Desarrollo de una ayuda técnica para alumnos del colegio San Rafael (4) : sistema de identificación de niños con notificación por mensaje de voz

Mediante el presente proyecto vamos a implementar un sistema de identificación de niños para que, cuando se dispongan a entran en una instalación, se les notifique a través de un mensaje de voz personalizado con sus nombres a dónde se disponen a entrar. Este procedimiento está destinado a los niños con discapacidad usuarios del Colegio de Educación Especial Hospital San Rafael, y tiene como objetivo interactuar con ellos a través de mensajes auditivos. Para la identificación de los niños, se ha optado por asignar a cada usuario un pequeño mando a distancia provisto de un solo botón. Cada mando tendrá un código único que se envía a través de una señal óptica infrarroja al pulsar el botón. La señal transmitida estará modulada en frecuencia, con una onda portadora de 38 kHz y una onda moduladora que será una señal binaria codificada. El código enviado consta de una trama de doce bits, de los cuales seis son para datos y los restantes seis para un código de seguridad. Usaremos los bits de datos para diferenciar a los niños y con el código de seguridad evitaremos la activación del circuito en casos no deseados. El receptor ubicado junto a la puerta de la instalación a la que el niño quiere entrar, decodificará la señal infrarroja. Tendremos un receptor por cada sala: de juegos, fisioterapia, rehabilitación, etc. Si el código recibido coincide con el asignado a alguno de los niños, reproduce un mensaje de voz personalizado con el nombre del niño y el nombre de la sala a la que va a ingresar. Si el código no coincide con el de ninguno de los niños, el sistema se mantendrá pasivo. La interacción entre el sistema y los niños, la conseguimos cuando se presiona el botón y se intenta dirigir el mando hacia el receptor. Ésta acción se parece a intentar acertar un dardo en una diana. Potenciando la relación causa-efecto, la destreza mecánica para pulsar el botón y la concentración para apuntar con efectividad, intentamos estimular el desarrollo de las capacidades físicas y mentales de los niños, contribuyendo a su recuperación. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Through the present document, we are going to develop a children identification system which, when they are entering any room of the center, sends them a voice message with their names and the name of the room. This procedure is oriented to Hospital San Rafael Special Education School’s disabled children. The objective is interacting with them through audio messages. To identify the children, we decided to assign each user a small remote control with a single button. The remote control will have a unique code. When the children push the button, the code is sent through an optical infrared signal. The signal transmitted, will be modulated at a frequency with a carrier at 38 kHz and a modulator signal which will be a coded binary wave. The sent code is composed by both six address bits and six data bits. We will use the data bits to recognize the children and with the address bits we avoid to activate the system in undesired cases. The receptor placed by the side of the room’s door which the child wants to enter, will decode the infrared modulated signal. There will be one receptor by each room, for example: playroom, physiotherapy room, rehabilitation room, etc. If the received code is the same that we assigned to some child, the system plays a personalized voice message with the child’s name and the room’s name where he/she is entering. If the code does not coincide with the code assigned to any child, the system will stay passive. We get the interaction between the children and the system when the child pushes the button and try to direct the remote control towards the receptor. This action is the same as hitting a dart on the mark. Improving the physical skills for pointing, the concentration and the cause and effect events, we try to develop the children’s psychomotor capacities, helping them to improve.Ingeniería Técnica en Electrónic

The automated box and blocks test an autonomous assessment method of gross manual dexterity in stroke rehabilitation

Traditional motor assessment is carried out by clinicians using standard clinical tests in order to have objectivity in the evaluation, but this manual procedure is liable to the observer subjectivity. In this article, an automatic assessment system based on the Box and Blocks Test (BBT) of manual dexterity is presented. Also, the automatic test administration and the motor performance of the user is addressed. Through cameras RGB-D the execution of the test and the patient's movements are monitored. Based on colour segmentation, the cubes displaced by the user are detected and the traditional scoring is automatically calculated. Furthermore, a pilot trial in a hospital environment was conducted, to compare the automatic system and its e ectiveness with respect to the traditional one. The results support the use of automatic assessment methods of motor functionality, which in combination with robotic rehabilitation systems, could address an autonomous and objective rehabilitation process.The research leading to these results has received funding from the ROBOHEALTH-A project (DPI2013-47944-C4-1-R) funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and from the RoboCity2030-III-CM project (S2013/MIT-2748), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by Structural Funds of the EU

Service Robots in Catering Applications: A Review and Future Challenges.

