Assistive Robotic Manipulator Interface

Shoulder overuse syndrome (SOS) is a fatigue-related condition caused by repetitive motion or excessive practice, common amongst wheelchair users. Diagnostic treatment methods for SOS include physiotherapy sessions, kinesiology tapes and few other measures. Many commercial devices available in the market targeting rehabilitation and recovery of shoulder pathologies are expensive and inaccessible for in-home treatment. A detailed survey of the rehabilitative devices for upper limbs is given in [1]. Although, prognostic measures to avoid SOS in wheelchair users such as taking smoother strides and altering wheel stroke mechanics have been suggested [2], [3], there is a clear lack of assistive devices that augment the shoulder joint muscles during wheelchair propulsion.

Descending stairs and floors classification as control reference in autonomous smart wheelchair

In today’s world there are many disabled persons who find it difficult to perform movements or perform daily activities. This types of persons are mainly dependent on others for their assistance. But they can become self-independent and perform some daily activities on their own with the help of assistive devices. The most widely used assistive devices are Wheelchairs. Wheelchairs is basically a chair fitted with wheels, which can help people move around who cannot walk because of illness, disability or injury. But there are many disabled people with weak limbs and joints who cannot move the wheelchair. Thus, Smart Wheelchair can benefit a lot to them and everyone in society. Smart Wheelchairs are electric powered wheelchairs with many extra components such as a computer and sensors which help the user or guardian accompanying wheelchair to handle it easily and efficiently. The recent development in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Sensor technologies and Robotics help the growth of wheelchairs with new features. This paper is to review the current state of art of Smart Wheelchairs and discuss the future research in this field.

The haptic feedback, which is natural in assistive devices intended for visually impaired persons, has been only recently explored for people with motor disability. The aim of this work is to study...

Introduction: Assistive technology refers to a broad range of products, systems, and services designed to assist individuals to perform a particular task. These assistive devices aid neurologically impaired individuals in carrying out their activities within the community. Some examples of assistive technologies are mobility aids such as wheel chairs, walkers, canes,crutches, prosthetic and orthotic devices. Aim: To identify and highlight the role of assistive devices in enhancing mobility, Quality of Life (QOL) and functional independence in neurological conditions. Materials and Methods: In this study, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) was used. Because of their credibility and reliability, databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, and Research Gate were utilised. Nevertheless, none of the databases, such as Science Direct and Research Gate, are comprehensive or entirely thorough. Result: Assistive devices are frequently utilised in the rehab ilitation process for neurological conditions. For stroke patients, wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches are mainly utilized for mobility and everyday activities. Individuals with cerebral palsy also utilize wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches to enhance quality of life. Certain assistive devices serve both therapeutic functions and modifi cations for activities of daily living, potentially enhancing and sustaining quality of life. Conclusion: Assistive devices aid a physiotherapist in reaching optimal objectives during rehabilitation for various neurological conditions. Various assistive devices were utilized for both treatment purposes and modifi cations to activities of daily living, enhancing and preserving their quality of life. However, understanding the correct usage of these devices is crucial, along with addressing the signifi cant concerns regarding their overuse and inappropriate application. Such misuse can result in increased dependency among neurological patients, ultimately hindering their rehabilitation progress.

We live in a technological world with a rapidly ageing population. With age, increases are seen in cognitive impairment, motor/movement impairment, and hearing and visual impairment, leading to an increased likelihood of hospitalization for older adults. Considering the rapid growth both of North America's ageing population and of technology, it makes good sense to develop and apply smart technology to help older adults maintain or improve their heath and quality of life. William Mann's Smart Technology for Aging, Disability, and Independence: The State of the Science is a timely and informative book for researchers, clinicians, and students in rehabilitation, medicine, or engineering, as well as for people who have elderly family members and friends. The first chapter provides detailed information about older adults, disability, and technology as well as clear definitions of key terms used throughout the book. Relevant socio-demographic data and trends of ageing, disability, and technology are presented in a very accessible format for readers. What this book does especially well is to introduce and explain smart technology to help older adults with disabilities in a practical way, making it easy for readers to apply the information to their own particular field or need. The technology discussed in the book ranges from the very basic—such as walking aids, canes, and hearing aids—to the very advanced, including robots and smart houses. Some readers may find the more advanced technology a bit difficult to understand, and this information may be less relevant for older adults with limited financial means. In Chapter 4, the health conditions most common among older adults are categorized (e.g., vision, cognition, and mobility/movement problems). Assistive devices applicable to each category are listed and described, including (1) electronic reading devices for older adults with visual impairment; (2) different types of hearing aids for elderly persons with hearing impairment; and (3) wheelchairs and other self-care devices for older individuals with mobility/movement impairment. Information about the use of each device is provided, as well as pictures, descriptions, costs, and technical details. Some chapters introduce the technology or device information in an easy to read and compare tabular format, enabling readers without previous technical training to read and enjoy the book. Chapter 10 presents common causes of older adults’ injury and death (e.g., falls, fire, or medication errors). Both low- and high-technology devices that can prevent older adults from injury or death are then described. Detailed information as to how smart technology can help older adults maintain their health and quality of life is provided throughout the book. Overall, this book introduces technology for older adults with disabilities in a user-friendly way and leaves readers feeling comfortable with these new developments. Technology will likely be an important part of our future, one that can make older adults’ daily lives easier, safer, and more comfortable. This is a wonderful book, especially for clinicians, researchers, and students in rehabilitation, medicine, or engineering, to update current knowledge or acquire new information about smart technology applicable to older adults with disabilities. I am certain that it will inspire these types of readers and provide them with great ideas for their research or clinical programs for older adults.

