Assessment of the Human Interaction with HOPE Rehabilitation Robot

Assessment of the Human Interaction with HOPE Rehabilitation Robot

  Present paper concerns an evaluation of the head-operated rehabilitation robot HOPE that was developed at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In order to assess the robot performance and to improve it in our next design, we tried to formulate some criteria for quantitative assessment of the applied human-machine interface and to make some preliminary tests of the applied control algorithm in order to investigate it suitability for users with movement disorders. Based on analysis of the intentional head motions performed by the operator for control of the robot, current robot evaluation aims at assessment of user’s ability for fine positioning of the gripper and evaluation of the errors due to the distance between the user’s head and the robotic gripper. The SYDEK system (also developed at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), was utilized for the tests. A special head-tracking system and a test bed for assessment of fine force dosage were additionally designed for the purpose of the experiments. The test results show that users can easily learn how to control the robot. The robot algorithm, based on the end-effector control strategy, significantly reduces the cognitive efforts of the users, enabling them simultaneous control of up to three degrees of freedom.