[2024/9/24] 2024 재활로봇 평가·측정 워크숍 초청강연
작성자: 허필원 (2024/9/24)
제목: 감각 증강을 통한 보행 및 균형 향상, 그리고 보조로봇에 대한 적용 가능성
행사명: 2024 재활로봇 평가·측정 워크숍
목적: 재활로봇 평가·측정 관련 연구 현황 파악 및 이슈 논의를 위한 워크숍 개최
일정: 2024. 9. 24. (화) 09:00~17:45
장소: 비즈 허브 서울센터 2층 214호
Dr. Hur's presentation is available on youtube.
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Summary of presentation (via Lily's AI)
What is Sensory Augmentation for Balance?
His talk was a key part of a workshop that zeroed in on evaluating and measuring how well rehabilitation robotics are working.
He emphasizes the connection between motor functions and how well rehab robots perform, delving into ways we can integrate sensory feedback to make improvements.
During his discussion, he shared insights from over 14 research papers on sensor usage and its effects on mobility enhancements.
Plus, he’s really exploring the nitty-gritty of why we move the way we do, using math and experiments to decode sensory-motor behavior.
This isn’t the first time he’s tackled related subjects; previous discussions covered motor, sensor, and tension themes that help tech enthusiasts better understand and apply these concepts..
How Can Sensory Augmentation Boost Rehabilitation?
Let’s dive into the world of sensory augmentation and how it’s changing the game for rehabilitation! The focus here is on improving balance and walking by optimizing feedback methods.
It’s all about blending motor and sensory systems to get better results, especially for folks dealing with limb loss.
The speaker even shares their journey in creating prosthetics that sync up with what users want to do with their movements.
Even though sensory systems take the spotlight, don’t forget that tying them with motor systems is super important for rehab research.
One neat example? Using tactile feedback techniques, like 'skin stretch', to really boost postural control and balance..
How Does Sensory Augmentation Work in Rehab Robotics?
So, let's dive into sensory augmentation in rehabilitation robotics! First up, there's this cool technique called Stochastic Resonance.
It uses tiny random vibrations on your skin to boost your sense of touch—pretty fascinating, right? Then we have assistive devices like balance walkers and exoskeletons that really showcase how sensory augmentation can work in the real world, with some awesome outcomes to boot.
But there's still a lot more to learn, which is why further research is super important.
We also need to understand the sensory motor control system better, as it involves complex interactions between various sensory inputs processed by our central nervous system.
And don't forget about how all these processes need to come together smoothly to create those all-important motor commands, making our muscles move and respond as needed!.
How Does Sensory-Motor Integration Work?
Let's dive into the fascinating world of sensory and motor systems! The discussion revolves around how we can effectively combine our musculoskeletal and central nervous systems to ramp up those motor signals and control.
It's pretty clear that when our sensory processes take a hit, our control precision drops, making sensory signals super important.
You know, any issues like weak muscles or impaired sensory functions usually trace back to damaged nervous system circuits.
That’s why taking a holistic approach is key—it’s all about integrating every component for effective rehabilitation.
One cool method being explored is skin stretch feedback, which can really help improve balance by giving the skin some sensory feedback.
This is especially relevant for older folks, as their balance tends to decline with age..
How Can Sensory Feedback Improve Your Balance?
So, Professor Pilwon Hur has some pretty interesting insights about balance! You might be surprised to learn that just lightly placing a finger on a table can really boost your awareness of how your body moves, and ultimately, help you control your balance better.
In some captivating research, they found that adding sensory feedback actually improved balance.
They confirmed this with experiments using a force plate and a device that simulates fingertip sensations.
The results were pretty impressive—participants showed better balance when this device was active, and they measured this through Center of Pressure (COP) metrics, which indicated less variability and slower average speeds.
They even took things a step further by challenging participants with their eyes closed and heads tilted, messing with their vestibular systems.
While they couldn’t pinpoint the exact neural processes at play, they did suggest that the skin's stretch motion information is crucial for these balance improvements.
Plus, fancy math techniques like stochastic modeling and Markov chains were used to analyze balance control and predict COP movements over time.
The neat part? These models suggested that COP distribution tends to stabilize over time, leading us to validate those impressive balance boosts we observed!.
How Do Eigenvalues Affect Rehabilitation Balance?
So, let's talk about how sensory data can give us some cool insights into how people move.
You see, movement isn’t random; it actually follows certain patterns that are linked to eigenvalue problems from math.
When someone’s balance gets better, the chaos—or entropy—actually goes down, showing they're more stable.
Generally, the biggest eigenvalue hovers around 1, which points to a stable system, while the others are usually smaller.
What’s interesting is that the second eigenvalue plays a big role in this stability, especially relevant when it gets close to zero.
Plus, when you throw in skin stretch feedback, balance really starts to shine, as evidenced by those clearer solid lines.
This kind of feedback gives your system more sensory info, which is fantastic for keeping balance in check..
How Does Sensory Feedback Affect Motor Control?
So, let's dive into sensory feedback and its role in motor control! The graph really highlights how active control kicks in thanks to sensory feedback.
When we look at experiments, it's clear that the diffusion model works wonders by reducing divergence when we use skin stretch feedback.
On the flip side, ditching sensory feedback leads to a noticeable spike in divergence, proving just how essential feedback really is.
Speaking of skin feedback, it actually translates movement info into signals that make it way easier to understand.
There’s also this concept called random vibration, which isn’t related to motor potential because it’s pretty much undetectable.
