M Wu

BME PhD Proposal Presentation

Date: 2023-03-09
Time: 10:00 am

Location / Meeting Link: Health Sciences Research Building, E382; https://emory.zoom.us/j/95029745884 

Committee Members:
Lena Ting, PhD (Advisor); Jun Ueda, PhD; Gregory Sawicki, PhD; Madeleine Hackney, PhD; Trisha Kesar, PhD


Title: Low-force hand interactions to alter human walking

Abstract:
The motivation for this research is to develop intuitive low-force human-robot hand interaction controllers to alter how people walk. Such controllers have potential applications for assistive technology and physical rehabilitation, human-robot collaborative manufacturing, physical education, and recreation. This work is inspired by low-force hand interactions between humans that alter gait without explicit instructions or training. While concepts from human-human interactions can inspire human-robot interactions, the control strategies for modifying gait in human partners are not well understood and have yet to be tested in the context of hand-contact robotic devices. My central hypothesis is that low-force hand interactions in human-human and human-robot pairs alter gait intuitively without relying solely on mechanical effects. In Aim 1, I demonstrate that an expert partner dancer can use hand interactions to alter a novice’s step frequency and characterize the control strategies used. In Aim 2, I develop and validate a novel, high-fidelity emulator robot to enable testing of a variety of hand interaction controllers during gait, especially controllers based on human-human interactions. In Aim 3, I develop a novel robotic controller to alter the user’s gait and implement an admittance controller to follow the user’s intended gait, and compare effects of the controllers on walking using the emulator robot. I will analyze data on full-body kinematics, hand kinetics, and human sensorimotor ability and subjective perceptions to characterize changes to gait and the control strategies that result in these changes.