“Hello, I’m the TERMINATOR, and I’ll be your server today”. Diners might soon be feeling this greeting, with Optimus Prime in the kitchen and Wall-E then sending your order to C-3PO. In our daily lives, a version of that future is already showing up. Robotics companies are designing robots to handle tasks, including serving, interacting, collaborating, and helping. These service robots are intended to coexist with humans and engage in relationships that lead them to a better quality of life in our society. Their constant evolution and the arising of new challenges lead to an update of the existing systems. This update provides a generic vision of two questions: the advance of service robots, and more importantly, how these robots are applied in society (professional and personal) based on the market application. In this update, a new category is proposed: catering robotics. This proposal is based on the technological advances that generate new multidisciplinary application fields and challenges. Waiter robots is an example of the catering robotics. These robotic platforms might have social capacities to interact with the consumer and other robots, and at the same time, might have physical skills to perform complex tasks in professional environments such as restaurants. This paper explains the guidelines to develop a waiter robot, considering aspects such as architecture, interaction, planning, and executionpost-print13305 K

Control orientado a la herramienta para dispositivo asistencial en tareas que requieren capacidad de pinzado

[Resumen] PRESSMATIC es un dispositivo electromecánico que genera movimientos automáticos de apertura y cierre en su extremo. Está dirigido a personas que conservan movilidad en las extremidades superiores, pero carecen de destreza manual para utilizar herramientas pequeñas como tijeras, cortaúñas o pinzas. En el desarrollo tecnológico del dispositivo, se han utilizado elementos comunes, sin embargo, la aplicación en sí misma es innovadora. En este artículo, se presenta el desarrollo del sistema de control orientado a las herramientas, que ha sido implementado para elevar la usabilidad del dispositivo. Además, se describe brevemente la interfaz gráfica que soporta el control. Se muestran también, los resultados de pruebas con usuarios potenciales y, finalmente se presentan las conclusiones.Comunidad de Madrid; S2013/MIT-2748https://doi.org/10.17979/spudc.978849749808

Electronics improvements for low-level control in the humanoid robot TEO

[Abstract] This work began with developing the first electronic integration to allow the operation of commercial TEO devices pre-selected. However, different problems were discovered during the implementation of the whole set. These were caused by the malfunction of the system and the particular design. For this reason, this paper is focused on the analysis of the first hardware architecture to propose and develop a solution that improves the performance of the joint motor control.Significantly, the detected problems are voltage drops in the power supply signals of some devices, electrical noise coupling or overshoots produced by the switching of the power inverter of the driver, and the electromechanical disconnections of various signals caused by the relative motion between devices. The consequence was that the robot joints control was not robust, preventing them from moving accurately. After the analysis, new interconnection electronics was developed. This electronic has been designed to be more integrated with the mechanic parts, improving subsystems location, and integrating new solutions to reduce the electrical problems. The new electronics have been tested in the humanoid robot arms with good results.Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; SHARON-CM-UC3MRoboCity2030-DIH-CM Madrid Robotics Digital Innovation Hub;S2018/NMT-433

ROS2 gesture classification pipeline towards gamified neuro-rehabilitation therapy

[Resumen] La rehabilitación es una herramienta esencial que ayuda a las personas a restaurar la movilidad en las extremidades afectadas por diversas afecciones, como enfermedades neurológicas. Las terapias convencionales, que incluyen terapia ocupacional, física y del habla, se han mejorado con nuevas tecnologías, como sistemas robóticos asistidos y juegos de realidad virtual y aumentada, para aumentar la participación y, en consecuencia, la efectividad. Esta investigación se centra en la implementación de un dispositivo portátil de sensores de electromiograma (EMG) de ocho canales, el brazalete Mindrove, para el reconocimiento de gestos. El objetivo es desarrollar un modelo clasificador utilizando el algoritmo de Máquinas de Vectores de Soporte (SVM) para distinguir ocho gestos diferentes de la mano y aplicarlo en un sistema de reconocimiento de gestos. El estudio demuestra la viabilidad de este sistema de reconocimiento y explora la aplicación potencial de esta tecnología en juegos interactivos de Unity para terapia de rehabilitación. Los resultados muestran una precisión prometedora en la clasificación del modelo y se necesita más investigación para abordar los desafíos relacionados con la especificidad del usuario y la precisión del reconocimiento de gestos. El trabajo futuro implica ampliar el repertorio de gestos reconocidos, incorporar datos adicionales del sensor y explorar técnicas de extracción de características más avanzadas para mejorar el rendimiento general del sistema de reconocimiento de gestos en terapias de rehabilitación.[Abstract] Rehabilitation is an essential tool that aids individuals in restoring mobility in limbs affected by various conditions, such as neurological diseases. Conventional therapies, including occupational, physical, and speech therapy, have been improved by new technologies, such as assistive robotic systems, along with virtual and augmented reality games, to enhance engagement and, consequently, effectiveness. This research focuses on implementing an eight-channel electromyogram (EMG) wearable sensor device, Mindrove armband, for gesture recognition. The objective is to develop a classifier model using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm to distinguish eight different hand gestures and apply it in a gesture recognition system. The study demonstrates the feasibility of this recognition system and explores the potential application of this technology in interactive Unity games for rehabilitation therapy. The results show promising accuracy in model classification, and further research is needed to address challenges related to user specificity and gesture recognition accuracy. Future work involves expanding the repertoire of recognized gestures, incorporating additional sensor data, and exploring more advanced feature extraction techniques to enhance the overall performance of the gesture recognition system in rehabilitation therapies.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; PID2020-113508RBI0

