The Arlyn ChairBot is a wheelchair-mounted robotic arm. It can be controlled by voice, AAC devices, joysticks, gamepads and scanning interfaces.
The ChairBot is designed for people with paralysis to permit greater independence, dignity and quality of life.
It is now in prototype form and not yet available commercially.
The Arlyn FeederBot is the direct ancestor of the ChairBot. It was created to provide increased independence and dignity for people with severe paralysis.
This robotic chair can operate a five range of motion arm, move objects, draw on paper and maneuver around a room by sensing three facial movements. The chair uses a custom designed control console and unique Boolean matrix to control fourteen separate functions.
The AuRoRA Project studies how a mobile robot can become a "toy", and a therapeutic tool for getting children with autism interested in coordinated and synchronized interactions with the environment. The project wants to help children who are not able to interact with humans. Humans are the best models for human social behaviour, but their social behaviour is very subtle, elaborate, and widely unpredictable. Many children with autism are however interested to play with mechanical toys or computers.
The goal of the VAHM project is to help severely disabled people to increase their autonomy. The VAHM vehicle is driven both by the person and by an autonomous system. The work is focused on the autonomous ability of a robotic system and on the interaction between the man and the machine. A prototype has been developed which is able to emulate a conventional powered wheelchair to perform primitive actions such as 'follow wall', and/or to perform autonomous motions in a pre-defined world. The results are currently being transferred to a commercial powered wheelchair.
The Commanus project is an R&D project which is supported by the Biomed 2 CRAFT research program of the EU. Commanus is the acronym for the official project title "Software and electronic design and evaluation of the open-structured rehabilitation robot Manus". The project mainly aims at the improvement of the electronic hardware and the software structure of the currently available Manus.
The goal of this inter-campus design project is to design a wheelchair mounted, robotic manipulator that can assist people with disabilities. The target population consists of people with limited arm/hand movement and includes (but is not limited to) children. The user must be able to pick up objects weighing as much as 1 kg from the ground.
The GENTLE/S project will develop new technologies that will open a novel section of the health-care market for exploitation. In doing so GENTLE/S will identify real possibilities for short term savings in health care costs, as well as showing the longer term benefit to health-care costs. The GENTLE/S technologies will provide a functional and effective robot for mediating physiotherapy services for older individuals recovering from stroke, and will provide a full clinical justification for these robot mediated physiotherapies.
The goal of the intelligent soft arm control (ISAC) development is to create an intelligent robotic aid system for the service sector such as hospitals and home. The main benefit of such a system is to provide the sick and physically challenged person with means to live independently. To insure ease of use, safety and flexibility of the system, we have integrated several sensors such as vision, voice, touch and ultrasonic ranging. The user interacts with the ISAC in natural language commands such as 'feed me soup'. ISAC's main robot arm is called the Soft Arm. The Soft Arm is a prototype manipulator using actuators called Rubbertuators which function in a manner highly resembling the movements of the human muscle. It is lightweight, safer to operate and has a high potential to act as a human aid in the service sector.
This is a 36 month project within the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The primary objective of this research is to develop a clearer understanding of human factors related to interaction with mechatronic systems. Current work focuses on the modelling of the Interactive Robotic Visual Inspection System (IRVIS) developed within a preceding project. This model will facilitate the involvement of users at an earlier stage in the user interface design process.
This programme centers its research and development on restoring function in hemispheric stroke survivors. Four projects assess four different approaches that have the potential to improve performance of the upper extremity, and one project attempts to restore locomotion.
The MARS programme is a collaboration of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC, Catholic University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of California at Irvine.
In October 1996, the MobiNet Consortium, consisting of 12 highly qualified teams, from 9 countries, started the MobiNet project. The main objective of MobiNet research network is to concentrate the forces of European scientists in the design of a prototype autonomous mobile robot for health care services, using and developing innovative, state of the art techniques, as a result of their joint research activities.
The aim of the research network is to organise and establish an active workgroup of researchers for the mobile robotics technology and health care services, in a formal cooperative study. Training of young scientists represents one of the central objectives of the network.
The motorised upper limb orthotic systems (MULOS) project is concerned with developing an orthotic unit which will be used by people with impaired upper limb function. The system will take the form of a 5 degree of freedom powered upper limb orthosis and is designed to work in 3 different modalities; assistive, exercise and continuous passive motion (CPM). As an assistive device the orthosis can be used to move the users arm to the required position and orientation, providing improved function. As an exercise or CPM device, the orthosis can be used in the clinic or at home, assisting in the rehabilitation of the arm and shoulder complex.
The multimodal user supervised interface and intelligent control (MUSIIC) project is investigating a method and system which integrates human-computer interaction with reactive planning to operate a telerobot for use as an assistive device. The system is intended to operate in an unstructured environment, rather than in a structured workcell, allowing the user considerable freedom and flexibility in terms of control and operating ease. Our approach is based on the assumption that while the user's world is unstructured, objects within it are reasonably predictable. We reflect this arrangement by providing a means of determining the superquadric shape representation of the scene, and an object-oriented knowledge base and reactive planner which superimposes information about common objects in the world. A multimodal user interface interprets deictic gesture and speech inputs with the objective of identifying the objects in the work space that are of interest to the user. The multimodal interface performs a critical disambiguation function by binding the spoken words to a location in the physical work space. The spoken input is also used to supplant the need for general purpose object recognition using a hierarchical object-oriented representation scheme. The result is an instructible telerobot which integrates speech-deictic gesture control with a knowledge-driven reactive planner and a stereo-vision system to acquire the work space model.
