Interactive IIoT-Based 5DOF Robotic Arm for Upper Limb Telerehabilitation

Significant advancements in contemporary telemedicine applications enforce the demand for effective and intuitive telerehabilitation tools. Telerehabilitation can minimize the distance, travel burden, and costs between rehabilitative patients and therapists. This research introduces an interactive novel telerehabilitation system that integrates the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform with a robotic manipulator named xARm-5, aiming to deliver rehabilitation therapies to individuals with upper limb dysfunctions. With the proposed system, a therapist can provide upper limb rehab exercises remotely using an augmented reality (AR) user interface (UI) developed using Vuforia Studio, which transmits bidirectional data through the IIoT platform. The proposed system has a stable communication architecture and low teleoperation latency. Experimental results revealed that with the developed telerehabilitation framework, the xArm-5 could be teleoperated from the developed AR platform and/or use a joystick to provide standard upper limb rehab exercises. Besides, with the designed AR-based UI, a therapist can monitor rehab/robot trajectories along with the AR digital twin of the robot, ensuring that the robot is providing passive therapy for shoulder and elbow movements

Microcontroller based home automation system

EEE/201

A Novel Framework for Mixed Reality–Based Control of Collaborative Robot: Development Study

Background: Applications of robotics in daily life are becoming essential by creating new possibilities in different fields, especially in the collaborative environment. The potentials of collaborative robots are tremendous as they can work in the same workspace as humans. A framework employing a top-notch technology for collaborative robots will surely be worthwhile for further research. Objective: This study aims to present the development of a novel framework for the collaborative robot using mixed reality. Methods: The framework uses Unity and Unity Hub as a cross-platform gaming engine and project management tool to design the mixed reality interface and digital twin. It also uses the Windows Mixed Reality platform to show digital materials on holographic display and the Azure mixed reality services to capture and expose digital information. Eventually, it uses a holographic device (HoloLens 2) to execute the mixed reality–based collaborative system. Results: A thorough experiment was conducted to validate the novel framework for mixed reality–based control of a collaborative robot. This framework was successfully applied to implement a collaborative system using a 5–degree of freedom robot (xArm-5) in a mixed reality environment. The framework was stable and worked smoothly throughout the collaborative session. Due to the distributed nature of cloud applications, there is a negligible latency between giving a command and the execution of the physical collaborative robot. Conclusions: Opportunities for collaborative robots in telerehabilitation and teleoperation are vital as in any other field. The proposed framework was successfully applied in a collaborative session, and it can also be applied in other similar potential applications for robust and more promising performance

Development of an Upper Limb Telerehabilitation System

Upper limb dysfunction (ULD) is common following a stroke, spinal cord injury, trauma, and occupational accidents. Post-stroke patients with ULD need long-term assistance from therapists for their rehabilitation, which generally occurs at the hospital or outpatient clinic. Travel and transportation are significant factors that prevent patients from receiving adequate therapy, often leading to long-term disability. A home-based rehabilitation device providing essential arm movement therapies can significantly ease this rehabilitation program. In this research, we developed an end-effector type Desktop-Mounted Rehabilitation Robot (DMRbot) with a minimum viable design to cover the full range of human upper limb (UL) workspace to provide an essential UL rehab exercise. PTC\u27s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform is used in this study to provide home-based rehabilitation therapies for individuals with ULD remotely. Remote rehabilitation is pragmatical because of the negligible latency (expedited through cloud services deployment by ThingWorx) and stable communication structure. With the developed telerehabilitation framework, an operator can teleoperate the DMRbot to deliver UL exercises via an Augmented Reality (AR) based graphical user interface (GUI), and a virtual joystick. This AR, platform communicates bidirectionally with the robot using ThingWorx IIOT. The developed telerehabilitation system also allows therapists to administer passive rehabilitation therapy using a physical joystick. This study leverages the digital twin structure, facilitated by Vuforia studio, to visualize the physical robot motions happening in remote places. Experiments were conducted to validate the novel telerehabilitation framework to provide remote therapy using the developed DMRbot. The result show that the DMRbot can be successfully controlled from the Vuforia studio AR platform and with a joystick to provide UL rehab exercises in 2D and 3D planes

A Novel Framework for Mixed Reality–Based Control of Collaborative Robot: Development Study

BackgroundApplications of robotics in daily life are becoming essential by creating new possibilities in different fields, especially in the collaborative environment. The potentials of collaborative robots are tremendous as they can work in the same workspace as humans. A framework employing a top-notch technology for collaborative robots will surely be worthwhile for further research. ObjectiveThis study aims to present the development of a novel framework for the collaborative robot using mixed reality. MethodsThe framework uses Unity and Unity Hub as a cross-platform gaming engine and project management tool to design the mixed reality interface and digital twin. It also uses the Windows Mixed Reality platform to show digital materials on holographic display and the Azure mixed reality services to capture and expose digital information. Eventually, it uses a holographic device (HoloLens 2) to execute the mixed reality–based collaborative system. ResultsA thorough experiment was conducted to validate the novel framework for mixed reality–based control of a collaborative robot. This framework was successfully applied to implement a collaborative system using a 5–degree of freedom robot (xArm-5) in a mixed reality environment. The framework was stable and worked smoothly throughout the collaborative session. Due to the distributed nature of cloud applications, there is a negligible latency between giving a command and the execution of the physical collaborative robot. ConclusionsOpportunities for collaborative robots in telerehabilitation and teleoperation are vital as in any other field. The proposed framework was successfully applied in a collaborative session, and it can also be applied in other similar potential applications for robust and more promising performance