Farshid Amirabdollahian

Upper Limb Robot Mediated Stroke Therapy—GENTLE/s Approach

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in particular affecting older people. Although the causes of stroke are well known and it is possible to reduce these risks, there is still a need to improve rehabilitation techniques. Early studies in the literature suggest that early intensive therapies can enhance a patients recovery. According to physiotherapy literature, attention and motivation are key factors for motor relearning following stroke. Machine mediated therapy offers the potential to improve the outcome of stroke patients engaged on rehabilitation for upper limb motor impairment. Haptic interfaces are a particular group of robots that are attractive due to their ability to safely interact with humans. They can enhance traditional therapy tools, provide therapy “on demand” and can present accurate objective measurements of a patients progression. Our recent studies suggest the use of tele-presence and VR-based systems can potentially motivate patients to exercise for longer periods of time. The creation of human-like trajectories is essential for retraining upper limb movements of people that have lost manipulation functions following stroke. By coupling models for human arm movement with haptic interfaces and VR technology it is possible to create a new class of robot mediated neuro rehabilitation tools. This paper provides an overview on different approaches to robot mediated therapy and describes a system based on haptics and virtual reality visualisation techniques, where particular emphasis is given to different control strategies for interaction derived from minimum jerk theory and the aid of virtual and mixed reality based exercises.

Training modalities in robot-mediated upper limb rehabilitation in stroke: a framework for classification based on a systematic review

Robot-mediated post-stroke therapy for the upper-extremity dates back to the 1990s. Since then, a number of robotic devices have become commercially available. There is clear evidence that robotic interventions improve upper limb motor scores and strength, but these improvements are often not transferred to performance of activities of daily living. We wish to better understand why. Our systematic review of 74 papers focuses on the targeted stage of recovery, the part of the limb trained, the different modalities used, and the effectiveness of each. The review shows that most of the studies so far focus on training of the proximal arm for chronic stroke patients. About the training modalities, studies typically refer to active, active-assisted and passive interaction. Robot-therapy in active assisted mode was associated with consistent improvements in arm function. More specifically, the use of HRI features stressing active contribution by the patient, such as EMG-modulated forces or a pushing force in combination with spring-damper guidance, may be beneficial.Our work also highlights that current literature frequently lacks information regarding the mechanism about the physical human-robot interaction (HRI). It is often unclear how the different modalities are implemented by different research groups (using different robots and platforms). In order to have a better and more reliable evidence of usefulness for these technologies, it is recommended that the HRI is better described and documented so that work of various teams can be considered in the same group and categories, allowing to infer for more suitable approaches. We propose a framework for categorisation of HRI modalities and features that will allow comparing their therapeutic benefits.

Multivariate analysis of the Fugl-Meyer outcome measures assessing the effectiveness of GENTLE/S robot-mediated stroke therapy

BackgroundRobot-mediated therapies offer entirely new approaches to neurorehabilitation. In this paper we present the results obtained from trialling the GENTLE/S neurorehabilitation system assessed using the upper limb section of the Fugl-Meyer (FM) outcome measure.MethodsWe demonstrate the design of our clinical trial and its results analysed using a novel statistical approach based on a multivariate analytical model. This paper provides the rational for using multivariate models in robot-mediated clinical trials and draws conclusions from the clinical data gathered during the GENTLE/S study.ResultsThe FM outcome measures recorded during the baseline (8 sessions), robot-mediated therapy (9 sessions) and sling-suspension (9 sessions) was analysed using a multiple regression model. The results indicate positive but modest recovery trends favouring both interventions used in GENTLE/S clinical trial. The modest recovery shown occurred at a time late after stroke when changes are not clinically anticipated.ConclusionThis study has applied a new method for analysing clinical data obtained from rehabilitation robotics studies. While the data obtained during the clinical trial is of multivariate nature, having multipoint and progressive nature, the multiple regression model used showed great potential for drawing conclusions from this study.An important conclusion to draw from this paper is that this study has shown that the intervention and control phase both caused changes over a period of 9 sessions in comparison to the baseline. This might indicate that use of new challenging and motivational therapies can influence the outcome of therapies at a point when clinical changes are not expected.Further work is required to investigate the effects arising from early intervention, longer exposure and intensity of the therapies. Finally, more function-oriented robot-mediated therapies or sling-suspension therapies are needed to clarify the effects resulting from each intervention for stroke recovery.

Minimum jerk trajectory control for rehabilitation and haptic applications

Smooth trajectories are essential for safe interaction in between human and a haptic interface. Different methods and strategies have been introduced to create such smooth trajectories. This paper studies the creation of human-like movements in haptic interfaces, based on the study of human arm motion. These motions are intended to retrain the upper limb movements of patients that lose manipulation functions following stroke. We present a model that uses higher degree polynomials to define a trajectory and control the robot arm to achieve minimum jerk movements. It also studies different methods that can be driven from polynomials to create more realistic human-like movements for therapeutic purposes.

Would You Trust a (Faulty) Robot?: Effects of Error, Task Type and Personality on Human-Robot Cooperation and Trust

How do mistakes made by a robot affect its trustworthiness and acceptance in human-robot collaboration? We investigate how the perception of erroneous robot behavior may influence human interaction choices and the willingness to cooperate with the robot by following a number of itsunusual requests. For this purpose, we conducted an experiment in which participants interacted with a home companion robot in one of two experimental conditions: (1) the correct modeor (2) the faulty mode. Our findings reveal that, while significantly affecting subjective perceptions of the robot and assessments of its reliability and trustworthiness, the robot’s performance does not seem to substantially influence participants’ decisions to (not) comply with its requests. However, our results further suggest that the nature of the task requested by the robot, e.g. whether its effects are revocable as opposed to irrevocable, has a significant impact on participants’ willingness to follow its instructions.

Collaborating with Kaspar: Using an autonomous humanoid robot to foster cooperative dyadic play among children with autism

This article describes a pilot study in which children with autism alternated between playing a co-operative, dyadic video game with an adult human and playing the same game with an autonomous humanoid robot. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the children, all of whom had difficulties communicating and engaging in social play with others, would display more collaborative behaviours when playing with an adult after playing and interacting with the humanoid robot. Based on our analysis of the childrens behaviours while playing the cooperative game, our findings suggest that the children were more entertained, seemed more invested in the game, and collaborated better with their partners during their second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first. One possible explanation for this result is that the childrens intermediary play session with the humanoid robot had an impact on their subsequent play session with the adult. Additionally, while the autistic children saw the robotic partner as being more interesting and entertaining, they played more collaboratively and cooperated better with the human adult.

A Pilot Study with a Novel Setup for Collaborative Play of the Humanoid Robot KASPAR with Children with Autism

This article describes a pilot study in which a novel experimental setup, involving an autonomous humanoid robot, KASPAR, participating in a collaborative, dyadic video game, was implemented and tested with children with autism, all of whom had impairments in playing socially and communicating with others. The children alternated between playing the collaborative video game with a neurotypical adult and playing the same game with the humanoid robot, being exposed to each condition twice. The equipment and experimental setup were designed to observe whether the children would engage in more collaborative behaviours while playing the video game and interacting with the adult than performing the same activities with the humanoid robot. The article describes the development of the experimental setup and its first evaluation in a small-scale exploratory pilot study. The purpose of the study was to gain experience with the operational limits of the robot as well as the dyadic video game, to determine what changes should be made to the systems, and to gain experience with analyzing the data from this study in order to conduct a more extensive evaluation in the future. Based on our observations of the childrens’ experiences in playing the cooperative game, we determined that while the children enjoyed both playing the game and interacting with the robot, the game should be made simpler to play as well as more explicitly collaborative in its mechanics. Also, the robot should be more explicit in its speech as well as more structured in its interactions.Results show that the children found the activity to be more entertaining, appeared more engaged in playing, and displayed better collaborative behaviours with their partners (For the purposes of this article, ‘partner’ refers to the human/robotic agent which interacts with the children with autism. We are not using the term’s other meanings that refer to specific relationships or emotional involvement between two individuals.) in the second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first sessions. One way of explaining these findings is that the children’s intermediary play session with the humanoid robot impacted their subsequent play session with the human adult. However, another longer and more thorough study would have to be conducted in order to better re-interpret these findings. Furthermore, although the children with autism were more interested in and entertained by the robotic partner, the children showed more examples of collaborative play and cooperation while playing with the human adult.