Power wheelchair users, age 35 to 85, in Winnipeg, Manitoba were interviewed by a team which included two occupational therapists and two wheelchair users. Power wheelchair users discuss the process of getting the assistive technology, chair, initial experiences with it, and long term effects on their lives. Despite difficulties encountered and restricted environments, these wheelchair users feel truly empowered by their electrical mobility aids. Their world is much wider than it would be without power wheelchairs. These assistive devices enabled the users to be more productive, enjoy more leisure, and accomplish more self care since acquiring their power wheelchairs.

Internet of Things has had a tremendous effect in several fields, including the healthcare sector, to enhance network operation and users' quality of experience. In healthcare applications, people with cognitive, mental, and physical impairment rely on some form of assistive mobility device for their mobility needs and a better quality of life. The traditional wheelchairs are effective for physical impairments but poorly suited for individuals with a combination of physical and cognitive or perceptual impairments. To accommodate users with cognitive impairment, several researchers have used technologies originally developed for mobile robots to create smart mobility devices. With this significant interest, real-time autonomous navigation for the healthcare sector still requires more attention. This paper presents a review of the different existing literature on the internet of things frameworks and multi-sensor fusion techniques for assistive mobility devices (smart wheelchair). An Internet of things framework that takes into consideration scalability and security is proposed. A multi-sensor fusion pipeline for accurate localization and monitoring of assistive mobility devices for navigation purposes is also proposed.

Introduction: Accessibility of services by the elderly is an important issue in countries with rapidly aging populations such as Sri Lanka. Objective: To determine perceptions of an elderly population on physical barriers encountered in accessing healthcare at a tertiary care hospital, Sri Lanka. Method: Information was accessed from persons above 65 years visiting a tertiary care hospital, Sri Lanka by an interviewer administered questionnaire. Results: Three hundred and forty-one persons (56% males; mean age 67y) were interviewed. Eighty six percent had visited the hospital before with over 50% being accompanied. Fifty seven percent self-reported age-related physical disability with a majority (51%) having mobility impairment. Only 28% with disability had an assistive device while 41% relied solely on help of another for the hospital visit. Even though only 19% of patients said they could not reach their destination without help 41% said they could not reach upper floors without assistance while more than half said they would have preferred a wheel chair. A majority said wheel chair assistance was not available and that maneuverability of devices was inadequate. Considering directions, 33% had not noticed the information desk, 26% said it was not manned when they needed directions and 25% thought signage was poor with 18% saying that the appropriate rooms were poorly identifiable. Fifty percent said seating was inadequate while 24% thought access to wash rooms inadequate and not disable friendly (45%). Conclusions: In conclusion obtaining guidance within the hospital was difficult due to poorly noticeable, inadequately manned information desk. The poor signage visibility and legibility further complicated the movements of these patients. The waiting areas had inadequate seating facilities with no designated disable friendly areas. Hospital infrastructure was not disable friendly with difficulties in reaching upper floors unaided and inability to maneuver assistive devices. The access to washrooms was perceived as inadequate.

Purpose: To assess the effects of a mobility service dog (MSD) on pain, fatigue, wheelchair-related functional tasks, participation and satisfaction among manual wheelchair users over a nine-month period.Method: A longitudinal study with repeated assessment times before and three, six and nine months after intervention was achieved. Intervention consisted in partnering each participant with a MSD. The setting is a well-established provincial service dog training school and participants homes. A convenience sample of 24 long-term manual wheelchair users with a spinal cord injury was involved. Outcome measures were: Wheelchair User’s Shoulder Pain Index (WUSPI), Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), vitality scale from the SF-36, grip strength, Wheelchair Skills Test (WST), Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNLI), Life Space Assessment, Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) and Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST 2.0).Results: Shoulder and wrist pain as well as fatigue decreased significantly over time with the use of a MSD as evidenced by scores from WUSPI, RPE and SF-36 (feeling less worn out). Manual wheelchair propulsion skills (steep slopes, soft surfaces and thresholds) improved significantly over time as confirmed by the WST. Participation increased significantly over time as revealed by the COPM (for five occupations) and the RNLI (for five items). Satisfaction with the MSD was high over time (QUEST: nine items) and with a high positive psychosocial impact (PIADS: 10 items).Conclusion: MSD represents a valuable mobility assistive technology option for manual wheelchair users.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION For manual wheelchair users partenered with mobility service dog • Shoulder pain and fatigue significantly decreased and continued to decrease between the third and sixth month and the ninth month. • Performance with propelling the wheelchair up steep slopes increased from 41 to 88% and on soft surfaces increased from 53 to 100% after 3 months, respectively. • Occupational performance satisfaction was significantly increased for mobility in relation with the transfers, navigating in a natural environment and picking up objects. • High satisfaction towards psychosocial competency, psychosocial adequacy and self-esteem were reported at months three, six and nine.

