HARIA re-defines the nature of physical human-robot interaction, laying the foundations of a new research field, i.e. human sensorimotor augmentation. The idea is to study how to integrate humans and AI-powered supernumerary robotic limbs to perform complex manipulation tasks with both biological and artificial limbs under the direct control of the human.
A fundamental challenge in HARIA will be to find the right trade-off between motion task parameters that are controlled by the user, and the level of robot autonomy. The enabling core technology of this interplay is the wearable sensorimotor interface that establishes a connection between the human sensorimotor system and the system of actuators and sensors of the robot, allowing for reciprocal awareness, trustworthiness, and mutual understanding. The sensorimotor interface captures signals from human body motion, or muscle activation, that are mapped onto commands for the robot limbs using a novel approach that exploits the redundancy of the human sensorimotor system. This will lead to the simultaneous control of natural and artificial limbs. Interfaces will also exploit combinations of somatosensory stimuli to convey haptic sensations related to the task at hand, further improving users’ control accuracy and level of engagement in the collaboration. HARIA sensorimotor augmentation will be applied to assist people with upper-limb disabilities, focusing on two target populations: chronic stroke and spinal cord injured patients.
The project is based on a user-centered design framework, which is implemented also thanks to competences in the Consortium pertaining to social sciences and humanities. The development of HARIA technologies will be user-centered and iterative, i.e. based on involving the user in all stages of the development process. Input will be gathered not only from target end-users, but also from other target groups, including manufacturers and installers of the devices, as well as potential caregivers and family members. User-centered design (UCD) is needed to make sure that end-users are not only able to use the assistive robotic devices but keen to use them.
So far, wearable extra limbs have been mainly used to augment healthy humans’ capabilities, while collaborative arms and grippers have been mainly applied to industrial assembly tasks. HARIA focuses on applying these technologies as assistive devices and targets a large set of end-users with upper-limb disabilities. HARIA systems will be integrated in three different scenarios involving activities of daily living to be performed by selected stroke survivors and spinal cord injured individuals. Thanks to the sensorimotor interfaces, users will be actively in charge of controlling the robot. This will represent a strong motivation for using HARIA devices, ensuring their long-term adoption. The societal mid-term impact on life after stroke and spinal cord injury will be evident in the recovered autonomy in the execution of daily activities, leading also to a positive consequence for caregivers and rehab facilities. A societal long-term impact is expected in domestic rehabilitation and homecare thanks to the possibility of exploiting remotely, at home, the HARIA technologies. In addition, the outcomes of the project will impact other domains of the service robotics field, defining novel paradigms for human-robot communication.
