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Robotic Assistive Devices For Independent Living

Posted by samzenpus on from the lending-a-robotic-hand dept.

Hallie Siegel writes: Kavita Krishnaswamy has extreme physical disabilities that severely limit her mobility. She also has drive and a keen mind. I met her last month at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), where she attended via BEAM. In this article, Kavita shares her Phd research to develop robotic assistive devices that give independence to people with severe disabilities. Interesting work on the need for 'multi-modal' interfaces — ie. interfaces that allow the users to interact with the assistive device in different ways, including speech recognition and brain-computer interface.

11 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. It will be diverted by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unfortunately, whatever robotic technology that's used to help disabled people will end up just being co-opted to let fat people get fatter. The disabled are not a big enough market. Morbidly obese people are already a major market for the medical equipment industry.

    And the cost will be borne by all of us.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:It will be diverted by Livius · · Score: 1

      There's no doubt it would be abused by the marginally disabled or even the merely lazy, but at least this might actually help some disabled people achieve independence. Far too often measures allegedly for the disabled are implemented to make a political statement - and the effective statement is the one that spends enormous amounts of money to underline, rather than overcome, disabilities.

    2. Re:It will be diverted by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      There's no doubt it would be abused by the marginally disabled or even the merely lazy, but at least this might actually help some disabled people achieve independence.

      That's true. I suppose if a large market of fat people eventually makes the technology more cheaply available to the disabled, then that's a win.

      Far too often measures allegedly for the disabled are implemented to make a political statement - and the effective statement is the one that spends enormous amounts of money to underline, rather than overcome, disabilities.

      Part of that comes from the fact that as a society, we just don't know how to talk about people who have physical challenges. And for the most part we don't know how to talk TO people with physical challenges, so we get solutions that are meant to make the able-bodied feel good about themselves rather than actually making life better for the disabled.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. An immediate opportunity by TomRC · · Score: 1

    Something that robotics researchers could immediately apply is technology developed to give robots balance.

    Older people and young handicapped people often have to use walkers because they have balance issues.

    A wearable device that could detect onset of loss of balance and immediately shift mass a bit to restore it.

    Or a device fitted to legs to gently adjust leg positions to continuously maintain balance, recognizing the difference between the inherent imbalances of walking versus walking or standing dynamics that are headed toward a fall.

    1. Re:An immediate opportunity by Livius · · Score: 1

      That's an interesting application, because there's a category of people who can walk perfectly fine 99.9% of the time and are therefore deemed to have a legitimate medial need for a wheelchair because the 0.1% could mean serious injury. They need something but the wheelchair is overkill.

    2. Re:An immediate opportunity by lordlod · · Score: 1

      It is an interesting problem but as you get into the details it rapidly becomes more complex.

      1. You need to detect the difference between a normal movement such as walking or kneeling and a fall. This is complex because we move by deliberately off balancing ourselves. This also has to be highly accurate, a 1% false positive rate would make walking around impossible.
      2. The person has to be saved from the fall. It isn't enough to straighten the legs, in fact that could make it worse. The whole body has to be righted, with assistance because the core muscles are probably also weak.
      3. As outlined in the original post, the righting will probably be performed by shifting out a counterbalancing mass. This mass has to be carried around and probably needs to be around 15-20% of the person's body weight. They obviously won't be able to carry this so assistance needs to be provided

      Exoskeleton suits are awesome and I want one when I am old but often the simple solutions like a walking frame or stick are actually the best ones.

  3. Needs only 3 buttons by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    1. Get me pizza
    2. Get me a beer
    3. Suck my dick

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    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Needs only 3 buttons by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they could just install you in a small cubicle with a recliner, mini-fridge and a dick-suckin' machine.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Does it help with mental problems? by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    Not that I'm saying that our editors have severe mental problems and desperately need assistance.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  5. Why wait for robots... by jasno · · Score: 2

    Why not just create a telepresence robot that, say, let's grandma wash dishes and fold laundry for the kids who live 2,000 miles away? You don't have to wait for fancy AI - just low-latency video and control channels. Maybe it sounds like a way to enslave the elderly, but my mom would go nuts at the chance to help out her kids.

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    http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
    1. Re:Why wait for robots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Some of us moved 2,000 miles away from our in-laws for a reason, you insensitive clod!