Addresses the problem of human robot interaction with application to the design of assistive devices. We describe the design and development of a prototype of a smart wheelchair that can be commanded by a rider. Specifically, we focus on (a) the vision-based human interaction interface; (b) the suite of sensors on the chair, and (c) the software architecture and the control algorithms used to control the chair.

A major challenge in two-class brain–computer interface
\n(BCI) systems is the low bandwidth of the communication channel, especially while communicating and controlling assistive devices, such as a smart wheelchair or a telepresence mobile robot, which requires multiple
\nmotion command options in the form of forward, left, right, backward, and start/stop. To address this, an adaptive user-centric graphical user interface referred to as the intelligent adaptive user interface (iAUI) based on an adaptive shared control mechanism is proposed. The iAUI offers
\nmultiple degrees-of-freedom control of a robotic device by providing a continuously updated prioritized list of all the options for selection to the BCI user, thereby improving the information transfer rate. Results have been verified with multiple participants controlling a simulated as well as physical pioneer robot.

For people with physical disabilities, manual wheelchairs are essential enablers of mobility, participation in society, and a healthy lifestyle. Their most general design offers great flexibility and direct feedback, but has been described to be inefficient and demands good coordination of the upper extremities while critically influencing users’ actions. Multiple research groups have used Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to quantify physical activities in wheelchairs arguing that knowledge over behavioural patterns in manual wheelchair usage can guide technological development and improved designs. The present study investigates turning behaviour among fulltime wheelchair users, laying the foundation of the development of novel steering systems that allow directing kinetic energy by means other than braking. Three wearable sensors were installed on the wheelchairs of 14 individuals for tracking movement over an entire week. During detected “moving windows”, phases where the velocities of the two rear wheels differed by more than 0.05 m/s were considered as turns. Kinematic characteristics for both turns-on-the-spot as well as for moving turns were then derived from the previously reconstructed wheeled path. For the grand total of 334 km of recorded wheelchair movement, a turn was detected every 3.6 m, which equates to about 900 turns per day on average and shows that changing and adjusting direction is fundamental in wheelchair practice. For moving turns, a median turning radius of 1.09 m and a median turning angle of 39° were found. With a median of 89°, typical turning angles were considerably larger for turns-on-the-spot, which accounted for roughly a quarter of the recognised turns and often started from a standstill. These results suggest that a frequent pattern in daily wheelchair usage is to initiate movement with an orienting turn-on-the-spot, and cover distances with short, straightforward sections while adjusting direction in small and tight moving turns. As large bends often require simultaneous pushing and breaking, this is, perhaps, the result of users intuitively optimising energy efficiency, but more research is needed to understand how the design of the assistive devices implicitly directs users’ movement.

In this work we discuss a novel robotics interface with perception and projection capabilities for facilitating the skill transfer process. The interface aims at allowing humans and robots to interact with each other in the same environment, with respect to visual feedback. During the learning process, the real workspace can be used as a graphical interface for helping the user to better understand what the robot has learned up to then, to display information about the task or to get feedback and guidance. Thus, the user can incrementally visualize and assess the learner's state and, at the same time, focus on the skill transfer without disrupting the continuity of the teaching interaction. We also propose a proof-of-concept, as a core element of the architecture, based on an experimental setting where a picoprojector and an rgb-depth sensor are mounted onto the end-effector of a 7-DOF robotic arm.

Robotic manipulators have become part of manufacturing systems in recent decades. However, in the realm of Industry 4.0, a new type of manufacturing cell has been introduced—the so-called collaborative manufacturing cell. In such collaborative environments, communication between a human operator and robotic manipulators must be flawless, so that smooth collaboration, i.e., human safety, is ensured constantly. Therefore, engineers have focused on the development of suitable human–robot interfaces (HRI) in order to tackle this issue. This research work proposes a closed-loop framework for the human–robot interface based on the utilization of digital technologies, such as Mixed Reality (MR). Concretely, the framework can be realized as a methodology for the remote and safe manipulation of the robotic arm in near real-time, while, simultaneously, safety zones are displayed in the field of view of the shop-floor technician. The method is based on the creation of a Digital Twin of the robotic arm and the setup of a suitable communication framework for continuous and seamless communication between the user interface, the physical robot, and the Digital Twin. The development of the method is based on the utilization of a ROS (Robot Operating System) for the modelling of the Digital Twin, a Cloud database for data handling, and Mixed Reality (MR) for the Human–Machine Interface (HMI). The developed MR application is tested in a laboratory-based machine shop, incorporating collaborative cells.