Post #5
Literature Review
Paper 1: Dusty: an assistive mobile manipulator that retrieves dropped objects for people with motor impairments
Authors:
Chih-Hung King, Tiffany L. Chen, Zhengqin Fan, Jonathan D. Glass & Charles C. Kemp
Venue & Year: Taylor & Francis online, 2011
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/17483107.2011.615374
Abstract:
People with physical disabilities have ranked object retrieval as a high-priority task for assistive robots. We have developed Dusty, a teleoperated mobile manipulator that fetches objects from the floor and delivers them to users at a comfortable height. In this paper, we first demonstrate the robot’s high success rate (98.4%) when autonomously grasping 25 objects considered being important by people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We tested the robot with each object in five different configurations on five types of flooring. We then present the results of an experiment in which 20 people with ALS operated Dusty. Participants teleoperated Dusty to move around an obstacle, pick up an object and deliver the object to themselves. They successfully completed this task in 59 out of 60 trials (3 trials each) with a mean completion time of 61.4 SD = 20.5 seconds), and reported high overall satisfaction using Dusty (7-point Likert scale; 6.8 SD = 0.6). Participants rated Dusty to be significantly easier to use than their own hands, asking family members, and using mechanical reachers (p < 0.03, paired t-tests). Fourteen of the 20 participants reported that they would prefer using Dusty over their current methods.
Paper 2: The Domesticated Robot: Design Guidelines for Assisting Older Adults to Age in Place
Authors:
Jenay M. Beer, Cory-Ann Smarr, Tiffany L. Chen, Akanksha Prakash, Tracy L. Mitzner, Charles C. Kemp, & Wendy A. Rogers
Venue & Year: ACM, 2012
Link: https://dl-acm-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/doi/pdf/10.1145/2157689.2157806
Abstract:
Many older adults wish to remain in their own homes as they age [16]. However, challenges in performing home upkeep tasks threaten an older adult’s ability to age in place. Even healthy independently living older adults experience challenges in maintaining their home [13]. Challenges with home tasks can be compensated through technology, such as home robots. However, for home robots to be adopted by older adult users, they must be designed to meet older adults’ needs for assistance and the older users must be amenable to robot assistance for those needs. We conducted a needs assessment to (1) assess older adults’ openness to assistance from robots; and (2) understand older adults’ opinions about using an assistive robot to help around the home. We administered questionnaires and conducted structured group interviews with 21 independently living older adults (ages 65–93). The questionnaire data suggest that older adults prefer robot assistance for cleaning and fetching/organizing tasks overall. However their assistance preferences discriminated between tasks. The interview data provided insight as to why they hold such preferences. Older adults reported benefits of robot assistance (e.g., the robot compensating for limitations, saving them time and effort, completing undesirable tasks, and performing tasks at a high level of performance). Participants also reported concerns such as the robot damaging the environment, being unreliable at or incapable of doing a task, doing tasks the older adult would rather do, or taking up too much space/storage. These data, along with specific comments from participant interviews, provide the basis for preliminary recommendations for designing mobile manipulator robots to support aging in place.
Paper 3: Challenges in Designing a Fully Autonomous Socially Assistive Robot for People with Parkinson’s Disease
Authors:
Jason R. Wilson, Linda Tickle-Degnen, Matthias Scheutz
Venue & Year: ACM, 2020
Link: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3379179
Abstract:
Assistive robots are becoming an increasingly important application platform for research in robotics, AI, and HRI, as there is a pressing need to develop systems that support the elderly and people with disabilities, with a clear path to market. Yet, what remains unclear is whether current autonomous systems are already up to the task or whether additional HRI work is needed to make these systems acceptable and useful.
In this article, we report our efforts of developing and evaluating an architecture for a fully autonomous robot designed to assist older adults with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in sorting their medications. The main goal for the robot is to aid users in a manner that maintains the autonomy of the user by providing cognitive and social support with varying levels of assistance. We first evaluated the robot with subjects drawn from a pool of university students, which is common practice in experimental work in psychology and HRI. As the results were very positive, we followed up with an evaluation using people with Parkinson’s disease, who surprisingly had mostly negative outcomes. We thus report our analysis of the differences in the evaluations and discuss the challenges for HRI posed by the sources of the negative evaluations: (1) designing a robot to adapt to the many routines the participants use at home, (2) unique needs of participants with PD not present in student participants, and (3) the role of familiar technologies in designing and evaluating a new technology. While it is unlikely, given the current state of technology, that fully autonomous assistive robots for older adults will be available in the near term, we believe that our work exposes a critical need in HRI to involve the target population as early as possible in the design process.