Using the Humanoid Robot KASPAR to Autonomously Play Triadic Games and Facilitate Collaborative Play Among Children With Autism

This paper presents a novel design, implementation, and first evaluation of a triadic, collaborative game involving the humanoid robot, kinesics and synchronization in personal assistant robotics (KASPAR), playing games with pairs of children with autism. Children with autism have impaired social communication and social interaction skills which make it difficult for them to participate in many different forms of social and collaborative play. Our proof-of-concept 10-week, long term study demonstrates how a humanoid robot can be used to foster and support collaborative play among children with autism. In this work, KASPAR operates fully autonomously, and uses information on the state of the game and behavior of the children to engage, motivate, encourage, and advise pairs of children playing an imitation game. Results are presented from a first evaluation study which examined whether having pairs of children with autism play an imitative, collaborative game with a humanoid robot affected the way these children would play the same game without the robot. Our initial evaluation involved six children with autism who each participated in 23 controlled play sessions both with and without the robot, using a specially designed imitation-based collaborative game. In total 78 play sessions were run. Detailed observational analyses of the childrens behaviors indicated that different pairs of children with autism showed improved social behaviors in playing with each other after they played as pairs with the robot KASPAR compared to before they did so. These results are encouraging and provide a proof-of-concept of using an autonomously operating robot to encourage collaborative skills among children with autism.

Tactile interaction with a humanoid robot for children with autism: A case study analysis involving user requirements and results of an initial implementation

The work presented in this paper is part of our investigation in the ROBOSKIN project. The project aims to develop and demonstrate a range of new robot capabilities based on the tactile feedback provided by a robotic skin. One of the projects objectives is to improve human-robot interaction capabilities in the application domain of robot-assisted play. This paper presents design challenges in augmenting a humanoid robot with tactile sensors specifically for interaction with children with autism. It reports on a preliminary study that includes requirements analysis based on a case study evaluation of interactions of children with autism with the child-sized, minimally expressive robot KASPAR. This is followed by the implementation of initial sensory capabilities on the robot that were then used in experimental investigations of tactile interaction with children with autism.

Design, development and deployment of a hand/wrist exoskeleton for home-based rehabilitation after stroke - SCRIPT project

Objective: this manuscript introduces the Supervised Care and Rehabilitation Involving Personal Tele-robotics (SCRIPT) project. The main goal is to demonstrate design and development steps involved in a complex intervention, while examining feasibility of using an instrumented orthotic device for home-based rehabilitation after stroke. Methods: the project uses a user-centred design methodology to develop a hand/wrist rehabilitation device for home-based therapy after stroke. The patient benefits from a dedicated user interface that allows them to receive feedback on exercise as well as communicating with the health-care professional. The health-care professional is able to use a dedicated interface to send/receive communications and remote-manage patients exercise routine using provided performance benchmarks. Patients were involved in a feasibility study (n=23) and were instructed to use the device and its interactive games for 180 min per week, around 30 min per day, for a period of 6 weeks, with a 2-months follow up. At the time of this study, only 12 of these patients have finished their 6 weeks trial plus 2 months follow up evaluation. Results: with the “use feasibility” as objective, our results indicate 2 patients dropping out due to technical difficulty or lack of personal interests to continue. Our frequency of use results indicate that on average, patients used the SCRIPT1 device around 14 min of self-administered therapy a day. The group average for the system usability scale was around 69% supporting system usability. Conclusions: based on the preliminary results, it is evident that stroke patients were able to use the system in their homes. An average of 14 min a day engagement mediated via three interactive games is promising, given the chronic stage of stroke. During the 2nd year of the project, 6 additional games with more functional relevance in their interaction have been designed to allow for a more variant context for interaction with the system, thus hoping to positively influence the exercise duration. The system usability was tested and provided supporting evidence for this parameter. Additional improvements to the system are planned based on formative feedback throughout the project and during the evaluations. These include a new orthosis that allows a more active control of the amount of assistance and resistance provided, thus aiming to provide a more challenging interaction.