Modelling human dynamics in-situ for rehabilitation and therapy robots

This paper outlines some rehabilitation applications of manipulators and identifies that new approaches demand that the robot make an intimate contact with the user. Design of new generations of manipulators with programmable compliance along with higher level controllers that can set the compliance appropriately for the task, are both feasible propositions. We must thus gain a greater insight into the way in which a person interacts with a machine, particularly given that the interaction may be non-passive. We are primarily interested in the change in wrist and arm dynamics as the person co-contracts his/her muscles. It is observed that this leads to a change in stiffness that can push an actuated interface into a limit cycle. We use both experimental results gathered from a PHANToM haptic interface and a mathematical model to observe this effect. Results are relevant to the fields of rehabilitation and therapy robots, haptic interfaces, and telerobotics

Modelling of surface identifying characteristics using Fourier series

Texture and small-scale surface details are widely recognised as playing an important role in the haptic identification of objects. In order to simulate realistic textures in haptic virtual environments, it has become increasingly necessary to identify a robust technique for modelling of surface profiles. This paper describes a method whereby Fourier series spectral analysis is employed in order to describe the measured surface profiles of several characteristic surfaces. The results presented suggest that a bandlimited Fourier series can be used to provide a realistic approximation to surface amplitude profiles.

The use of cursor measures for motion-impaired computer users

“Point and click” interactions remain one of the key features of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). People with motion-impairments, however, can often have difficulty with accurate control of standard pointing devices. This paper discusses work that aims to reveal the nature of these difficulties through analyses that consider the cursor’s path of movement. A range of cursor measures was applied, and a number of them were found to be significant in capturing the differences between able-bodied users and motion-impaired users, as well as the differences between a haptic force feedback condition and a control condition. The cursor measures found in the literature, however, do not make up a comprehensive list, but provide a starting point for analysing cursor movements more completely. Six new cursor characteristics for motion-impaired users are introduced to capture aspects of cursor movement different from those already proposed.

Using cursor measures to determine appropriate computer input assistance for motion-impaired users

People with motion-impairments can often have difficulty with accurate control of standard pointing devices for computer input. The nature of the difficulties may vary, so to be most effective, methods of assisting cursor control must be suited to each user's needs. The work presented here involves a study of cursor trajectories as a means of assessing the requirements of motion-impaired computer users. A new cursor characteristic is proposed that attempts to capture difficulties with moving the cursor in a smooth trajectory. A study was conducted to see if haptic tunnels could improve performance in "point and click" tasks. Results indicate that the tunnels reduced times to target for those users identified by the new characteristic as having the most difficulty moving in a smooth trajectory. This suggests that cursor characteristics have potential applications in performing assessments of a user's cursor control capabilities which can then be used to determine appropriate methods of assistance.

Perception and haptics

For people with motion impairments, access to and independent control of a computer can be essential. Symptoms such as tremor and spasm, however, can make the typical keyboard and mouse arrangement for computer interaction difficult or even impossible to use. This paper describes three approaches to improving computer input effectivness for people with motion impairments. The three approaches are: (1) to increase the number of interaction channels, (2) to enhance commonly existing interaction channels, and (3) to make more effective use of all the available information in an existing input channel. Experiments in multimodal input, haptic feedback, user modelling, and cursor control are discussed in the context of the three approaches. A haptically enhanced keyboard emulator with perceptive capability is proposed, combining approaches in a way that improves computer access for motion impaired users.

Haptics in medicine and clinical skill acquisition

THE clinical skills of medical professionals rely strongly on the sense of touch, combined with anatomical and diagnostic knowledge. Haptic exploratory procedures allow the expert to detect anomalies via gross and fine palpation, squeezing, and contour following. Haptic feedback is also key to medical interventions, for example when an anaesthetist inserts an epidural needle, a surgeon makes an incision, a dental surgeon drills into a carious lesion, or a veterinarian sutures a wound. Yet, current trends in medical technology and training methods involve less haptic feedback to clinicians and trainees. For example, minimally invasive surgery removes the direct contact between the patient and clinician that gives rise to natural haptic feedback, and furthermore introduces scaling and rotational transforms that confuse the relationship between movements of the hand and the surgical site. Similarly, it is thought that computer-based medical simulation and training systems require high-resolution and realistic haptic feedback to the trainee for significant training transfer to occur. The science and technology of haptics thus has great potential to affect the performance of medical procedures and learning of clinical skills. This special section is about understanding