Paper 4: ENRICHME: Perception and Interaction of an Assistive Robot for the Elderly at Home
Authors:
Serhan Coşar, Manuel Fernandez-Carmona, Roxana Agrigoroaie, Jordi Pages, François Ferland, Feng Zhao, Shigang Yue, Nicola Bellotto & Adriana Tapus
Venue & Year: Springer, 2020
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12369-019-00614-y#citeas
Abstract:
Recent technological advances enabled modern robots to become part of our daily life. In particular, assistive robotics emerged as an exciting research topic that can provide solutions to improve the quality of life of elderly and vulnerable people. This paper introduces the robotic platform developed in the ENRICHME project, with particular focus on its innovative perception and interaction capabilities. The project’s main goal is to enrich the day-to-day experience of elderly people at home with technologies that enable health monitoring, complementary care, and social support. The paper presents several modules created to provide cognitive stimulation services for elderly users with mild cognitive impairments. The ENRICHME robot was tested in three pilot sites around Europe (Poland, Greece, and UK) and proven to be an effective assistant for the elderly at home.
Paper 5: Wearable Solutions for Patients with Parkinson’s Disease and Neurocognitive Disorder: A Systematic Review
Authors:
Asma Channa, Nirvana Popescu, Vlad Ciobanu
Venue & Year: MDPI, 2020
Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/9/2713
Abstract:
Prevalence of neurocognitive diseases in adult patients demands the use of wearable devices to transform the future of mental health. Recent development in wearable technology proclaimed its use in diagnosis, rehabilitation, assessment, and monitoring. This systematic review presents the state of the art of wearables used by Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients or the patients who are going through a neurocognitive disorder. This article is based on PRISMA guidelines, and the literature is searched between January 2009 to January 2020 analyzing four databases: PubMed, IEEE Xplorer, Elsevier, and ISI Web of Science. For further validity of articles, a new PEDro-inspired technique is implemented. In PEDro, five statistical indicators were set to classify relevant articles and later the citations were also considered to make strong assessment of relevant articles. This led to 46 articles that met inclusion criteria. Based on them, this systematic review examines different types of wearable devices, essential in improving early diagnose and monitoring, emphasizing their role in improving the quality of life, differentiating the various fitness and gait wearable-based exercises and their impact on the regression of disease and on the motor diagnosis tests and finally addressing the available wearable insoles and their role in rehabilitation. The research findings proved that sensor based wearable devices, and specially instrumented insoles, help not only in monitoring and diagnosis but also in tracking numerous exercises and their positive impact towards the improvement of quality of life among different Parkinson and neurocognitive patients.
Paper 6: ProVAR assistive robot system architecture
Authors:
H.F.M. Van der Loos, J.J. Wagner, N. Smaby, K. Chang, O. Madrigal, L.J. Leifer, O. Khatib
Venue & Year: IEEE, 2002
Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/770063
Abstract:
This paper describes the implementation of a robot control architecture designed to combine a manipulation task design environment with a motion controller that uses the operational space formulation to define and implement arm trajectories and object manipulation. The ProVAR desktop manipulation system is an assistive robot for individuals with a severe physical disability, such as quadriplegia as a result of a high-level spinal cord injury. ProVAR allows non-technical operators access to the robot's capabilities through a direct-manipulation simulation/preview user interface. The novel interface concept is based on two built-in characters to play the roles of helpful consultant and down-to-earth robot arm. This team-based interface concept was chosen to maximize user performance and comfort in controlling the inherently complex mechatronic technology. This paper describes our design decisions and rationale.
Paper 7: The Role of Assistive Robotics in the Lives of Persons with Disability
Authors:
Steven W. Brose, DO
Douglas J. Weber, PhD
Ben A. Salatin, BS
Garret G. Grindle, MS
Hongwu Wang, MS
Juan J. Vazquez, MS
Rory A. Cooper, PhD
Venue & Year: American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 2010
Abstract:
Robotic assistive devices are used increasingly to improve the independence and quality of life of persons with disabilities. Devices as varied as robotic feeders, smart-powered wheelchairs, independent mobile robots, and socially assistive robots are becoming more clinically relevant. There is a growing importance for the rehabilitation professional to be aware of available systems and ongoing research efforts. The aim of this article is to describe the advances in assistive robotics that are relevant to professionals serving persons with disabilities. This review breaks down relevant advances into categories of Assistive Robotic Systems, User Interfaces and Control Systems, Sensory and Feedback Systems, and User Perspectives. An understanding of the direction that assistive robotics is taking is important for the clinician and researcher alike; this review is intended to address this need.
