SCH: INT: An Adaptive Robotic Hand Orthosis with Multimodal Sensing and Continuous Learning

我们计划开发一种可穿戴的机器人手部矫形器，能够作为一个多模式的感觉平台 并在身体上辅助功能性的手运动。与中风患者合作，我们将部署这一技术 用于上肢再训练的矫形器，以提高日常活动的能力 生活在模拟的家庭环境中。在这些会议中，我们将在两种可能的情况下测试我们的平台 角色：主动矫形器和康复设备。 为了使矫形器能够更广泛地用于功能性任务，我们依靠两种新的方法。第一个是 这是一种机器人手矫形器，被视为驱动和多模式传感的平台。这将是 第一个在功能任务期间收集受助受损手的多模式数据的设备， 组合信息，如施加的马动力、手指关节角度、指尖姿势、施加的接触 压力、肌肉活动等。基于这些数据，我们提出了一种多通道学习机制，用于 推断用户意图以操作该设备。作为一项重大创新，这种方法有助于 持续学习：不同的感知模式可以在使用过程中相互通知和培训，在 缺少人工提供的基本事实。因此，我们的目标是消除长期存在的挑战 用户控制的辅助设备：需要反复校准和监督。 第二种新颖的方法是使用一个辅助平台来描述和开发缓解 不想要的和异常的肌肉激活的策略，这是一个重要的，目前尚未解决的问题 实现上肢近端和远端相结合的功能性运动的挑战。这些 直接与训练动作背道而驰的现象在设计中通常被忽视 机器人装置，或通过钝化方法解决，例如在 以克服痉挛，或将上肢近端排除在任务之外，以避免 协同效应。我们的感知能力将使我们能够研究施加的辅助力量如何影响这些 有必要对这些现象进行深入研究，并制定有针对性的战略来缓解这些现象。

We propose to develop a wearable robotic hand orthosis, able to act as a multimodal sensory platform and to physically assist functional hand movement. Working with stroke patients, we will deploy this orthosis for extended use in retraining the upper limb to improve the ability to perform activities of daily living in a simulated domestic environment. In these sessions, we will test our platform in two possible roles: an active orthosis as well as a rehabilitation device. To enable extended use of the orthosis for functional tasks, we rely on two novel approaches. The first is that of a robotic hand orthosis seen as a platform for both actuation and multimodal sensing. This will be the first device to collect multimodal data on the assisted impaired hand during functional tasks, combining information such as applied motor force, finger joint angles, fingertip pose, applied contact pressure, muscle activity, etc. Based on this data, we propose a multimodal learning mechanism for inferring user intent in order to operate the device. As a significant innovation, this approach lends itself to continuous learning: different sensing modalities can inform and train each other during use, in the absence of manually provided ground truth. Thus, we aim to remove a longstanding challenge for user-controlled assistive devices: the need for repeated calibration and supervision. The second novel approach is that of an assistive platform used to characterize and develop mitigation strategies for unwanted and abnormal muscle activations, an important and currently unaddressed challenge for achieving functional movement of the combined proximal and distal upper limb. These phenomena, which directly oppose training movements, have generally been ignored in the design of robotic devices, or addressed through blunt methods such as a general increase of the applied force in order to overcome spasticity, or exclusion of the proximal upper limb from the task in order to avoid synergies. Our sensing capabilities will allow us to study how applied assistive forces affects these phenomena, and develop targeted strategies to mitigate them.