Our goals in this research project are to determine the significance of performance of inanimate tasks as a marker for robotic proficiency and assess the utility of inanimate task training on robotic skill performance. We aim to establish standardized tasks for training, define accurate metrics for performance, and assess motor skill acquisition in virtual and real environments.
It has been reported in the literature that the smoothness of human subjects' arm/hand movements vanishes as the movements become slower. Intermittencies in the movement are observed as distinct peaks in the speed profile. Doeringer and Hogan (1998) proposed two possibilities for the origin of intermittency in slow movements: (1) noise in neuromuscular circuitry, and (2) a movement planner that can only construct simple movements. They showed that the intermittency can not be due to noise or delays in visual feedback.
Vibrating muscle tendons at a range of frequencies is known to produce movement illusions in human subjects. Although there are examples in the literature on the use of vibrators to transmit simple cues such as direction information, movement illusions due to vibration have not been utilized as a method of providing illusory kinesthetic feedback. One possible main application is artificial proprioception for prosthetic devices.
Robotic rehabilitation for stroke patients has been an active field of research since the 1990s. There has been many studies focusing on mechanical design of robotic devices, design of software and interfaces for the patients and therapists, identifying quantitative and objective measures for motor improvement, and developing different operating modes/scenarios for the devices. However, a unified set of robotic (based on data captured by the robotic device) motor function improvement measures still does not exist.
The implementation of training virtual environments (TVEs) is intended to reduce risk, improve and accelerate learning over traditional training methods, thereby transferring what is learned in the simulation to the targeted real world task. One type of TVE employs a type of robotic force feedback, also called haptic guidance, to assist the human trainee in performing the critical components of the task. Prior work suggests that these haptic guidance schemes perform best when the level of guidance is based on the trainee's changing level of performance during training.
We are developing a Respiratory Motion Management System (RMMS) to maintain uniform and steady breathing patterns for lung cancer patients during radiotherapy treatment using tactile feedback. A well know “gated-therapy” technique targets infected tumors during either at the full inhale or at the full exhale posture. In order to reduce the exposure time and increase the efficacy of treatment, patients need to maintain a normal and/or predefined chest motion during treatments.