Development and User Assessment of a Body-Machine Interface for a Hybrid-Controlled 6-Degree of Freedom Robotic Arm (MERCURY)

Abstract

Abstract-This paper presents the development, pilot testing and user assessment results for a body-machine interface (BMI) designed to control a 6-degree of freedom robotic arm, developed by our research team. The BMI was designed to be wearable, immersive and intuitive, constituting the first part of a hybrid real-time user interface. A total of 34 volunteers participated in this study, performing two sets of three tasks in which they controlled the robotic arm, a) within direct line of sight and b) through a video link. All participants completed questionnaires to evaluate their technological background, familiarization with informatics, electronics, robotics and video teleconferencing. At this point of development the system does not capture brainwaves or electric neural input, it simply captures the motion of the operator's arm. The complete MERCURY prototype system is still under development and additionally comprises a wearable, wireless brain-computer interface (BCI) headset. The BCI headset is currently being integrated into the system and has not yet been pilot tested. The complete hybrid-interface system is primarily intended for research into human-computer interfaces, neurophysiological experiments, as well as industrial applications requiring immersive remote control of robotic machinery.

Envisioning robotic surgery: Surgeons' needs and views on interacting with future technologies and interfaces

“…If robotic surgery evolves towards a more immersive experience, as has been suggested, there may be potential in the use of many wearable devices for both control (e.g., capturing arm motions) and feedback (e.g., HMDs). Wearable devices for tactile feedback have been used in wayfinding outdoors (e.g., a vibrotactile vest), and the concept could be expanded to robotic surgery (see #8 in Table ).…”

“…If robotic surgery evolves towards a more immersive experience, as has been suggested, 5,20 there may be potential in the use of many wearable devices for both control (e.g., capturing arm motions 56 ) and…”

Towards Rehabilitation Robotics: Off-the-Shelf BCI Control of Anthropomorphic Robotic Arms

“…The Mercury robotic arm system has been developed as a customized design by our team for two technological generations so far [ 39 , 40 ]. Design requirements focused on biomedical engineering applications, specifically intuitive remote robotic control, HRI research, and medical robotics for rehabilitation.…”

“…At a lower priority we regarded precision of movement and heavy lifting capability. Since the development of the robotic system has been presented elsewhere [ 39 , 40 ], hereby we briefly report the technological characteristics of the system used in our current experimentation.…”

“…In our previous work we have already presented the conceptual design and development of the Mercury robotic arm for biomedical applications and dealt with construction standards and validation tests [ 21 ]. We implemented a Body-Machine Interface (BMI) control module and conducted a pilot end-user assessment experimental study [ 39 ], focusing on both the technical characteristics and performance, as well as on HRI [ 36 ]. Our research team has since further improved the robotic arms in terms of anthropomorphism and allowing for movement along more Degrees-of-Freedom (DoFs) through the addition of a gripper resembling a human hand.…”