The thickness and storage modulus of three different soft materials were considered as the control factors while the noise factor was the impact velocity. The design of experiments was based on Taguchi method. A total of 27 experiments were conducted on a developed dummy head setup that reports the linear acceleration of the head. ANOVA tests were performed to analyze the data. The findings showed that the control factors are not statistically significant in attenuating the response. The optimal values of the control factors were identified using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio optimization technique. Confirmation runs at the optimal parameters (i.e. thickness of 3 mm and 5 mm) showed a better response as compared to other conditions. Designers of social robots should consider the application of soft materials to their designs as it help in reducing the potential harm to the head

Influence of Reaction Time in the Emotional Response of a Companion Robot to a Child's Aggressive Interaction

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Influence of the shape and mass of a small robot when thrown to a dummy human head

Social robots have shown some efficacy in assisting children with autism and are now being considered as assistive tools for therapy. The physical proximity of a small companion social robot could become a source of harm to children with autism during aggressive physical interactions. A child exhibiting challenging behaviors could throw a small robot that could harm another child 0 s head upon impact. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the mass and the shape of objects thrown on impact at different impact velocities on the linear acceleration of a developed dummy head. This dummy head could be the head of another child or a caregiver in the room. A total of 27 main experiments were conducted based on Taguchi’s orthogonal array design. The data were then analyzed using ANOVA and signal-to-noise (S/N). Our results revealed that the two design factors considered (i.e. mass and shape) and the noise factor (i.e. impact velocities) affected the resultant response. Finally, confirmation runs at the optimal identified shape and mass (i.e. mass of 0.3 kg and shape of either cube or wedge) showed an overall reduction in the resultant peak linear acceleration of the dummy head as compared to the other conditions. These results have implications on the design and manufacturing of small social robots whereby minimizing the mass of the robots can aid in mitigating harm to the head due to impact

Reflex System for Intelligent Robotics

Background and Purpose: Great advances have occurred in the field of robotics in the past few years. The integration of robotics in our daily life became not only limited to manufacturing or industrial usage, but also in health care delivery, aerospace, humanitarian aids and others. Most of the existing robots systems rely on the programmer to set the rule it plays within the working environment or rely on a trainer to teach the system what should and need to be done and where they are ought to move. Other robotic systems might involve more intelligent systems to explore and handle tasks within their environment. Most of these systems are usually situated to work within well organized and planned environment. Having modifications on any of the parameters of the environment might produce unpredictable consequences. Depending on the complexity of the system and how intelligent it is, the consequences might be unfavorable in achieving the goals intended and reducing oneself-damages. Species in nature represents rich source of innovative ideas and creative concepts that can be investigated by researchers. Nature has been inspiring scientists into developing new ways of looking at things, by observing the various living organisms' behaviors in their own habitats. Behavior-based roboticists are concerned with the development of robots based on observing and the studying of neuroscience, psychology and ethology of animals in nature. Humans, animals and plants physiology is yet another rich source of researching potential (Fig. 1). For example, reflexes in living organisms represent a means of survival in the outer environment and means of regulating internal body operations. If we could observe and try to mimic some of the reflex behaviors, we could end up with a machine (E.g. Robots) that has the ability to avoid dangerous situations and keep the outer structure intact. Figure 1: The potential of reflex systems in intelligent robotics. Objective: Adopting an intelligent reflex system in the robot system similar to that found in humans, animals, and plants can have significant advantages on the overall behavior of the system. A reflex system can improve the risk avoiding capabilities in the unfavorable scenarios. Design: The approach toward reflex based robotic system involves the intensive investigation and review of the fundamental concepts found in the reflex systems of human, animals, and plants. Attention to details, such as the behavior of the organism when subjected to a certain stimulus and the latency it takes for the reflex arc to execute the right response, are among the most important things to consider when trying mimicking the behavior of a living organism. A deduced conceptual model should be based on the distinguishing components found in the reflex arc. An actual design based on this proposed model, will include the basic components that can be achieved by using electronic/mechanical components that are at the same time analogous in function to the ones found in the reflex arc. For example, to mimic the temperature sensing capabilities of a human hand, a simple one-point temperature sensor will not be sufficient to give a desirable realistic result. Instead, a sophisticated flexible array that is capable to sense the temperature at any point must be used. Another design consideration is the controlling method to be used. Will it be centralized or decentralized or a mix of both? Regardless of the answer the controlling mechanism involved should be independent of a central controller (i.e. the brain) and it must be localized to achieve the desirable fast response as that founded in the reflex arc. Conclusion: The reflex based robotic system will be unique and innovative for the applications intended. The system can be incorporated with pre-existing systems to add value especially in the field of medical robotics and more specifically in prosthetics. Artificial reflex systems will add great value, protective feature and life-like sensation for a smarter prosthetic artefacts. With the implementation of the reflex arc at the right latencies and order, the gap between artificial and the actual hand should get narrower.qscienc

A Prototype Of Virtually Interactive Hand Activating Devise-Low Cost Portable Head Mounted System (vihad Plus) For Neurological Rehabilitation

Background and Purpose: Restoring function in individuals who have severe paralysis of the upper extremity secondary to stroke is challenging. Recent technologies have made it possible to use robotic devices as novel tools for assisting the therapists to provide safe and intensive rehabilitation with repeated motions. However, most of the training robots are types of Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) devices that produce slower and stereotyped movement patterns. Earlier works have shown that passive or slow movements do not significantly benefit motor improvement. Several studies reveal that even the use of ipsilateral electromyographic (EMG) pattern recognition approaches might not be practical to decode movement intention and, may negatively affect re-mapping of the neural pathways in the brain. To have a successful hand rehabilitation system, the system should be able to produce a wide variety of unpredicted and challenging movement patterns of various degrees of speed and range of motion with increasing complexity, sufficient enough to produce the necessary neurological plasticity of the affected brain. Current rehabilitation devices are not sufficient to produce such a range of complex activities which enables maximum neurological plasticity. Objective: In this work, we describe a prototype of the contralateral EMG-based Interactive Hand Activating Devise for Stroke (IHADS) system that can detect a hemiplegic person's intention for bilaterally executed hand activities using his/her surface EMG signals from the non-affected side (contralateral). Furthermore, this system can assist in bilateral hand activities through an exoskeleton attached to the hemiplegic upper extremity to initiate progressively challenging and unpredicted type of activities in a virtual reality (VR) world to obtain optimum functional recovery by inducing maximum neurological plasticity. Design: The IHADS system is made up of an embedded controller and a robotic exoskeleton, contralateral EMG sensors and a VR interface with a semi-immersed VR system, where the patient will be seeing progressively impulsive activities that would force the brain to activate the affected extremity to manipulate through the remaining neural networks and mirror neuronal system which in turn will optimize the neurological recovery. This means that the paralyzed arm will be following the motion of the healthy arm whose motion is picked up by the EMG sensors and are translated as actuation signals for the exoskeleton to execute virtually created challenging activities. Conclusion: Contralateral EMG-based 'IHADS' system is a unique, cost effective, highly innovative and portable robotic device. If incorporated into the stroke rehabilitation, this system will be capable of autonomous guidance through the use of real-time feedback from the contralateral upper limb, integrated via the VR interface and the hand activating device to make rehabilitation more intense, functional, motivating, and capable of inducing maximum neurological plasticity

Patient-Specific Prosthetic Fingers by Remote Collaboration - A Case Study

The concealment of amputation through prosthesis usage can shield an amputee from social stigma and help improve the emotional healing process especially at the early stages of hand or finger loss. However, the traditional techniques in prosthesis fabrication defy this as the patients need numerous visits to the clinics for measurements, fitting and follow-ups. This paper presents a method for constructing a prosthetic finger through online collaboration with the designer. The main input from the amputee comes from the Computer Tomography (CT) data in the region of the affected and the non-affected fingers. These data are sent over the internet and the prosthesis is constructed using visualization, computer-aided design and manufacturing tools. The finished product is then shipped to the patient. A case study with a single patient having an amputated ring finger at the proximal interphalangeal joint shows that the proposed method has a potential to address the patient's psychosocial concerns and minimize the exposure of the finger loss to the public.Comment: Open Access articl

Data on the impact of an object with different thicknesses of different soft materials at different impact velocities on a dummy head

The purpose of this data is to investigate the effect of different thicknesses of different soft materials samples added to an object on the resultant head acceleration of a developed dummy head upon impact. The object was a cylinder (10 * 10 cm2, diameter and height) and weighs 0.4 kg. The investigated materials were Ecoflex, Dragon Skin, and Clay while the thickness were 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, and 5 mm. The velocities of the impacts for the 108 experiments were between 1 m/s and 3 m/s. Three severity indices (i.e. peak head linear acceleration, 3 ms criterion and the Head Injury Criterion (HIC)) were calculated from the raw acceleration data. The impact velocities were tabulated from the video recordings. A summary of the processed data and the raw data are included in this dataset. Online repository contains the files: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/TXOPUH. - 2019 The Author(s)The work is supported by a research grant from Qatar University under the grant No. QUST-1-CENG-2019-10 . The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.Scopu