MRI: Acquisition of robotic tools for studying brain, behavior and embodied cognition

该项目将使加州大学默塞德分校的研究人员可以使用一种新的外骨骼机器人手臂，该手臂具有集成的虚拟现实和眼球跟踪设施，用于研究人类的具体认知和情境认知。加州大学默塞德分校是加州大学系统的第十个也是最新的校园。该设备将使人类认知研究中的尖端研究能够使用来自机器人的工具，使认知与信息科学、电气工程与计算机科学、机械工程和数字人文等不同系的一系列教职员工和学生受益。该设备将促进多个方向的研究，包括1)人类运动控制和动作动力学及其在物理康复方面的应用2)体现认知和动作3)大脑-行为交互4)以人类为灵感的机器人基础研究5)人机交互6)语言、交流和手势。机械臂将提供一个复杂的平台来监控和操纵上肢，提供广泛的基于手和关节的动觉信息和凝视信息。通过内置虚拟/增强现实，机器人手臂系统将允许改变呈现给人类参与者的视觉信息，同时操纵他们的手臂动作。这项工作将有助于在加州大学默塞德分校的战略重点领域建立机构能力，并将导致校园内不同部门的科学家和学生之间的直接合作。由于加州大学默塞德分校的学生群体异常多样化，大量项目侧重于增加未被充分代表的少数民族的参与，预计该设备带来的培训影响将特别广泛。包括PI：Balasubramaniam和Co-Pis Spivey和Carpin在内的研究人员还计划使用经颅磁刺激(TMS)等技术扰乱神经活动，并使用机器人设备记录手臂运动扰动期间的大脑活动。这项研究的变革性方面来自于它同时观察和操纵大脑活动和复杂的运动行为的能力。

This project will make a new robotic exoskeleton arm with integrated virtual reality and eye-tracking facilities available to researchers for the study of human embodied and situated cognition at UC Merced, the tenth and newest campus of the University of California system. The equipment would enable cutting-edge research in the study of human cognition using tools from robotics benefitting a range of Faculty and students across various departments including Cognitive & Information Sciences, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and Digital Humanities. The equipment will catalyze research in several directions including 1) Human Motor Control & Action Dynamics with applications for physical rehabilitation 2) Embodied Cognition and Action 3) Brain-behavior interactions 4) Fundamental human-inspired robotics research 5) Human-machine interactions 6) Language, Communication & Gesture. The robotic arm will provide a sophisticated platform to monitor and manipulate the upper limb, providing a broad range of hand and joint-based kinesthetic information and gaze information. With built in virtual/augmented reality, the robot arm system will allow for altering visual information to be presented to human participants while manipulating their arm movements. The work will help build institutional capacity in an area of strategic focus at UC Merced and will result in direct collaborations between scientists and students across various departments on campus. The impact of the training resulting from the equipment is expected to be particularly broad at UC Merced due to its exceptionally diverse student body and the large number of programs focused on increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities.Researchers including the PI: Balasubramaniam and Co-PIs Spivey and Carpin also plan on perturbing neural activity using techniques such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and recording brain activity during the perturbation of arm movements using the robotic device. The transformative aspect of this research comes from its ability to observe and manipulate brain activity and complex motor behavior simultaneously.