Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.5
2.7
Journals
Applied Sciences
Special Issues
Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics: Latest Advances and Prospects
share announcement

Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics: Latest Advances and Prospects

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics and Automation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2024 | Viewed by 2200

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Antonio Bandera

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronic Technology, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: assistive robotics; embedded vision; machine learning; image processing; pattern recognition; computer vision; architecture robotics; algorithms; artificial intelligence; mobile robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Robots are currently able to coexist with people in everyday environments. They are not only able to move autonomously in these environments, but are also able to interact and socialize with people. By harnessing this enormous potential, robotics can provide numerous solutions to help people, either through physical interaction or through social interaction. Assistive robotics refers to robots that help people with physical disabilities through physical interaction. They can provide perception abilities and perform actions that can be beneficial for the elderly or physically challenged people. Socially assistive robotics (SAR) arises from the intersection between assistive robotics and socially interactive robotics. This category includes robots that provide assistance through social interaction. In this case, their success stems from the emotional bonds that are created between the human user and the robot, for example, by improving motivation to maintain a rehabilitation treatment. This Special Issue will cover recent research in the field of rehabilitation as well as on assistive robotics and social assistive robots.

  • Socially assistive robots for children;
  • Assistive robots for the elderly;
  • Wearable robotics;
  • Effective human–robot interaction;
  • Robotic solutions that support caregivers;
  • Ethical implications of assistive/social assistive robotics;
  • Quantitative user studies.

Dr. Antonio Bandera
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

20 pages, 6117 KiB  
Article
A Study on the UWB-Based Position Estimation Method Using Dead Reckoning Information for Active Driving in a Mapless Environment of Intelligent Wheelchairs
by Eunsu Jang, Su-Hong Eom and Eung-Hyuk Lee
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(2), 620; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14020620 - 11 Jan 2024
Viewed by 781
Abstract
As the world enters an aging and super-aged society, the application of advanced technology in assistive devices to support the daily life of the elderly is becoming a hot issue. Among them, electric wheelchairs are representative assistive devices for the walking support of [...] Read more.
As the world enters an aging and super-aged society, the application of advanced technology in assistive devices to support the daily life of the elderly is becoming a hot issue. Among them, electric wheelchairs are representative assistive devices for the walking support of the elderly, and their structural form is similar to AGV and AMR. For this reason, research is being introduced and underway to guarantee the right to voluntarily move or improve the convenience of movement for the elderly and severely disabled people who have difficulties in operating a joystick for operating an electric wheelchair. Autonomous driving of mobile robots is a technology that configures prior information on the driving environment as a map DB and operates based on it. However, active driving assistance technology is needed because wheelchairs do not move in a limited space, but can move to a place without a prior map DB or vehicle boarding depending on the passenger’s intention to move. Therefore, a system for estimating the moving position and direction of the wheelchair is needed to develop a driving assistance technology in the relevant driving environment. In order to solve the above problem, this study proposes a position and direction estimation algorithm suitable for active driving of a wheelchair based on a UWB sensor. This proposal is an algorithm for estimating the position and direction of the wheelchair through the fusion of UWB, IMU, and encoder sensors. In this proposal, it is difficult to design an active driving assistance system for wheelchairs due to low accuracy, obstacles, and errors due to signal strength in the position and direction estimation with UWB sensors alone. Therefore, this study proposes a wheelchair driving position and direction estimation system that fuses the dead recording information of a wheelchair and the UWB-based position estimation technique based on sensors applied in IMU and encoders. Applying quantitative verification to the proposed technique, the direction estimation accuracy of the wheelchair of about 15.3° and the position estimation error average of ±15 cm were confirmed, and it was verified that a driving guide for active driving was possible when the sensor system proposed in a mapless environment of the wheelchair was installed at a specific destination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics: Latest Advances and Prospects)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4351 KiB  
Article
Study on Elevator Recognition Techniques for Upper-Limb-Disabled Wheelchair Users
by Daewe Kim, Su-Hong Eom and Eung-Hyuk Lee
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(22), 12182; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132212182 - 9 Nov 2023
Viewed by 931
Abstract
This study proposes a LiDAR-sensor-based elevator recognition technique to prevent collisions caused by poor operation and the cognitive decline of wheelchair users with upper limb disabilities. Existing elevator recognition studies show high performance for elevator door recognition, but this can only be recognized [...] Read more.
This study proposes a LiDAR-sensor-based elevator recognition technique to prevent collisions caused by poor operation and the cognitive decline of wheelchair users with upper limb disabilities. Existing elevator recognition studies show high performance for elevator door recognition, but this can only be recognized at a position where the elevator can be viewed directly due to the angle of view range of the sensor. This is not appropriate for wheelchair users who are inexperienced in operation because alignment must be performed directly based on the elevator. Therefore, this study presents a LiDAR-sensor-based elevator recognition technique that can detect elevators from the side to the position and at an angle to the front in order to solve this problem. In addition, this study proposes a technique for recognizing elevator gates finished with low- and high-reflective materials in order to enable recognition in various elevator environments. In order to quantitatively verify the elevator recognition technique proposed in this study, experiments were conducted in an elevator environment consisting of low and high reflections. The results of the experiments confirmed that there was no problem in applying the wheelchair active driving technique. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics: Latest Advances and Prospects)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop