EFRI-M3C: Partnered Rehabilitative Movement: Cooperative Human-robot Interactions for Motor Assistance, Learning, and Communication

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Our vision is to develop caregiver robots that interact fluidly and flexibly with humans during functionalmotor activities, while providing motor assistance, enhancement, and communication to facilitate motorlearning. However, we currently lack theories to understand how rehabilitation and movement therapistsprovide timely and appropriate physical feedback and assistance to improve mobility in individuals withmotor impairments. To develop devices that could accompany an individual as both assistant andmovement therapist, our goal is to study human motor coordination during cooperative physicalinteractions with a humanoid assistive robot. We will use rehabilitative partner dance as a paradigm toexamine a sensory-motor theory of cooperative physical interactions relevant to walking and otherfunctional motor activities. We will use a "partnered box step", a constrained and defined pattern ofweight shifts and directional changes, as a paradigm for a cooperative physical interaction with welldefinedmotor goals.Objectives: To 1) experimentally verify a hierarchical theory of human sensory-motor control andlearning and 2) develop predictive models of whole-body human movement for cooperative physicalinteractions with machines. Over four years, we will test our models by demonstrating the successfulparticipation of the robot in a box step as leader or follower and adapt its movements to the motor skilllevel of a human partner.Intellectual Merit: Our work will provide transformative experimental, theoretical, and practicalinterdisciplinary frameworks that will forge new paths toward autonomous cooperative robots withphysical intelligence to enhance, assist, and improve motor skills in humans with varying motorcapabilities. These advances will aid prosthetic and robotic design and may advance our understanding ofthe brain.Broader Impacts: The expected project outcomes would have long-term impact on the quality of life ofmillions of Americans by improving fitness, motor skills, and social engagement. Applications includehealthcare devices or sports robots that entertain and improve fitness. We will provide seminars onmobility-related issues and rehabilitative dance instruction to older adult living communities andpopulations with motor impairments. The broad appeal and social nature of this work will likely garnermedia publicity that will increase public interest in science and technology.