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Strategy based on human reflexes may keep legged robots and prosthetic legs from tripping
PITTSBURGH--Trips and stumbles too often lead to falls for amputees using leg prosthetics, but a robotic leg prosthesis being developed at Carnegie Mellon University promises to help users recover their balance by using techniques based on the way human legs are controlled.
Hartmut Geyer, assistant professor of robotics, said a control strategy devised by studying human reflexes and other neuromuscular control systems has shown promise in simulation and in laboratory testing, producing stable walking gaits over uneven terrain and better recovery from trips and shoves.
Over the next three years, as part of a $900,000 National Robotics Initiative study funded through the National Science Foundation, this technology will be further developed and tested using volunteers with above-the-knee amputations. Joining Geyer on the research team are Steve Collins, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics, and Santiago Munoz, a certified prosthetist orthotist and instructor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh.
"Powered prostheses can help compensate for missing leg muscles, but if amputees are afraid of falling down, they won't use them," Geyer said. "Today's prosthetics try to mimic natural leg motion, yet they can't respond like a healthy human leg would to trips, stumbles and pushes. Our work is motivated by the idea that if we understand how humans control their limbs, we can use those principles to control robotic limbs."
Those principles might aid not only leg prostheses, but also legged robots. Geyer's latest findings applying the neuromuscular control scheme to prosthetic legs and, in simulation, to full-size walking robots, were presented recently at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Hamburg, Germany. An upcoming paper in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering focuses specifically on how this control scheme can improve balance recovery.
Geyer has studied the dynamics of legged walking and motor control for the past decade. Among his observations is the role of the leg extensor muscles, which generally work to straighten joints. He says the force feedback from these muscles automatically responds to ground disturbances, quickly slowing leg movement or extending the leg further, as necessary.
Geyer's team has evaluated the neuromuscular model by using computer simulations and a cable-driven device about half the size of a human leg, called the Robotic Neuromuscular Leg 2. The leg test bed was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.
The researchers found that the neuromuscular control method can reproduce normal walking patterns and that it effectively responds to disturbances as the leg begins to swing forward as well as late in the swing. More work will be necessary, he noted, because the control scheme doesn't yet respond effectively to disturbances at mid-swing.
Powered prosthetics have motors that can adjust the angle of the knee and ankle during walking, allowing a more natural gait. These motors also generate force to compensate for missing muscles, making it less physically tasking for an amputee to walk and enabling them to move as fast as an able-bodied person.
More than a million Americans have had a leg amputation and that number is expected to quadruple by 2050, Geyer said. About half of the amputee population reports a fear of falling and large numbers say the inability to walk on uneven terrain limits their quality of life.
"Robotic prosthetics is an emerging field that provides an opportunity to address these problems with new prosthetic designs and control strategies," Geyer said.
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About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 13,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/cmu-sbo111715.php
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
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Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
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• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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