The personal adaptive mobility aid for frail and elderly blind people (PAM-AID) project aims to build a mobility aid which will enable users to improve their personal autonomy and remove the need for complete dependence on carers. The system operates both under users' control and unsupervised, providing them with an intelligent navigational and physical support, avoiding and warning for potential risks in the near environment. The objective of PAM-AID is to allow users to retain their personal autonomy.
Over the past seven years, veterans with high level quadriplegia have been testing the ability of a robotic workstation to replace an attendant for independent execution of vocational tasks. These tests have proven feasibility, and along with the recent VA Technology Transfer Section (TTS) evaluation, have clarified the next necessary phase of development that will advance the workstation to successful commercialization. The primary goals for this phase are more functionality per dollar, easier operator control and higher system reliability. With recent commercial and academic research advances in technology, we believe that we can realize these goals in the framework of a development project in the next three years.
The goal of this research is to assess the application of robotic technology to assist, enhance, quantify, and document the neuro-rehabilitation of patients with different neurological disorders. The work has concentrated on stroke patients. In the US, cerebral vascular accidents (stroke) annually affect over a quarter of a million people. Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the geriatric population, and it is the most common diagnosis of patients admitted to rehabilitation hospitals. Conventional rehabilitation for sensorimotor impairment includes physical and occupational therapy programs, which require labor intensive individualized exercises with a therapist. This research project is developing novel robotic technology for (a) accurate measurement and control motor activity delivered to a weakened or paralyzed limb and (b) concurrent quantitative measurement of motor activity generated in the limb by the patient.
The robotic aid to independent living (RAIL) is a two year project funded within the EU BIOMED 2 programme. The primary objective of the project is to research and develop a viable, low-cost robotic aid, based on user requirements, in order to enhance the lives of severely disabled and elderly people by affording greater independence. Modular attachments will be developed for the robotic system capable of providing greater independence in eating, drinking, teeth cleaning and shaving activities, to people with special needs. During the project, system evaluation studies will be made of the robot's performance in the field. The RAIL system will be based upong the successful 'HANDY 1' rehabilitation robot which will, during the project, be re-designed to include necessary technical and functional specifications.
A new class of robots is emerging based on controlling mechanical impedance and matching that to the impedance characteristics of the person's movements. Thus a machine assisted neuro-motor rehabilitation can be considered as a robotic device that supports, assists or interacts with a person to give some additional level of assistance, yet is compliant to a persons movements. In addition the machine can measure parameters such as the forces and velocities applied by the patient for diagnosis and assessment. The nature of this technology also lends itself to telemedicine, where a community medical practice can arrange for local patients to attend a therapy session, and while receiving treatment, a central rehabilitation clinic can monitor and update the treatment.
STRAC stands for Symbiotic Terrain Robotic Assist Chair. Although STRAC features some of its predecessors functions like artificial touch, artificial instinct and facial feature controlled actions, its improvements include Self Therapy. It may also be the most powerful wheelchair ever built. Its base is an all terrain design that is strong enough to pull a car. STRAC is capable of climbing hills, curbs, and can tilt itself to compensate for the slant of the ground, raise and lower the patient, speak to the user to inform about its current status, sense the patients facial movements and react to those movements by creating appropriate actions in its autonomous base, two exoskeleton arms and metal fingers.
The TinMan intelligent wheelchair controller is a continuing research project at the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR). The purpose of the project is to develop an extremely low cost supplemental wheelchair controller that can be retrofitted to almost all existing wheelchairs. This supplemental controller would allow someone who has partial visual impairment, brain damage, or severe spasticity (as well as being mobility impaired) to safely and independently operate a powered wheelchair. The TinMan controller can also be used in training individuals on wheelchair use while lessening the risk of collision. Several successful prototypes have already been created.
We present a paradigm for the customized design and virtual prototyping of one-of-a-kind products that require physical interaction with the human user. The methodology is exemplified in the creation of one-of-a-kind rehabilitation assistive devices for individuals with physical disabilities. The considerable variability in performance and function across individuals creates a critical need for designing aids that are specific to an individual. Furthermore biological changes that occur over time may necessitate adjustments and maintenance and rapid redesign and remanufacture.
The purpose of the vocation interactive robotics project is to study the issues involved in the employment of individuals with manipulation disabilities through the use of interactive robotic devices. The goals of this project are two-fold. First, this project aims to employ individuals with disabilities in real mainstream jobs, through the use of assistive robotics. This will be accomplished through surveying a wide range of companies and evaluating the manipulation requirements of their job tasks. Also, a collaboration with a local rehabilitation center that is actively involved in job placement for people with disabilities will provide a site for assessment and training of potential employees. Second, this project intends to identify the process through which a suitable robotic system may be designed so that a potential job may be made accessible to a person with a manipulation disability. This task involves identifying the organization that addresses both engineering and non-engineering issues related to the potential employees disability. It is expected that a successful job placement will require input from an engineering design team, vocational rehabilitation specialists, representatives from the potential employer, and funding sources.
The Wessex trolley mounted assistive robot and Weston wheelchair mounted assistive robot projects are aimed at producing a relatively low cost robotic system for use primarily in a domestic environment. Both projects share the same upper arm configurations, in one case mounted to a trolley which may be moved from one room top another by a carer, and in the other case mounted to the user's wheelchair. The Wessex system is at the stage of user evaluations, while the basic Weston system is due to be completed by September 1998.