Precision placement of fertiliser for optimising the early nutrition of vegetable crops: a review of the implications for the yield and quality of crops, and their nutrient use efficiency

The research outlined in this paper highlights the importance of the early nutrition of vegetable crops, and its long-term effects on their subsequent growth and development. Results are also presented to demonstrate how the nutrient supply during the establishment stages of young seedlings and transplants can be enhanced by targeting fertiliser to a zone close to their developing roots. Three different precision fertiliser placement techniques are compared for this purpose: starter, band or side-injected fertiliser. The use of each of these methods consistently produced the same (or greater) yields at lower application rates than those from conventional broadcast applications, increasing the apparent recovery of N, P and K, and the overall efficiency of nutrient use, while reducing the levels of residual nutrients in the soil. Starter fertilisers also advanced the maturity of some crops, and enhanced produce quality by increasing the proportions of the larger and/or more desirable marketable grades. The benefits of the different placement techniques are illustrated with selected examples from research at Warwick HRI using different vegetable crops, including lettuce, onion and carrot.

Multi-finger grasps in a dynamic environment

Most current state-of-the-art haptic devices render only a single force, however almost all human grasps are characterised by multiple forces and torques applied by the fingers and palms of the hand to the object. In this chapter we will begin by considering the different types of grasp and then consider the physics of rigid objects that will be needed for correct haptic rendering. We then describe an algorithm to represent the forces associated with grasp in a natural manner. The power of the algorithm is that it considers only the capabilities of the haptic device and requires no model of the hand, thus applies to most practical grasp types. The technique is sufficiently general that it would also apply to multi-hand interactions, and hence to collaborative interactions where several people interact with the same rigid object. Key concepts in friction and rigid body dynamics are discussed and applied to the problem of rendering multiple forces to allow the person to choose their grasp on a virtual object and perceive the resulting movement via the forces in a natural way. The algorithm also generalises well to support computation of multi-body physics

Utanförskapets ”frustrerade ungdom” : Talet om de ”problematiska” förorterna i svensk kvällspress under augusti- september månad 2009

Uppsatsen är en innehållsanalytisk studie av kvällstidningarna Expressen och Aftonbladet under augusti- september 2009. Syftet är att undersöka hur s.k. ”invandrartäta områden”/förorter framställs i kvällstidningarna under nämnda period samt att ge exempel på hur detta kan analyseras ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv. Urvalet av artiklar tillåter sig avgränsas genom att se till vad som skrivs om de förortsområden som under aktuell period tillåtit sig förknippas med ”problem”. Frågeställningarna vill således belysa vad som under aktuell period skrivs om dessa områden: hur kan dessa kan budskap tolkas, och hur kan de tolkas med sociologiska teorier? ”Invandrartäta områden” har länge varit föremål för negativ stereotypisering bl.a. i media. Varför uppsatsen använder sig av teorier som kan förklara hur mediediskursen kan vara möjlig, och i vilket Elias teori om figurationer bildar en yttre ram. Analysen av resultatet uppvisar att flertalet artiklar ger utrymme åt reproduktion av ”moralisk differentiering” och ”illusorisk korrelation”, och med detta en förstärkning av ”common sense” uppfattningar hos läsaren. En uppfattning där förorten och dess invånare alltjämt tillskrivs rollen som de ”Andra”. Emellertid är inte endast sådana artiklar häri förekomna. En rimlig hypotes är dock att; hur artiklarna påverkar läsaren är avhängigt dennes befintliga attityd, samt hur artiklarna är utformade, och där det ges mer eller mindre utrymme för attitydförändringar.

