Close-Contact, Human-Interactive Technologies

Machines designed to cooperate physically with humans enable entirely new ways for technology to support human activity. This presentation will review some challenges and possibilities of close-contact, human-interactive machinery. The essential requirement to maintain safety, stability and performance may be addressed by interaction control, which focuses control system design on the machine´s interactive behavior. This can endow an amputee´s motorized arm prosthesis with sufficient responsiveness to take advantage of mechanical constraints; and support dexterous bimanual cooperation between natural and artificial limbs. Robots capable of safely interacting and cooperating with humans enable new forms of therapy for recovery after neurological injury. Work at M.I.T. with clinical collaborators demonstrates that even a simple form of interactive robot therapy offers lasting benefits for acute-phase stroke victims, typically about twice that of conventional therapy alone. For stroke victims in the chronic phase, a period of apparently stable motor performance, it also offers lasting benefits, both an increase of motor abilities and a reduction of paretic arm pain. These examples provide the merest hint of the vast potential of machines designed for intimate physical cooperation with humans