易胜博官网

An interdisciplinary 易胜博官网 research project that brings together computer science and human movement could lead to intelligent robots that guide patients through therapeutic exercise training. The project, led by Momotaz Begum, assistant professor of , Dain LaRoche, associate professor of , and Sajay Arthanat, associate professor of , recently received a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Information and Intelligent Systems.

鈥淭his NSF grant will help us to design robust robot learning algorithms that will be tested on real users for exercise training,鈥� Begum says. 鈥淪uch interdisciplinary efforts are a key to bring learning-based robotic systems out of the laboratory and employ them in the service of humans.鈥�

The research project is designed to help address a significant shortage of physical and occupational therapists anticipated over the next 20 years by developing intelligent algorithms that allow robots to learn new exercises directly from demonstrations by a therapist. The intelligent robots are not programmed but rather utilize a new learning from demonstration (LfD) framework. LfD enables a robot to function in a teaching capacity for patients as well as to evaluate quantitatively a patient鈥檚 performance of the training exercises.

鈥淔or robot therapists to be effective, they must be able to model an exercise accurately, assess patient performance of the exercise and provide correction in real time and be accepted by patients and clinicians,鈥� says LaRoche.

This collaborative project brings together strengths across three different disciplines and two colleges, the and the , at 易胜博官网 and reflects an institutional commitment to supporting interdisciplinary collaboration. Initial funding for the research came from the initiative, an internal grant program now in its second year.

鈥淭he CoRE program allowed us to assemble a research team with the complementary skills needed to develop and evaluate therapeutic robots,鈥� LaRoche says. 鈥淚t mitigated the barriers of collaboration and supported an initial research study that was the foundation for the NSF grant application.鈥