Picturing Currere : envisioning-experiences within learning

Currere reconceptualises curriculum as understanding learning experiences. This paper outlines potentials for pictures in re-envisioning currere for a world growing in complexity.
Vision, as the privileged sense for acquiring knowledge, is often regarded deterministically - seeing is believing. But, as sophisticated technology becomes more significant in the control of knowledge systems - as 'reality' becomes more virtual - personal visual experiences are becoming harder to generate, interpret and authenticate. Knowledge technology is increasing exposure to 'mediated messages' and diminishing the ability to validate them. I see this as problematic for the authenticity of learning within a world that is intensifying in its complexity.
My work reaches beyond determinist/technological views of learning to explore envisioning-experiences within learning. I am particularly interested in ways that enacting with pictures embodies individuals, communities, and the world within understandings of complexity and authenticity. In practical terms, this involves interactively and reflexively 'doing pictures' as a personal process in learning for deeper understanding.
The paper explores three issues:
* Text and pictures: learning, thinking, and knowing, as textual dominions that marginalise pictures.
* Enactivism and learning: an approach to learning for complex communities that embodies mindful thinking within haptic experiences.
* Enactive picturing: laying a personal processual path with learning that complexifies understandings for authenticating experiences - doing-walking-talking - with pictures.

Highly programmable surface

A highly programmable electro-mechanical surface is developed using an effective array of individual pins arranged in a gridform. Each pin can be independently raised or lowered to create a wide range of contoured surfaces. It was found that as the number of elements increased. high levels of accuracy could still be achieved. however the required processing power increased logarithmically. This finding was attributed to the large amounts of data being passed. and subsequently led to a second focus; various methods of data management and flow control techniques within large-scale multi elemental systems. Results indicated a large potential for highly programmable surfaces within industry to provide a computer controlled surface for rapid prototyping. The research also revealed the potential for such a device to be used as a HID within Haptic applications.

System of systems approach to threat detection and integration of heterogeneous independently operable systems

This paper presents a system of systems approach to threat detection through integration of heterogeneous independently operable systems. The approach is presented on a realistic situation where a human-controlled base robot, swarm robot(s), and sensors work together to obtain a decision about a possible threat in the environment. The base robot is remotely operated by a human using a haptic control system. The swarm robot(s) are autonomous and can accept directives from the base robot. Finally, sensors directly communicate with (report to) the base robot. In this scenario, heterogeneous systems and human interact in a system of systems architecture. With the inclusion of human expert and sensor verification of swarm robots, the system can successfully perform the threat detection and reduce the false alarms. Finally, a system of systems simulation framework including a base robot, a swarm robot, and two sensors is presented in addition to an experimental evaluation of the proposed SoS architecture

A haptically enabled low-cost reconnaissance platform for law enforcement

Traditionally, the control system of a modern teleoperated mobile robot consists of one or more two-dimensional joysticks placed on a control interface. While this simplistic interface allows an operator to remotely drive the platform, feedback is limited to visual information supplied by on-board cameras. Significant advances in the field of haptics have the potential to meaningfully enhance situational awareness of a remote robot. The focus of this research is the augmentation of Deakin University's OzBot trade MkIV mobile platform to include haptic control methodologies. Utilising the platform's inertial measurement unit, a remote operator has the ability to gain knowledge of the vehicle's operating performance and terrain while supplying a finer level of control to the drive motors. Our development of a generic multi-platform ActiveX allows the easy implementation of haptic force feedback to many computer based robot controllers. Furthermore, development of communication protocols has progressed with Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) compliance in mind. The haptic force control algorithms are presented along with results highlighting the benefits of haptic operator feedback on the MklV OzBot trade chassis.

Artificial hand - from a robotic perspective

The human hand provides proof that the anthropomorphic configuration, properly controlled, is successful and gives a target to aim at for artificial hand/robot hand researchers. In this paper we discuss the human hand physiology and grasp capabilities. We then provide design on a double thumb, two finger robotic hand. Architecture of the hand, fingers and their dynamic modelling is discussed. Finally, results are reported on the performance of a finger in the hand.

Haptically simulating soft tissue using spherical voxel and reactive agents

This thesis describes technology developed by the author enabling trainee surgeons to perform needle insertion procedures with force feedback (haptics) on a virtual patient. Addition of the sense of touch to medical simulation is arguably the most important step forward in the evolution of haptic technology to this day.