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Cognitive processes, such as motor intention, attention, and higher level motivational states are important factors that govern motor performance and learning. Current robot-assisted rehabilitative programs focus only on the physical aspects of training. In this paper, we propose a framework for motor rehabilitation based on the augmentation of cognitive channels of patient-robot interactions and...
The authors had previously developed a system to assess accuracy of micromanipulation tasks. The system includes an optical Micro Motion Sensing System (M2S2). The M2S2, consisting of a pair of orthogonally placed position sensitive detectors (PSD) and an infra-red (IR) diode, tracks 3D displacement of the tip of a microsurgical instrument in real-time. The IR diode is used to illuminate the workspace...
Bacterial actuation is identified as a possible solution to the on-board actuation and powering challenges in mobile micro-robotics, and controlled actuation of microscale objects using various types of bacteria have been previously demonstrated. In this paper spherical-capped cylinders are identified as the optimal platform from the robotics, hydrodynamics, and adhesion stand point. Polymeric sphericalcapped...
Plants are organisms characterized by an aerial part and a root system. Plants have developed directional growth responses to deal with the copious and rapid changes in their environment in order to compensate for their sessile nature. The process by which plant roots expand in soil involves water uptake through osmosis and imbibition, and an overall increase in size by cell division. Each root tip...
A biorobotic fin has been developed that recreates the motions made by the bluegill sunfish's pectoral fin during maneuvers such as a yaw turn. The design of the fin is an evolution of a design used for a robotic fin that recreated the motions and hydrodynamic forces made by the sunfish during steady swimming. Due to a large number of degrees of freedom, the fin creates hydrodynamics similar to those...
The motor recovery procedure during robot-assisted wrist rehabilitation for persons after stroke has not been well studied previously. In this work, we carried out a comparative study on the training effects on 10 hemiplegic persons with chronic stroke between a wrist treatment assisted by an electromyography (EMG)-driven robotic system (interactive treatment, n=5, EMG group) and a wrist treatment...
The 10 mm incisions used in minimally invasive cancer surgery prevent direct manual palpation of internal organs, making intraoperative tumor localization difficult. A tactile sensing instrument (TSI), that uses a commercially available sensor to measure distributed pressure profiles along the contacting surface, has been developed to facilitate remote tissue palpation. The objective of this research...
This paper describes a sensor based control that releases the user from the continuous attention usually required in opening and closing actions. Further to this local control, the sensory information is used to generate some feedback to the user for the perception of the progress of the hand operation. We are also presented a study and result about the learning and adaptation of the electric signals...
This paper describes the concept, specifications and design of the biologically inspired quadruped robot HyQ, with special focus on the leg design. The main scope of this new robotic platform is to study highly dynamic tasks such as running and jumping. To meet the specifications in terms of performance and dimensions, hydraulic actuation has been chosen due to its high power to weight ratio and fast...
Grasping of objects by robotic hands in unstructured environments demands a sensor surface that is durable, compliant, and responsive to various force and slip conditions. A compliant and robust skin can be as critical to grasping objects as the sensor it protects. In an effort to combine compliant mechanics and robust sensing, a biomimetic tactile sensor is being developed. Deformations of its skin...
Service dogs have successfully provided assistance to thousands of motor-impaired people worldwide. As a step towards the creation of robots that provide comparable assistance, we present a biologically inspired robot capable of obeying many of the same commands and exploiting the same environmental modifications as service dogs. The robot responds to a subset of the 71 verbal commands listed in the...
Accurate values of material parameters of human tissue are key elements in a surgical robot system using an organ deformation model. However, it is generally difficult to determine the values of the material parameters of human tissue to be input into the model, because the individual differences of these material properties make them inherently uncertain. In this work, we discuss a method for identifying...
This paper examines biological regulation of micropillar actuation by insect dorsal vessel tissue. Micromechanical devices using mammalian cardiomyocytes have been reported, but they work only at only at 37degC and at pH of around 7.4. On the other hand, insect cells can survive and proliferate at 20 to 30degC and at pH 6 to 8. We have already proposed utilization of insect heart tissue as a bio-actuator...
This paper presents the mechanical design of an ultra-lightweight, biomimetically actuated anthropomorphic hand for prosthetic purposes. The proposed design is based on an underactuated configuration of 16 joints and 7 active degrees of freedom. Shape Memory Alloy wires are used as motive elements of a specially designed actuation system installed within the envelope of the hand and forearm; due to...
Human levels of dexterity has not been duplicated in a robotic form to date. Dexterity is achieved in part due to the biomechanical structure, and in part due to the neural control of movement. An anatomically correct test-bed (ACT) hand has been constructed to investigate the importance and behavioral consequences of anatomical features and neural control strategies of the human hand. This paper...
The real-time detection of surgeonpsilas action could be very useful for intelligent intraoperative assistance. Robotic assisted surgery provides quantified information that can be used to detect these actions. In this paper we present our attempt at spotting tool-tissue interactions from real surgery data, in the context of robotic assisted laparoscopy with the daVincitrade system, using both kinematic...
This paper presents a recent study about a development of an original, cable-driven and compliant robotic wrist (ARTS wrist). The ARTS wrist presents two degrees of freedom; the mechanism is composed by two platforms connected by a thrust spring (working as a flexible joint) and by three cables placed and clamped corresponding to vertex of an equilateral triangle centred in the longitudinal axis of...
This paper deals with the development of an open design platform for explorative cell mechanotransduction investigation. The produced setup combines SPM (Scanning Probe Microscopy) techniques and advanced robotics approaches allowing both prolonged observations and spatial measurements on biological samples. As a result, an enhanced force probing method based on scanning microscopy techniques and...
During human communication, humans distinguish individuals by facial features such as silhouette, position and the shape of each part, and guess the mental state based on facial expressions. Many researchers have developed robots that can express their emotions using facial expressions. However, a robot that can change individual facial aspects has not been researched yet. Therefore, we developed...
We present a reconstruction of the dynamics of flight initiation from kinematic data extracted from high-speed video recordings of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The dichotomy observed in this insectpsilas flight initiation sequences, generated by the presence or absence of visual stimuli, clearly generates two contrasting sets of dynamics once the flies become airborne. By calculating reaction...
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