Towards an affordable assistive device for personal autonomy recovery in tasks required of manual dexterity

This paper reviews the results of a challenging engineering project that arose with the goal of implementing an electromechanical, automatic, portable, and inexpensive device. The device should be able to assist people who lack of dexterity in their hands to use small tools and everyday utensils, such as scissors or tweezers. In this paper, the hardware development and software functionality are described. The original specifications were developed to implement an affordable functional prototype able to serve as a low-cost assistive technology. Several commonly used electronic devices were integrated to create an innovative application. A simple mechanical system based on gears and a worm screw is used to convert the stepper motor rotation to a linear movement on the device tip. A tool-oriented control to increase the device usability was designed through two simultaneous communication channels: touch-screen and smartphone app. Pilot trials were conducted at healthcare facilities to evaluate the technical feasibility, the obtained functionality, as well as the device acceptance by target users. Based on user experience design, the app functionality was enhanced and subsequently tested. Finally, a review and reformulation of the specifications of the original design were accomplished. These changes helped to achieve a system with a lower manufacturing cost and better acceptance, while considering the user in the development cycle.This work was supported in part by the RoboCity2030-III-CM Project (Robotica aplicada a la mejora de la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos. Fase III; S2013/MIT-2748), in part by the Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid, in part by the Structural Funds of the EU, and in part by the private Fundacion Universia

Review of automated systems for upper limbs functional assessment in neurorehabilitation

Traditionally, the assessment of upper limb (UL) motor function in neurorehabilitation is carried out by clinicians using standard clinical tests for objective evaluation, but which could be influenced by the clinician's subjectivity or expertise. The automation of such traditional outcome measures (tests) is an interesting and emerging field in neurorehabilitation. In this paper, a systematic review of systems focused on automation of traditional tests for assessment of UL motor function used in neurological rehabilitation is presented. A systematic search and review of related articles in the literature were conducted. The chosen works were analyzed according to the automation level, the data acquisition systems, the outcome generation method, and the focus of assessment. Finally, a series of technical requirements, guidelines, and challenges that must be considered when designing and implementing fully-automated systems for upper extremity functional assessment are summarized. This paper advocates the use of automated assessment systems (AAS) to build a rehabilitation framework that is more autonomous and objective.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness via the ROBOHEALTH (DPI2013-47944-C4-1-R) and ROBOESPAS (DPI2017-87562-C2-1-R) Projects, and in part by the RoboCity2030-III-CM project (S2013/MIT-2748) which is funded by the Programas de Actividades I+D Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by the Structural Funds of the EU

Robotics in health care: Perspectives of robot-aided interventions in clinical practice for rehabilitation of upper limbs

This article belongs to the Special Issue Rehabilitation Robotics: Recent Advancements and New Perspectives about Training and Assessment of Sensorimotor Functions.Robot-aided systems to support the physical rehabilitation of individuals with neurological impairment is one of the fields that has been widely developed in the last few decades. However, the adoption of these systems in clinical practice remains limited. In order to better understanding the causes of this limitation, a systematic review of robot-based systems focused on upper extremity rehabilitation is presented in this paper. A systematic search and review of related articles in the literature were conducted. The chosen works were analyzed according to the type of device, the data analysis capability, the therapy method, the human–robot interaction, the safety strategies, and the focus of treatment. As a conclusion, self-adaptation for personalizing the treatments, safeguarding and enhancing of patient–robot interaction towards training essential factors of movement generation into the same paradigm, or the use of lifelike environments in fully-immersive virtual reality for increasing the assimilation of motor gains could be relevant factors to develop more accepted robot-aided systems in clinical practice.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness via the ROBOESPASproject (DPI2017-87562-C2-1-R) and in part by the RoboCity2030-DIH-CMMadrid Robotics Digital Innovation Hub ("Robótica aplicada a la mejora de la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos, Fase IV"; S2018/NMT-4331), which is funded by the Programas de Actividades I+DComunidad de Madrid and cofunded by the Structural Funds of the EU

Robot-Aided Systems for Improving the Assessment of Upper Limb Spasticity: A Systematic Review

This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors Technology for Medical Robotics.Spasticity is a motor disorder that causes stiffness or tightness of the muscles and can interfere with normal movement, speech, and gait. Traditionally, the spasticity assessment is carried out by clinicians using standardized procedures for objective evaluation. However, these procedures are manually performed and, thereby, they could be influenced by the clinician’s subjectivity or expertise. The automation of such traditional methods for spasticity evaluation is an interesting and emerging field in neurorehabilitation. One of the most promising approaches is the use of robot-aided systems. In this paper, a systematic review of systems focused on the assessment of upper limb (UL) spasticity using robotic technology is presented. A systematic search and review of related articles in the literature were conducted. The chosen works were analyzed according to the morphology of devices, the data acquisition systems, the outcome generation method, and the focus of intervention (assessment and/or training). Finally, a series of guidelines and challenges that must be considered when designing and implementing fully-automated robot-aided systems for the assessment of UL spasticity are summarized