Interestingly, in the realm of physics, having noise just above a certain threshold can actually help us spot signal peaks.
If we get the noise levels just right, it can boost our ability to detect signals, but if it gets too noisy, then we’re left with a whole lot of useless info..
How Can Vibrations Boost Sensory Ability?
So, here's the scoop: a team decided to experiment with some random vibrations on stroke patients' hands, shaking things up between 0 to 250Hz.
Now, they ran a monofilament test , and guess what? It turned out that the patients’ sensory abilities actually improved with those vibrations.
They also tried out two-point discrimination tests, which showed that sensation got a nice boost too.
The whole point of these experiments was to see if they could improve motor skills with some cool scale resonance techniques.
Interestingly enough, reaction tests indicated that participants were quicker on the draw when those vibrations (or noise) were in play.
Overall, these findings really point to some exciting possibilities for enhancing motor functions through sensory augmentation!.
How Does Vibration Aid Rehabilitation Robotics?
Testing has shown that using vibration can seriously help folks, including stroke patients, by improving their performance in tasks like the Box and Block Test and the Nine Hole Peg Test.
When vibration is applied, it ramps up sensory input, leading to better event-related potentials in the brain.
The frequency domain gets a nice boost as well when we enhance these sensory inputs.
Interestingly, both sensory and motor areas show improvements, pointing to enhanced motor function too.
Follow-up research revealed that increased tension with external stimuli further highlights the effect of sensory "noise".
Plus, a study using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) showed that motor improvements stem from reduced inhibition in the intracortical circuits..
How Does Sensory Feedback Improve Assistive Devices?
Researchers are diving into the world of sensory feedback in assistive devices and they've got some interesting findings! They’ve been experimenting with skin metrics and sensory information while using 3D printing to whip up basic prototypes.
One cool discovery is that screen stretch can deliver intuitive sensory info to users, making it quite handy.
For instance, when navigating in wheelchairs, combining skin touch with haptic feedback really ramped up users' performance, helping them to get around faster and avoid obstacles better.
They measured things like how quickly someone could reach a destination and their overall stability, showing that sensory feedback made a big difference.
Plus, they even created a prototype for walker handles that uses skin feedback, which they tested with a physical therapist named James in Houston, aimed at helping a patient with multiple sclerosis improve their balance..
How Does Sensory Feedback Improve Robotics?
The "Run Walker" device has been game-changing in balance enhancement, especially when you throw sensory feedback like skin stretch into the mix.
Then there's the "Vibe Belt", an exoskeleton tool that uses vibration feedback to help guide your movements.
Tests showed that using the Vibe Belt noticeably reduced postural sway and boosted dynamic balance during movement.
This research really opens the door to multimodal sensory augmentation, tapping into tactile, audio, and visual feedback to up our motor skills.
Interestingly, these sensory signals can either be felt or go unnoticed, yet they're super crucial for fine-tuning our motor functions.
If you consider practical examples, like how golfers can use vibration feedback to nail their swing posture, you can see just how helpful intuitive sensory info can be.
The discussion wraps up with a solid push to incorporate sensory augmentation into translational research, especially to jazz up rehabilitation methods..
How Do Robots Enhance Motor Learning?
In this presentation, the focus is on how information gets passed along and encoded in sensory augmentation, especially when it comes to robotics.
The speaker dives into how we can actually measure improvements made through these sensory techniques applied to robot systems.
It’s fascinating to think about how our interaction with sensory info plays a big role in boosting our motor learning skills.
Plus, there’s a big emphasis on cutting down energy costs in biomechanics, making it crucial to look at control functions and how we can re-learn motor skills.
Another key piece is developing a solid framework for sensory-motor integration, which includes cool concepts like the 'free energy principle' and 'trust lines.' Finally, the talk wraps up with an open invitation for comments and questions, along with a quick 15-minute break for some discussion..
How Does Sensory Augmentation Help in Rehabilitation?
Professor Heo is all about adding visual or auditory elements to balance training, especially for folks who might have a bit of trouble with their senses.
You know, when some senses are weaker, people tend to rely more on their stronger ones, which can actually boost their effectiveness.
The talk dives into how multi-modal sensory systems can really step in to fill the gaps created by sensory deficits, helping maintain balance and motor skills.
Plus, incorporating tactile signals is super important, particularly when other senses are lagging, as it amps up the sensory feedback.
They mention using techniques like Maximum Likelihood Estimation to merge different sensory inputs in a smart way.
But here’s the catch—too many sensory inputs at once can totally overwhelm someone, so it's all about finding that sweet spot in information processing.
Finally, the idea of channel capacity comes up, reminding us that there’s only so much info a channel can handle, and figuring that out often means rolling up our sleeves and experimenting..
What are the challenges in robotic sensory feedback?
When it comes to testing sensory feedback in robotics, it turns out that adding feedback to all joints might not be the best idea.
It seems like having it for just one or two joints works pretty well, but cranking it up to more than two can actually be distracting and mess with performance.
That's why getting some solid experimental validation is a must to find out the sweet spot for sensory augmentation.
Right now, the type of feedback we're looking at includes stuff like vibrations to help with directional awareness and balance.
Although it's super important to detect any imbalances before a fall happens, we haven’t totally nailed that yet.
Plus, we’re still in the early phases of figuring out how to improve exoskeleton reactions based on these detections.
So, there's definitely room for more development here, which wraps up this session nicely..