Department of Mechanical Engineering

Shared Control for Robot-Assisted Training and Rehabilitation

 

Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series
Friday, September 22, 2006
12:10 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
3004/3006 Black Engineering Bldg.

Marcia O'Malley
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science
Rice University

“Shared Control for Robot-Assisted Training and Rehabilitation”

Abstract:

To date, virtual environment-based robotic training systems with haptic (force) feedback have not fully exploited the capabilities of haptic display devices. The simulators primarily focus on displaying the physical laws of equivalent real-world systems in order to re-create realistic environments for tasks. This talk will present a novel active assistance paradigm for interactions in virtual environments displayed via haptic interfaces. Recent research efforts at Rice University have focused on the design of perceptual overlays in virtual environments that are active rather than passive. Passive virtual fixtures have been the primary perceptual overlay in haptics, and have been used extensively as "virtual rulers" in teleoperation environments to improve operator performance of pick-and-place tasks. Active assistance in the form of shared control between the haptic device and the human operator has the potential to elicit even better performance in virtual and remote environment interactions, and also has implications for improving training effectiveness. The intended applications include stroke rehabilitation and training for pilots, manufacturing, and surgery. A description of perceptual overlays and details of the shared control paradigm will be presented, along with results from some human-subject experiments on shared control haptic assistance for performance enhancement and training in virtual environments.

Biography:

Marcia O'Malley received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1996, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1999 and 2001, respectively. In 2001 she joined the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department at Rice University, where she is currently an Assistant Professor. Her current research interests include nanorobotic manipulation with haptic (force) feedback, haptic feedback and shared control between robotic devices and their human users for training and rehabilitation in virtual environments, control methodologies for improved performance of haptic interfaces and teleoperator systems, and educational haptics. She is a 2004 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator and the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2005. Additionally, she is co-chair of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Controls Division Robotics Technical Committee, a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and the program committee of the Haptics Symposium.  

For questions, contact Char Kravinsky (4-1423, cakraviiastate.edu )

 

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