SPECIAL SESSIONS |
WeR1. Wearable sensors for robotic exoskeletons Organizer: Andrea Mannini, Assistant Professor, The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Abstract: Exoskeletons are currently being proposed as tools to enhance rehabilitation, provide daily assistance to people with mild to severe disabilities or augment human motor functions to workers performing repetitive movements. To provide assistive actions to specific human joints, robots made of powered actuators typically need to understand the intention of the user and interact synchronously with the user’s movement. Thus, the robot needs to gather information from the user related to his/her intention and process it in real time. In recent years, the huge advancements in electronics and batteries allowed to easily integrate wearable sensors in garments and shoes and monitor the user’s movement or physiological status with the final goal of closing the loop with the wearable robot and control its action. Many sensors technologies have been proposed to develop smart clothes, spanning from inertial, capacitive, piezoelectric or resistive sensors, optoelectronic technologies and many others. Moreover, many algorithms for sensor fusion and classification of human movements have been developed and tested, combining different sensory information to recognize and analyse movements in real-time. Currently, the improvements of research on wearable sensing tools and algorithms are pushing the application of wearable sensor networks in movement assessment scenarios spanning from the tracking of fast movements in sports or the identification of slight movement alterations due to pathologies. Innovative algorithmic strategies and new ICT solutions add new words to wearable robotic vocabulary of solutions. WeR2. Soft Wearable Robots Abstract: The goal of this special session is a follow on to a special session in 2016 to highlight recent and growing efforts in the field of soft wearable robots, with special focus on their application in neurorehabilitation and in prolonging independent living. In the last years, wearable assistive devices based on hard structures have shown their potential benefit in the area of neurorehabilitation. However, their everyday use is limited by their weight, energy consumption, comfort and wearability. Soft technologies represent a possible solution to these issues. However, by nature they present performance limitations, and current applications are restricted to low to moderate levels of assistance, while more severe impairments are still the typical targeted applications for hard exoskeletons. Indeed, compliant materials, and soft sensing and actuation components, hold promise for facilitating monitoring and assistance in case of light impairment and even for prolonging independent living in other pre-frail elderly. This also implies a possibly huge scale of application. The use of soft technologies implies not only different technical solutions (design, actuation, sensing, integration, control, etc.), but also a different approach. Instead of replacing a substantial missing functionality in the subject, a minimal amount of assistance can be used in combination with the functionality still present. Also solutions related with the remote monitoring of function and safety of a series of exoskeletons being used ‘unsupervised’ in the public area. The contributors of this special session will have the opportunity to share their experiences and latest results in the area of soft wearable robots and exosuits, and discuss possible new strategies that can be adopted for materials and components, up to the whole wearable system. WeR3. Subject-centered based approaches for controlling Wearable Robots Abstract: This session aims at contributing to the discussion on the state of the art and the future trends in the development of subject-centered based approaches for controlling wearable robots during motion assistance and rehabilitation. While initially conceived for human motion augmentation purposes, wearable powered robots have been gradually proposed as technological aids for rehabilitation and assistance, and functional substitution in patients suffering from motor disorders. Over the last decades and despite of the significant technological and scientific achievements in the field of wearable technologies, we have not yet witnessed successful projects pointing out subject-centered robotic suits, which are easy to wear and intuitive enough to cooperate with. Providing such pragmatic solutions or reducing the wearer dependency on external operator would have a great societal impact by improving the quality of life and regaining people Independence. In addition, technological advances and the emergence of wearable and ubiquitous technologies with considerable reduction in size, cost and energy consumption, are becoming privileged solutions to provide autonomous assistive services to humans. This challenging technology is expected to work closely, interact and collaborate with people in an intelligent environment. In this context, the proposed special session is seeking relevant contributions addressing but are not limited to the keywords listed below. – Modelling and identification of human wearing a wearable robot WeR4. Robotic and neuroprosthetic balance management approaches for walking assistance Abstract: Active devices for walking assistance have been