Development of an Assistive Robot for Effective Health Care Delivery

Principal Investigators: H.F. Machiel Van der Loos, PhD and Charles G. Burgar, MD

Co-investigators: Michael Wickizer, OTR and Inder Perkash, MD
User Interface Designer: J. Joseph Wagner, MSME
Control System Designers: Kyong S. Chang, PhD and Oscar Madrigal, MSME
Sensor System Designers: Niels Smaby, MSME and Stefan Gercke

Summary: Persons with high level quadriplegia need to be able to execute vocational tasks without an attendant. We have developed and proven the feasibility of using a robotic workstation to fulfill this need. Evaluations of this workstation locally by us, and nationally by the VA, have indicated the steps required to advance the workstation to successful commercialization. The objective of this project is to improve the functionality of the workstation, enhance its reliability, perform cost-effective workstation design, clinically test the workstation, analyze its performance, and pursue its commercialization. A real-time operating environment for force-based control of robot motion has been implemented and a telemaintenance module incorporated. A novel interface design, based on WWW standards, is complete. Adaptive access equipment for the Windows-NT environment allows operators to use head motion, speech and residual arm motion to operate the robot as well as control ECUs and perform common office communication and Internet-based tasks.

Findings: The ProVAR interface is based on a novel dual-character formulation that builds on natural social interactions. The operator communicates with a high-level expert (on-line help system) and the robot arm itself via its gestures to form a task-building and problem-solving design team. Pragmatically, the interface is a direct-manipulation simulation/preview environment with pull-down menus to build and execute robot tasks. The resulting storyboard of icons can be edited and modified, and then previewed, before commanding the robot to actually do the task. A browser-based video telemaintenance capability has also been implemented.

Funding Source: VA RR&D Merit Review

Years: 1996-1999