Project objectives
The use of robotic systems for rehabilitation can have a potential impact on motor learning/relearning and on improving the efficacy of therapeutic treatments. However, robotic systems for upper and lower limb rehabilitation have not yet achieved better therapeutic results than conventional therapy. In general, recovery is linked to an improvement in motor skills through numerous repetitions of simple movements, such as reaching a point in the plane, in space or circular movements, away from the actions performed in everyday life, in the presence of feedback purely visual provided through a graphical interface.
However, developing robotic systems capable of replicating the interaction and level of communication, which are established between therapist and patient during a conventional rehabilitation session, can represent a disruptive source of technological innovation in modern rehabilitation robotics and poses enormous challenges in terms of human-robot interaction, robot autonomy, safety, reliability, effectiveness of rehabilitation treatment.
The main objective of the HeAL 9000 project is the design, development and validation in an operational environment of an intelligent robotic system for rehabilitation, which is able to promote and facilitate motor relearning of the patient through human-robot interaction that exploits the same communication channels typically used in therapist-patient interaction, i.e. verbal, physical, cognitive.
The HeAL 9000 robotic system: (i) will consist of a service robot capable of replicating the behavior of the human therapist thanks to the use of Machine Learn techniquesing and Learning by Demonstration; (ii) it will have a highly adaptive behavior with respect to the characteristics of the patient and the context thanks to the multiparametric monitoring of the patient; (iii) will establish a verbal, physical and cognitive interaction with the patient, in a similar way to what is observed in the therapist-patient combination, with the dual aim of motivating the patient to actively participate in the treatment and to strongly personalize the treatment itself based on to the physical and psycho-cognitive state of the patient.
Start and end date
|
June 2020 - May 2022 |
Scientific responsibility
|
prof Loredana Zollo |
Responsible for clinical activities
|
prof Silvia Sterzi |
Coordinating institution of the project
|
Exprivia spa |
Other participants
|
Reveal srl; Sapienza University of Rome |
Funding source
|
Lazio region |