Assistive Robotics

For many years BIME has had an active interest in assistive robotics. A robotic manipulator has been mounted in a number of different configurations: to a desk, on a wheeled base and on a powered wheelchair. This allows a person with severe physical impairment to interact with their physical environment. For people who have little or no functional use of thier hands the ability to manipulate items can greatly increase their independence. The use of a simple robot can provide some of the lost manipulative ability. One of the attractions of robotics is its flexibility to carry out different operations, rather than to be dedicated to a single task.

We are reviewing our interest and involvement in this area and are keen to develop collaborative projects.

Robots

Many people if asked to describe what mental picture the word "robot" conjures, up would describe something from science fiction. Of course we all know what a robot is like at the start of the 21st century, but often our mental images are guided more by science fiction than science reality. The reality is probably a car assembly robot rather than the evil Dalek of Dr Who, or the friendly C3PO of Star Wars.

Originally most robots were used as tools in a manufacturing environment, whether spraying, welding or assembling. These are normally referred to as assembly robots. Over the past 20 years there has been much research in the area of "advanced robotics". This has been defined thus by the Department of Trade & Industry:

“The integration of enabling technologies and attributes embracing manipulators, mobility, sensors, computing and hierarchical control to result ultimately in a robot capable of autonomously complementing man’s endeavours in unstructured and hostile environments”.

It has long been realised that, while robotics will continue to have a vital role in manufacturing industry, the areas for growth lie in applications in "unstructured and hostile environments". Many applications in an unstructured environment are "service" applications. Service robots have for a while been used for cleaning the Paris metro. Robots have been developed to deliver items around a hospital. The first consumer products are likely to be for tasks such as vacuum cleaning and cutting the lawn. Hazardous environments where robots will be of benefit include space and underwater, within a nuclear reactor, the making safe of bombs and mines and, nearer to home, building sites.

Medical Robotics

In the field of medicine there are potentially many applications where the precision of a robot is better than that of a skilled surgeon. Precision is obviously critical in neurosurgery, but even in orthopaedics, for example drilling out bone for hip replacements, the higher level of accuracy can lead to a lower number of implants needing revision after a few years. Minimal Access Surgery (often called key hole surgery) requires the surgeon and other human operators to hold and manipulate a number of tools as well as an endoscope for viewing the operation. The endoscope can be held and manipulated by a robot, able to move under the precise control of the surgeon (Prosurgics) . In all these surgical applications the robot is not replacing the human operator, but enhancing their abilities.

Assistive Robotics

Many people, due to a severe disability, do not have full use of their hands. This may be a loss of strength, control, dexterity or any combination. Robotic devices can be used to assist such people in daily living tasks or in a vocational setting. There are several commercially available systems of which the best known is:

Manus (Exact Dynamics, Netherlands) - A wheelchair mounted robot

Neater Eater (Neater Solutions Ltd, UK) - A powered feeding aid. Electrically powered and programmable, which must make it a robot

Assistive Robotics at BIME

We have been developing assistive robot systems for a number of years. The main projects have been:

Feasibility study - Using the Atlas educational robot
Wolfson Robot - A desk mounted robot arm
Wessex Robot - A trolley mounted robot arm
Weston Robot - A wheelchair mounted robot arm

A selection of BIME papers on rehab robotics (PDF format)

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