NCT04323449

Evaluation of Vision-Guided Shared Control for Assistive Robotics Manipulators

Development of Vision-Guided Shared Control for Assistive Robotic Manipulators

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 21 (actual)
• Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a new control (i.e., the vision-guided shared (VGS) control) for a wheelchair-mounted assistive robotic manipulator among powered wheelchair users. This study consists of a questionnaire about general demographics, health information, and previous experience with assistive technology. Several tests are also administered to test upper extremity function and ability as well as to test spatial orientation and visualization ability. Participants till then undergo a training phase with the assistive robotic manipulator mounted on a table to assess if they are eligible for participation in the study. Eligible participants will move on to a second training phase where they are asked to learn and practice slightly more complex tasks while using the vision-guided shared controller. After this training, participants are asked to complete two everyday tasks each comprising multiple steps using the VGS control and default teleoperation using a joystick. At the conclusion of the study, researchers conduct a brief semi-structured interview with each participant and obtain more insight on how participants perceive the ease-of-use and usefulness of the vision-guided shared control.

Detailed description

Veterans who use powered mobility devices including those with high-level spinal cord injury (SCI), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and multiple sclerosis (MS) often experience serious upper extremity impairments. Management and care of upper extremity impairments often involve a range of assistive solutions. However, product availability and technological advancement for manipulation assistance fall far behind those for mobility. Many of these individuals, despite their independent mobility, cannot reach for a glass of water, make a simple meal, and pick up a tooth brush. They still require assistance from a personal caregiver for essential activities of daily living (ADLs) involving reaching and object handling/manipulation. With the rapid advancement of robotics technology, assistive robotic manipulators (ARMs) emerge as a viable solution for assisting Veterans with upper extremity impairments to complete daily tasks involving reaching, object handling, and manipulation. ARMs are often equipped with many degrees of freedom (DOF), but users cannot control all of the DOFs at the same time with a conventional joystick, and need to switch modes quite often to complete even simple manipulation tasks, especially when an ARM gets close to the target and need to be aligned appropriately for manipulation. Thus existing ARMs suffer from the lack of efficiency and effectiveness especially in an unstructured environment. The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a vision-guided shared (VGS) control to address the effectiveness and efficiency of ARMs for real-world use. The VGS control uses fiducial markers on objects or adaptive tools to make vision-based tracking robust and reliable for real-world applications. It allows a user to initiate any task by moving an ARM close to a tagged object, and the ARM to take over fine manipulation upon detecting the target. This project is to evaluate the new control among powered wheelchair users to complete a set of everyday manipulation tasks. Participants complete two multi-step manipulation tasks using the new VGS control method and the default teleoperation method. Researchers collect outcome measures in terms of efficiency (i.e., task completion time), effectiveness (i.e., task completion success rate), and usability, i.e., NASA Task Load Index (NASA TLX), and System Usability Scale (SUS). Investigators expect to improve manipulation functions of Veterans with upper limb impairments through a more practical and usable implementation of vision-based robotic control and human-robot interaction technologies.

Conditions

• Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Compare two control methods for a wheelchair-mounted robotic manipulator	Participants will pay one visit to the lab where they will be asked to complete a set of manipulation tasks using a wheelchair-mounted robotic manipulator first using the new custom vision-guided shared (VGS) control, and after a break, using default joystick or switch control. The sequence of the two control methods are fixed.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-04-13
• Primary completion: 2024-06-21
• Completion: 2024-06-30
• First posted: 2020-03-26
• Last updated: 2026-02-17
• Results posted: 2026-02-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated device study