explored for use in industrial, military and clinical applications for a long time now. While those fields each have specific requirements and challenges, all share common challenges that hamper their use (e.g. physical compatibility, transparent interfacing and management of reflex actions of the user amongst others). Specifically, balance management during dynamic walking is one of the most challenging functions to manage, demanding a considerable user-to-device adaptation or the use of assistive devices, e.g. using crutches to maintain balance during walking. Overcoming this limitation would improve user safety and eventually allow walking in unstructured environments. This Special Session will present and discuss recent approaches and strategies for measuring and/or managing balance during static or dynamic conditions. This especially includes advances on the use of neural and biomechanical signals for control of neuroprosthesis and/or robotic exoskeletons to provide support and control of balance for walking assistance in healthy and pathological conditions. This special session is organized in collaboration with by the COST Action CA16116 “Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions” http://wearablerobots.eu/ WeR5. Benchmarking wearable robots Abstract: Wearable robots for gait assistance and rehabilitation, such as exoskeletons and powered prostheses, are becoming increasingly relevant in several research and market domains. Nevertheless, an internationally accepted methodology to compare available systems to each other and to identify the best match with users’ needs does not exist yet. Benchmarking is a powerful tool that can help researchers and developers to overcome this problem. The EUROBENCH project (www.eurobench2020.eu) aims to create the first European framework for the application of benchmarking methodology on robotic systems. The framework, specifically focused on bipedal robotic technologies, will include methods and tools to measure robotics performance on a rigorous, quantitative and replicable way. This special session will gather together different researchers already active in the development evaluation methods and protocols, with the goal of identifying the critical issues in translating these approaches into standard benchmarks. We believe that reaching an international consensus will be extremely beneficial to boost the process of finding reliable methods to test and compare different systems and identifying robust metrics to measure the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of new robotic solutions. This session will also describe the services that the EUROBENCH project will provide the community, such as two testing facilities for humanoid and wearable robotics respectively, as well as a unified Benchmarking Software. This special session is supported by the benchmarking bipedal locomotion hub (www.benchmarkinglocomotion.org) and the COST Action CA16116 “Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions” http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/CA16116. WeR6. Flexible and Transparent Technologies for Innovative Wearable Robotics Abstract: There are a variety of pathologies which are susceptible of rehabilitation and assistance by The aim of this Special Session is to present current developments in the field of actuation, sensing and control strategies to build the next generation of rehabilitation and assistive wearable devices based on tangible and affordable technologies. WeR7. Wearable Robotics for rehabilitation and assistance in Latin America Abstract: Wearable robotics (WR) for rehabilitation and assistance is a global growing field due to its big potential to help to solve health related problems of world population, particularly those related to mobility solutions for elders and vulnerable populations such as children and adults which suffered from neuromusculoskeletal accidents. WR allows compensation, therapy and control of progress of patients on a pervasive way. Every day new applications of WR emerge and continuous development and optimization is needed. Latin America involves a geographical area were many groups are working in WR. In this session some results of their experience are presented. First a historical perspective of relevant results is offered as an introduction. Afterwards WR intended to be used as prosthesis and orthosis for gait and upper limb rehabilitation are presented. Here we present the results of the use of neuromusculoskeletal models to obtain data about myoelectric control of human movement which is useful for the design of WR. This work is accompanied by the application of inertial sensors to measure human kinetics and kinematics. Inertial sensors are recognized as a powerful tool for the capture of human motion due to its many advantages such as low cost, portability and adaptability. Kinetics, kinematics and temporal movement parameters can be estimated from inertial sensors either by using sensor data individually or by fusioning sensor information besides the application of biomechanical models. Inertial sensors can be integrated as part of perception system of WR enabling application of control schemes such as biocooperative control. Here also experiences with methods to deal with inertial sensors are presented. Those methods include calculation of upper limb kinematics by the application of specific biomechanical