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A robotic fish accepted by animals as conspecifics is a very powerful tool in behavioral biology. To obtain the acceptance of the device towards the animals, it should generate some visual stimuli that can be perceived by a living fish as attractive signals. In this paper we introduce a novel design of a robotic fish lure based on a Rigid-Flex Printed Circuit Board (PCB) for experiments on the fish...
Biological systems are superior compared to robotic systems in their ability to adapt to new situations very quickly. Hence, it would be advantageous to take insights from the architecture of sensory-motor maps in designing controllers for robotic systems. Any movement can be represented either in task space or joint space of a given manipulator. Planning and control in task space essentially reduces...
The variety of artificial anthropomorphic hand models available nowadays urges for objective procedures for evaluating their functionality and resemblance to the human hand performance. Several metrics has been proposed to evaluate different aspects of artificial hands. This paper analyzes and compares two different evaluation methodologies, one centered in the anthropomorphism index of an artificial...
Passive assistive devices that compensate gravity can reduce human effort during transportation of heavy objects. The additional reduction of inertial forces, which are still present during deceleration when using gravity compensation, could further increase movement performance in terms of accuracy and duration. This study investigated whether position dependent damping forces (PDD) around targets...
The need for a means of assistance in human grasping, to compensate for weakness or to augment performance, is well documented. An appealing new way of doing so is through soft, wearable robots that work in parallel with the human muscles. In this paper we present the design and modelling of a tendon-driving unit that empowers a wearable, soft glove. Being portability one of our main objectives, we...
Robotic devices that are able to manipulate the fingers can support the study of robot-assisted motor learning. Currently no devices are available that provide a transparent haptic environment and provide a platform to study motor learning. To cut down on costs it is proposed to use remote control (RC) servos with admittance control. In this study five RC servos are tested to evaluate their controller...
Adults with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), due to their severe muscular weakness, cannot benefit from passive arm supports that only compensate for the weight of their arms. Active arm supports can potentially enable adults with DMD to perform activities of daily living, improving their independence, and increasing their participation in social activities. In this paper we present the A-Arm, an...
This paper presents the development of a compliant, modular, reconfigurable, and sensorized robotic hand with multiple grasping capabilities. Each finger consists of a soft pneumatic actuator with embedded fabric force sensor and a detachable casing. The casing has a through hole for housing the actuator and special connectors for attachment to other casings. One casing each from the thumb and finger...
Developing a compact sensing system is important for controlling the joint coordination of wearable soft robotic hand rehabilitation devices. Flexible skin attachable sensors allow compact measurement of the finger and distal thumb joint (interphalangeal joint and metacarpophalangeal joint) angles. For accurate and reliable measurement of the joint angles, appropriate flexible sensors should be selected,...
An important topic in designing neuroprosthetic devices for animals or patients with spinal cord injury is to find the right brain regions with which to interface the device. In vertebrates, an interesting target could be the reticulospinal (RS) neurons, which play a central role in locomotor control. These brainstem cells convey the locomotor commands to the spinal locomotor circuits that in turn...
The advent of embedded sensors and their low cost integration in handheld devices (e.g. smartphones) are making them increasingly aware of the human location and context. There have been attempts to extract certain gait features (e.g. step length, step frequency etc.) based on data recorded from handheld devices. However, these attempts have been mostly inspired from observations in biomechanics....
Double-layered sieve-type neural electrode with high channel density is suggested for peripheral nerve interface. The neural electrode has double channel density due to its two separated metal layers including electrodes and distribution interconnects. Also it can be utilized to acquire and stimulate throughout the whole nerve cross-section. The measurement results of the electrochemical impedance...
Decoding simultaneous movements in the context of myoelectric control is becoming increasingly popular, because it is a more intuitive and natural way by which humans perform daily life activities. Current decoding techniques require the use of a calibration phase, and also on the use of machine learning algorithms in order to build the decoder model, and hence they are subject-specific. In this paper,...
Worldwide stroke is a leading cause for disability and the demand for rehabilitation devices and everyday life assistance is still high. To address this demand, we consider a combination of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) of the forearm muscles and Iterative Learning Control (ILC) for hand rehabilitation. We implement an ILC scheme to control the extension and flexion of the paretic fingers...
Humans are known to be good at manipulating tools. To cope with disturbances and uncertainties from the external environment during such tasks, they must be able to perceive small changes in orientation or tilt of the tool using mechanoreceptors in the glabrous skin of the fingertips. We hypothesize that the most sensitive part of human fingers, a flat surface on the distal phalanx (called apical...
This paper presents a method for the real-time determination of joint angles, velocities, accelerations and joint torques of a human. The proposed method is based on a constrained Extended Kalman Filter that combines stereophotogrammetric and dynamometric data. In addition to the joint variables, subject-specific segment lengths and inertial parameters are identified. Constraints are added to the...
In motion design of a prosthesis arm, number of actuators is considered the most crucial part. The higher number of actuator allows us to have many degree of freedom while results in the heavy weight of the device. In the past, motors and pneumatic systems are commonly used as actuators for prosthesis devices. Albeit easy to control and fast response, motors have limitation that single motor can only...
This paper reports the results of a pilot study evaluating the performance of healthy volunteers working in pairs to fulfil a collaborative task in both real and virtual environments. The main aim of this study is to investigate how different environments (real vs. virtual) and communication modalities (with vs. without talking to each other) affect the quality of interaction between humans. The results...
Performing physical exercises is one of the more established countermeasures against cardiovascular deconditioning during space flights. However, a systematic evaluation of the physiological effects of this training in microgravity conditions is still lacking. This manuscript is a first step towards such an assessment. Thirteen male voluntary subjects performed leg press exercises in a microgravity-like...
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