Title: Assistive Mobile Manipulation for Non-expert Users with Severe Motor Impairments

Phillip M. Grice

Robotics Ph.D. Student

Dept. of Biomedical Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Date: July 28th, 2015 (Tuesday)

Time: Noon - 2 PM EDT

Location: Health Systems Institute Boardroom (HSI 207A)

Committee:

Dr. Charles Kemp (Advisor), Dept. of Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Karen Feigh, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Andrea Thomaz, School of Interactive Computing

Dr. Lena Ting, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Randy Trumbower, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering

Abstract:

General-purpose, mobile robots that can physically manipulate their environments have the potential to help persons with severe motor impairments perform a variety of tasks. Such assistive mobile manipulators (AMMs) could increase independence and reduce the burden on caregivers. However, AMMs are complex systems with many sensors and actuators, and so are often difficult for non-experts to use, diminishing potential benefits and limiting adoption. Our prior work has demonstrated the feasibility of mobile manipulators serving as general-purpose assistive devices for users with severe motor impairments, but it has also highlighted these limitations.

Through user-centered design, we propose to develop an assistive robotic system to enable non-expert, motor-impaired users to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). We hypothesize that facilitating error correction via a robotic undo function will mitigate user errors and improve task performance, which we will examine specifically in simulation with crowd-sourced remote operators. We also propose to provide evidence for the clinical relevance of AMMs by evaluating the system with multiple motor-impaired, non-expert users via a standardized clinical manipulation test. Lastly, we will evaluate the system in the home of a person with quadriplegia and his caregiver, using the system freely for at least one week, to demonstrate the feasibility of extended, beneficial in-home use and to identify ongoing challenges to wider adoption.