models and the detection of events during specific movements such as gait for controlling lower limb WR intended to be used as prosthetic devices for amputees. Other approaches presented includes the development of semi-autonomous brain computer interface (BCI) which integrates artificial vision and inverse kinematics algorithms to manipulate a robotic arm to perform reaching tasks decided by the user through a BCI. WeR8. Wearable robotic solutions for factories of the future Abstract: Although working conditions in industry has improved a lot over time, many workers are still exposed to high physical workloads due to material handling (over 30% of the work population in the EU), repetitive movements (63%) and awkward body postures (46%) (Eurofound, 2012). Peak mechanical load can be reduced by ergonomic interventions, the use of cranes and, more recently, by the use of exoskeletons. Despite recent advances in the development of exoskeletons for industrial applications, they have not been widely adopted by industry yet due to a number of technical limitations. This special session aims at gathering specialist in the field of Industrial exoskeletons together, to discuss the state of the art, challenges and novel results in a very promising rising field for wearable robots. This special session is organized in collaboration with by the COST Action CA16116 “Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions” http://wearablerobots.eu/ WeR9. Human modeling and simulation for neurorehabilitation engineering Abstract: In the last years, a number of robotic prototypes for rehabilitating or assisting human motor function have been developed in companies and research labs. On the other hand, computational algorithms and tools, targeted to analyze, simulate or predict motion through skeletal, musculo-skeletal or neuro-musculo-skeletal models, have been applied to individuals using orthotic and prosthetic devices. The aim of this special session is to promote discussion on how human modeling and simulation can help to: • Design, optimize and/or personalize rehabilitation and assistive devices (upper/lower-limb exoskeletons or prostheses), WeR10. Smart human-machine systems for lower-limb assistance and rehabilitation after paralysis Abstract: Lower-limb, powered robotic exoskeletons have emerged as novel robot-assisted interventions to assist or rehabilitate people with walking disabilities. These devices are generally controlled by certain physical maneuvers, for example pressing buttons or shifting body weight. Although effective, these control schemes are not what humans naturally use. Fortunately, the usability and clinical relevance of these robotics systems could be further enhanced by non-surgical brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that engage the patient and may promote cortical plasticity. In this session, we will review the design considerations for lower-body powered exoskeletons, review new developments in automated gait intention detection based on EEG-BMIs for the control of powered exoskeletons, and provide updates on the largest clinical trial of powered exoskeletons for spinal cord injury survivors. WeR11. Biorobotics approaches to understand and restore human balance Abstract: Posture control is indispensable for sensorimotor behavior of both humans and humanoid robots, which becomes especially evident with tasks such as walking across rough terrain or mechanically interacting otherwise with the environment. There already exist considerable mutual inspirations on postural control between the robotics and neuroscience fields. This special session aims to foster this interrelation, aiming at progress for both fields, e.g. in terms of improving diagnosis of balancing problems in humans and improving sensorimotor abilities in humanoid and therapeutic robots. Notably, human users of wearable robots may want to command movements, but typically are not consciously aware of the additionally required postural control mechanisms, which then need to be implemented into the rehabilitation machines such as exoskeletons for safe movement execution. WeR12. Exoskeleton Research in Europe Abstract: The goal of this special session of WeRob is to bring together researchers from ongoing and recently finished European projects and initiatives on exoskeletons and other wearable orthotic devices. With the growing interest in exoskeleton technology in recent years also the number of projects funded by the European Union as well as by more local funding agencies in Europe has significantly increased. The topics addressed in these projects include devices for upper and lower limbs as well as for the spine / trunk region, for young and old users, for healthy subjects as well as for many different kinds of patients, for motion assistance, rehabilitation, prevention and for applications ranging from health care to various working situations. In addition, different hardware and materials for exoskeletons, suitable human-robot interfaces, software concepts and algorithms for motion prediction and human-robot interaction as well as performance indicators for wearable robots are important topics of common in these projects. The session will also include discussions and how to increase and intensify collaboration and information exchange between these projects and how to make sure that new projects benefit from the results of previous ones. |