MUlti-limb Virtual Environment (MUVE) for full body and augmented interactions

多肢虚拟环境（MUVE）是帝国理工学院人机界面实验室的第一个同类系统，可以研究人类自然肢体与机器人肢体的相互作用。机器人肢体可以由人类用户穿戴（物理地或虚拟地）和/或可以在MUVE产生物理、视觉、听觉和触觉交互的同时外部地作用于它们。为此，MUVE结合了（i）目前可用的最先进的基于跑步机的虚拟现实运动套件，（ii）两个机器人接口，以与手臂顺利互动，（iii）多达四个可穿戴机器人手臂用于运动增强，以及（iv）来自人机界面实验室的专用感觉运动接口，包括仪器化物体，软传感器和外骨骼，先进的假肢，高密度EMG和非侵入性神经接口。这种高度通用的系统可用于训练身体康复、运动中的运动与上肢和手臂运动相结合的任务，或用于制造和现场工作中的维护。它可以通过额外的可穿戴机器人手臂（又名章鱼博士）来实现运动增强，以开发从机器人手术（用机器人肢体控制额外工具）到独自工作（在偏远地区/受限环境中）的新应用。它还可以用作汽车工业工人主动外骨骼人体工程学测试或支持健康老龄化的开发系统。最后，它提供了机会，开发新的metaverse方法与物理交互，例如，提供援助和社会互动与老年人，或体现虚拟病人的远程医疗应用。MUVE系统可供英国和全球的研究人员和公司使用。它位于帝国理工学院新的白城校区，在人类技术研究和翻译的丰富生态系统中。MUVE将允许在物理康复、机器人手术、远程操作、人体工程学和通信技术的新型接口方面开发全新的应用。它还将使研究人员能够系统地研究中枢神经系统如何协调四肢以获得高技能和运动恢复，以及其控制额外自由度的潜力-这是开放的基本神经科学问题。

The MUlti-limb Virtual Environment (MUVE) is a first-of-its-kind system housed in the Human Interface Laboratory of Imperial College that enables to study the interaction of human natural limbs with robotic limbs. The robotic limbs can be worn (physically or virtually) by the human user and/or can act externally on them while MUVE yields physical, visual, auditive, and haptic interactions. For this purpose, MUVE combines (i) the most advanced treadmill based virtual reality motion suite currently available, with (ii) two robotic interfaces to smoothly interact with the arms, (iii) up to four wearable robotic arms for movement augmentation, and (iv) dedicated sensorimotor interfaces from the Human Interface lab, including instrumented objects, soft sensors and exoskeletons, advanced prostheses, high-density EMG and non-invasive neural interfaces.This highly versatile system can be used to train tasks combining locomotion with upper-body and arm movements in physical rehabilitation, sport, or for maintenance in manufacturing and field work. It can embody movement augmentation through supernumerary wearable robotic arms (aka Dr. Octopus) for developing novel applications ranging from robotic surgery (with robotic limbs to control additional tools) to lone working (in remote locations/constrained environments). It can also be used as a development system for ergonomics testing of active exoskeletons for automotive industry workers or for supporting healthy ageing. Finally, it offers opportunities to develop new metaverse approaches with physical interaction, e.g. to provide assistance to and social interaction with elderly, or to embody virtual patients for telemedical applications. The MUVE system is accessible to researchers and companies in the UK and globally. It is housed in Imperial's new White City campus, within a rich ecosystem of research and translation in human technologies. MUVE will allow the development of fundamentally new applications in physical rehabilitation, robotic surgery, teleoperation, ergonomics, and novel interfaces for communication technology. It will also enable researchers to systematically investigate how the central nervous system coordinates the limbs for high skill and movement restoration, as well as its potential for controlling extra degrees-of-freedom - which are open fundamental neuroscientific questions.