An event in June on Capitol Hill coordinated by the Congressional Robotics Caucus www.roboticscaucus.org and co-hosted by Representatives Rob Woodall (R-GA) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) was recently held to mark the fifth anniversary of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI).
The NIH funded National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is a multi-agency research program supporting the development of next-generation robotics technology. Co-robots work cooperatively with people to extend or augment human capabilities and make the most of the individual’s strength.
The Robo-Cane funded by the National Eye Institute www.nei.nih.gov and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) www.nibib.nih.gov helps people with vision loss. Dr. Cang Ye at the University of Arkansas www.uark.edu developed the co-robotic cane that works through an intuitive interface to help people navigate by enabling positioning, wayfinding, object recognition, and obstacle detection.
The cane’s 3-D camera and computerized system detects and recognizes indoor structures and potential obstacles by communicating with the user through voice prompts and by analyzing 3-D information.
In another project, Dr. Marcia K. O’Malley at Rice University www.rice.edu is developing the MAHI EXO-II exoskeleton robot funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) www.ninds.nih.gov to help heal stroke patients’ affected arms. “Once you have lost the electrical connections in the brain because of the damage from the stroke, you have to find a detour around the damage,” she said.
As explained by Dr. O’Malley, “The combination of thinking about movement during robot-assisted movement stimulates remapping of nerve pathways in the brain. By wearing a non-invasive cap that reads electrical activity of the brain, patients can imagine moving their arm which then commands the robot to do the movement.”
The third co-robot demonstrated was a mechanized exoskeleton suit funded by NIBIB developed to help people walk. The suit enables people paralyzed from the waist down to walk by stimulating damaged spinal cord nerves with electrical signals which helps patients regain voluntary movement.
The exoskeleton suit referred to as “Ekso GT” is manufactured and sold by Ekso Bionics http://eksobionics.com. It is the first exoskeleton approved by FDA for use with stroke and spinal cord injuries below the seventh cervical vertebra.