Paper 8: Robot-assisted walking training for individuals with Parkinson’s disease: a pilot randomized controlled trial
Authors:
Patrizio Sale, Maria Francesca De Pandis, Domenica Le Pera, Ivan Sova, Veronica Cimolin, Andrea Ancillao, Giorgio Albertini, Manuela Galli, Fabrizio Stocchi and Marco Franceschini
Venue & Year: BMC Neurology, 2013
Link: https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2377-13-50
Abstract:
Background
Over the last years, the introduction of robotic technologies into Parkinson’s disease rehabilitation settings has progressed from concept to reality. However, the benefit of robotic training remains elusive. This pilot randomized controlled observer trial is aimed at investigating the feasibility, the effectiveness and the efficacy of new end-effector robot training in people with mild Parkinson’s disease.
Methods
Design. Pilot randomized controlled trial.
Setting. Robot assisted gait training (EG) compared to treadmill training (CG).
Participants. Twenty cognitively intact participants with mild Parkinson’s disease and gait disturbance.
Interventions. The EG underwent a rehabilitation programme of robot assisted walking for 40 minutes, 5 times a week for 4 weeks. The CG received a treadmill training programme for 40 minutes, 5 times a week for 4 weeks.
Main outcome measures. The outcome measure of efficacy was recorded by gait analysis laboratory. The assessments were performed at the beginning (T0) and at the end of the treatment (T1). The main outcome was the change in velocity. The feasibility of the intervention was assessed by recording exercise adherence and acceptability by specific test.
Results
Robot training was feasible, acceptable, safe, and the participants completed 100% of the prescribed training sessions. A statistically significant improvement in gait index was found in favour of the EG (T0 versus T1). In particular, the statistical analysis of primary outcome (gait speed) using the Friedman test showed statistically significant improvements for the EG (p = 0,0195). The statistical analysis performed by Friedman test of Step length left (p = 0,0195) and right (p = 0,0195) and Stride length left (p = 0,0078) and right (p = 0,0195) showed a significant statistical gain. No statistically significant improvements on the CG were found.
Conclusions
Robot training is a feasible and safe form of rehabilitative exercise for cognitively intact people with mild PD. This original approach can contribute to increase a short time lower limb motor recovery in idiopathic PD patients. The focus on the gait recovery is a further characteristic that makes this research relevant to clinical practice. On the whole, the simplicity of treatment, the lack of side effects, and the positive results from patients support the recommendation to extend the use of this treatment. Further investigation regarding the long-time effectiveness of robot training is warranted.
Paper 9: Robot-assisted walking training for individuals with Parkinson’s disease: a pilot randomized controlled trial
Authors:
Xiaoyang Zhao, Zhi Zhu1, Mingshan Liu1, Chongyu Zhao, Yafei Zhao, Jia Pan, Zheng Wang, and Chuan Wu1
Venue & Year: frontiers in Neurorobotics, 2020
Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbot.2020.575889/full (PDF download on page)
Abstract:
The elderly population has rapidly increased in past years, bringing huge demands for elderly serving devices, especially for those with mobility impairment. Present assistant walkers designed for elderly users are primitive with limited user interactivity and intelligence. We propose a novel smart robotic walker that targets a convenient-to-use indoor walking aid for the elderly. The walker supports multiple modes of interactions through voice, gait or haptic touch, and allows intelligent control via learning-based methods to achieve mobility safety. Our design enables a flexible, initiative and reliable walker due to the following: (1) we take a hybrid approach by combining the conventional mobile robotic platform with the existing rollator design, to achieve a novel robotic system that fulfills expected functionalities; (2) our walker tracks users in front by detecting lower limb gait, while providing close-proximity walking safety support; (3) our walker can detect human intentions and predict emergency events, e.g., falling, by monitoring force pressure on a specially designed soft-robotic interface on the handle; (4) our walker performs reinforcement learning-based sound source localization to locate and navigate to the user based on his/her voice signals. Experiment results demonstrate the sturdy mechanical structure, the reliability of multiple novel interactions, and the efficiency of the intelligent control algorithms implemented. The demonstration video is available at: https://sites.google.com/view/smart-walker-hku.
Paper 10: An optimization approach to planning for mobile manipulation
Authors:
Dmitry Berenson, James Kuffner, Howie Choset
Venue & Year: IEEE (2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation), 2008
Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4543365
Abstract:
We present an optimization-based approach to grasping and path planning for mobile manipulators. We focus on pick-and-place operations, where a given object must be moved from its start configuration to its goal configuration by the robot. Given only the start and goal configurations of the object and a model of the robot and scene, our algorithm finds a grasp and a trajectory for the robot that will bring the object to its goal configuration. The algorithm consists of two phases: optimization and planning. In the optimization phase, the optimal robot configurations and grasp are found for the object in its start and goal configurations using a co-evolutionary algorithm. In the planning phase, a path is found connecting the two robot configurations found by the optimization phase using Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees (RRTs). We benchmark our algorithm and demonstrate it on a 10 DOF mobile manipulator performing complex pick-and-place tasks in simulation.
