MAAT

Project objectives

The MAAT project aims to create a bio-cooperative robotic system for:

• provide assistance to patients when necessary through highly adaptive behavior which, tailored to the user's needs, takes into account the patient's residual physical and cognitive abilities and, at the same time, enhances them during the performance of daily life activities (such as drinking, cooking, eating, washing).
• assist the therapist in administering a robot-mediated motor therapy for stroke patients aimed at maximizing the patient's motivation and active involvement and carry out continuous monitoring of the patient's level of motor and functional recovery.

The main novelty of the MAAT project consists in closing the patient in the control loop of the machine and using multisensory data linked to biomechanical and physiological aspects (such as kinematics and dynamics of movement, heartbeat, skin conductance and temperature, myoelectric activity) to modify in an adaptive and dynamic way the complexity of the therapy and the real-time visualization of a virtual reality system in relation to the specific needs of the patientingol patient.

The MAAT system therefore aims to:

• maximizing the motivation and involvement of the patient, favoring his active role, during the execution of actions of daily life (ADLs) carried out in 3D;
• continuously evaluate his motor and physiological state in order to correspondingly adapt the level of assistance provided by the robotic system.

The main components of the MAAT system are:

• KUKA LWR robotic arm (UCBM)
• robotic arm PLR SCHUNK (UMH)
• magneto-inertial sensors, force/torque sensors and sensors for physiological signals
• biological signal amplifier
• virtual reality environment.

Based on these components, two prototypes of the MAAT system were built, one at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and the other at the Universidad Miguel Hernandez (UMH) of Alicante in Spain. They differ in the robotic arm used to administer the therapy. The two complete prototypes were tested with healthy subjects in order to validate the approach used and compare the performance of the two industrial robotic arms when applied to a rehabilitation context. They were also preliminarily validated with a pair of chronic post-ictal patients. Further developments on the platform are currently underway, aimed at the extensive use of the biocooperative system in a clinical trial on chronic post-ictal patients.

Official website: www.echord.info/wikis/website/maat

Start and end date

2010 - 2012

Project Manager

Prof. Eugenio Guglielmelli - Principal Investigator (PI)

Prof. Loredana Zollo - Co-PI

Coordinating institution of the project

Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma

Other Institutions involved

Miguel Hernandez University (UMH)

Funding source(s).

Funded by the European Commission within the ECHORD - European Clear projecting House for Open Robotics Development, FP7-ICT Prj.Num. 231143, Coordinator: TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN