Distortion-based interface design for sustainable robotic therapy

康复机器人领域解决了残疾人及其护理人员的身体，情感和认知健康方面的功能需求。作为家庭帮手和生活延长器，机器人已被证明可以提高生活质量，并在日常生活活动中允许更多的个人独立性。通过需求驱动的设计，商业服务机器人的新用途以及传感技术，控制和认知工程领域（如视觉，抓取和路径规划）的科学进步的应用，该领域正在稳步发展。尽管如此，在使用治疗设备（包括机器人）方面，一个持续的问题仍然是需要治疗的人缺乏持续的动力。当残疾导致依赖和机构化时，遵守培训的减少和放弃培训转化为财政和社会成本。密集和昂贵的一对一个人治疗表明，功能恢复可以显着改善;然而，患者必须忍受长时间的挫折，才能实现真正的收益。在治疗的成果实现之前，这个人会放弃吗？我们必须设计有效的解决方案。 对适当、及时和个性化的持续激励反馈的明确需求转化为未来机器人解决方案的目标规范：它们必须响应，适应用户的影响，并为所需的治疗而设计。该计划将探索使用生理信号监测，以提高使用治疗机电设备的人的动机，以改善功能。实验将首先进行结合联合收割机隐式（影响）的措施和明确的（运动学性能的措施）在机器人使用过程中的实时，然后在康复设置，以评估这些类型的反馈的有效性，在创建一个自适应的，从事，激励使用机器人进行物理治疗的人的经验。

The field of Rehabilitation Robotics addresses functional needs in the well-being - physical, emotional and cognitive - of persons with disabilities and their caregivers. As household helpers and life extenders, robots have been demonstrated to improve quality of life and allow more personal independence in performing activities of daily living. The field is advancing steadily through needs-driven design, new uses of commercial service robots and the application of scientific advances in sensing technologies, controls, and cognitive engineering fields such as vision, grasping, and path-planning. Nevertheless, a persistent thread in the use of therapy devices, including robots, remains the lack of sustained motivation by people who need the therapy. Reduced compliance and abandonment of training translate to financial and societal costs when disability results in dependency and institutionalization. Intensive and expensive one-on-one personal therapy has shown that functional recovery can be significantly improved; however, the patient must endure a long period of frustration before true gains are realized. Will the person give up before the fruits of the therapy are realized? It is critical that we design solutions that work. The clear need for continual motivational feedback that is appropriate, timely and personalized translates to a target specification for future robotic solutions: They must be responsive, adaptive to user affect and designed for the therapy needed. This program will explore the use of physiological signal monitoring to improve the motivation of persons using therapy mechatronic devices to improve function. Experiments will initially be conducted to combine implicit (affect) measures and explicit (kinematic measures of performance) in real-time during robot use, and then in a rehabilitation setting to evaluate the effectiveness of these types of feedback in creating an adaptive, engaging, motivational experience for persons undergoing physical therapy using a robot.