CPS: TTP Option: Synergy: Collaborative Research: Nested Control of Assistive Robots through Human Intent Inference

第1部分：上肢运动障碍由多种临床情况引起，包括截肢、脊髓损伤或中风。因此，解决失去的手功能是康复干预的主要重点；旨在恢复精细运动控制功能的机械手和手外骨骼的研究最近取得了显著进展。将这些机器人与神经控制机制相结合也是一个正在进行的研究方向。我们将开发通过嵌套控制控制的假肢和可穿戴手，这种控制无缝地融合了基于人脑活动的神经控制和基于机器人传感器的动态控制。这些使用嵌套决策(HAND)系统的手增强还将向用户提供基本的触觉反馈。手设计框架将为辅助和增强机器人领域做出贡献。由此产生的技术将改善肢体功能丧失患者的生活质量。该项目将帮助培训熟练应对多学科挑战的工程师。通过外联活动，将在K-12一级促进STEM职业生涯，将从工程领域代表性不足的群体中招募个人参与这一研究项目，这将有助于STEM工作队伍的多样性。第2部分：该小组先前引入了人在环网络-物理系统(HILCPS)的概念。利用HILCPS硬件-软件协同设计和自动合成基础设施，我们将开发假肢和可穿戴手系统，这些系统对从生理信号推断人类意图的不确定性具有健壮性。一个挑战来自于这样一个事实，即人类和网络系统共同作用于相同的物理要素。从算法设计环境中综合网络实时应用程序提出了一个框架挑战。这些问题将通过一种紧密耦合的最佳嵌套控制策略来解决，该策略依赖于用于人类意图推理的脑电-肌电-上下文融合。定制的分布式嵌入式计算和机器人平台将被构建和迭代优化。这项工作将加强HILCPS的设计框架，同时对身体/大脑接口技术和辅助/增强机器人技术做出新的贡献。具体地说，我们将(1)为灵活的HILCPS应用领域开发一个理论EEG-EMG-Context融合框架；(2)开发理论并设计新的控制理论解决方案来处理不确定性，将运动/力规划与高级人类意图和环境智能相结合，以稳健地执行日常操作活动；(3)进一步开发和完善HILCPS领域特定设计框架，使HILCPS算法能够快速部署到分布式嵌入式系统上，从而支持一类新的实时算法，实现分布式嵌入式感知、分析和决策；(4)开发新的范例，通过逐个学科的性能优化，通过假手/可穿戴手来替换、重新训练或增强手的功能。

Part 1: Upper-limb motor impairments arise from a wide range of clinical conditions including amputations, spinal cord injury, or stroke. Addressing lost hand function, therefore, is a major focus of rehabilitation interventions; and research in robotic hands and hand exoskeletons aimed at restoring fine motor control functions gained significant speed recently. Integration of these robots with neural control mechanisms is also an ongoing research direction. We will develop prosthetic and wearable hands controlled via nested control that seamlessly blends neural control based on human brain activity and dynamic control based on sensors on robots. These Hand Augmentation using Nested Decision (HAND) systems will also provide rudimentary tactile feedback to the user. The HAND design framework will contribute to the assistive and augmentative robotics field. The resulting technology will improve the quality of life for individuals with lost limb function. The project will help train engineers skilled in addressing multidisciplinary challenges. Through outreach activities, STEM careers will be promoted at the K-12 level, individuals from underrepresented groups in engineering will be recruited to engage in this research project, which will contribute to the diversity of the STEM workforce.Part 2: The team previously introduced the concept of human-in-the-loop cyber-physical systems (HILCPS). Using the HILCPS hardware-software co-design and automatic synthesis infrastructure, we will develop prosthetic and wearable HAND systems that are robust to uncertainty in human intent inference from physiological signals. One challenge arises from the fact that the human and the cyber system jointly operate on the same physical element. Synthesis of networked real-time applications from algorithm design environments poses a framework challenge. These will be addressed by a tightly coupled optimal nested control strategy that relies on EEG-EMG-context fusion for human intent inference. Custom distributed embedded computational and robotic platforms will be built and iteratively refined. This work will enhance the HILCPS design framework, while simultaneously making novel contributions to body/brain interface technology and assistive/augmentative robot technology. Specifically we will (1) develop a theoretical EEG-EMG-context fusion framework for agile HILCPS application domains; (2) develop theory for and design novel control theoretic solutions to handle uncertainty, blend motion/force planning with high-level human intent and ambient intelligence to robustly execute daily manipulation activities; (3) further develop and refine the HILCPS domain-specific design framework to enable rapid deployment of HILCPS algorithms onto distributed embedded systems, empowering a new class of real-time algorithms that achieve distributed embedded sensing, analysis, and decision making; (4) develop new paradigms to replace, retrain or augment hand function via the prosthetic/wearable HAND by optimizing performance on a subject-by-subject basis.