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The application of virtual environments in areas of medicine is a study that has taken influence in recent years due to the great impact that these technologies provide to support or know the patient's condition. Simulation systems allow to give the user a glimpse of the various methods that will activate or initiate their recovery process. Physiotherapy in turn is a sector that has leaned towards the use of these practices to support the patient in his locomotor recovery, either for the upper or lower train. This article develops a virtual environment that aims to simulate and capture the movements performed by a patient in rehabilitation tasks, taking the approach of the use of exoskeletons to give or not a support to it. The proposed system uses motion capture technologies through OptiTrack to detect the user's trajectories, which are sent to a virtual environment developed in Unity to simulate and display the movement performed. These trajectories are manipulated in a Matlab application obtaining the results on the levels of deviation detected in the rehabilitation exercises, thus concluding with the validity and efficiency that exoskeletons have in supporting physiotherapeutic approaches., La aplicación de entornos virtuales en áreas de la medicina es un estudio que ha tomado influencia en los últimos años debido al gran impacto que proveen estas tecnologías para apoyar o conocer el estado del paciente. Los sistemas de simulación permiten dar un vistazo al usuario de los diversos métodos que permitirán activar o iniciar su proceso de recuperación. La fisioterapia a su vez es un sector que se ha inclinado por el uso de estas prácticas para apoyar al paciente en su recuperación locomotora, ya sea para el tren superior o inferior. Este artículo desarrolla un entorno virtual que tiene el objetivo de simular y capturar los movimientos efectuados por un paciente en tareas de rehabilitación, tomando el enfoque del uso de exoesqueletos para darle o no un apoyo al mismo. El sistema propuesto emplea las tecnologías de captura de movimiento por medio de OptiTrack para detectar las trayectorias del usuario, que son enviadas a un entorno virtual desarrollado en Unity para simular y mostrar el movimiento realizado. Estas trayectorias son manipuladas en una aplicación de Matlab obteniendo los resultados sobre los niveles de desviación detectados en los ejercicios de rehabilitación, concluyendo con la validez y la eficiencia que poseen los exoesqueletos en el apoyo en enfoques fisioterapéuticos.

Despite the substantial progression of autonomous driving systems, their application is often limited e.g. due to safety margins which can be caused by uncertainties in the environment reconstruction. Then, via teleoperation as a fallback solution, a human-in-the-loop can be introduced as the main decision maker. However, high delay in the communication channel distorts the performance of direct force Feedback teleoperation for example in space or disaster scenarios. On the other hand, model-mediated teleoperation can provide instantaneous and even predictive force feedback to the user, but the performance is limited due to state mismatches, incomplete models, model errors and the modeling challenges of complex wheel-ground contacts. Therefore, in this paper we ntroduce the concept of extended model-mediated eleoperation with a car like interface for mobile robots by fusing local fictitious and remote force feedback, which can be measured, computed or fictitious. We provide a method to guarantee stability of the extended model-mediated teleoperation (involving time delay, multilateral coupling, fictitious force feedback and permanent updates of the local model) based on the passivity theorem. The benefits of the approach are highlighted by human-in-the-loop experiments with a wheeled mobile robot.

High intensity hadron colliders and fixed target experiments at CERN require an increasing amount of robotic tele-manipulation interventions to prevent and reduce excessive exposure of maintenance personnel to the radioactive environment. Tele-manipulation tasks are often required on dated radioactive devices which were not conceived to be maintained and handled using standard one arm robotic solutions. Robotic platforms with a level of dexterity that often requires using two robotic arms with a minimum of six degrees of freedom are instead needed for these purposes. In this paper, the control of a novel robust robotic platform able to host and to carry safely a dual-arms robotic system is presented. The arms and the vehicle controls are fully integrated in order to guarantee simplicity to the operators during the realization of the robotic tasks. A novel high-level control architecture for the new robot is shown, as well as a novel low-level safety layer for anti-collision and recovery scenarios. Preliminary results of the system commissioning are presented using CERN accelerator facilities as a use case., Proceedings of the 16th Int. Conf. on Accelerator and Large Experimental Control Systems, ICALEPCS2017, Barcelona, Spain

Background: Neurological patients after stroke usually present cognitive deficits that cause dependencies in their daily living. These deficits mainly affect the performance of some of their daily activities. For that reason, stroke patients need long-term processes for their cognitive rehabilitation. Considering that classical techniques are focused on acting as guides and are dependent on help from therapists, significant efforts are being made to improve current methodologies and to use eHealth and Web-based architectures to implement information and communication technology (ICT) systems that achieve reliable, personalized, and home-based platforms to increase efficiency and level of attractiveness for patients and carers. Objective: The goal of this work was to provide an overview of the practices implemented for the assessment of stroke patients and cognitive rehabilitation. This study puts together traditional methods and the most recent personalized platforms based on ICT technologies and Internet of Things. Methods: A literature review has been distributed to a multidisciplinary team of researchers from engineering, psychology, and sport science fields. The systematic review has been focused on published scientific research, other European projects, and the most current innovative large-scale initiatives in the area. A total of 3469 results were retrieved from Web of Science, 284 studies from Journal of Medical Internet Research, and 15 European research projects from Community Research and Development Information Service from the last 15 years were reviewed for classification and selection regarding their relevance. Results: A total of 7 relevant studies on the screening of stroke patients have been presented with 6 additional methods for the analysis of kinematics and 9 studies on the execution of goal-oriented activities. Meanwhile, the classical methods to provide cognitive rehabilitation have been classified in the 5 main techniques implemented. Finally, the review has been finalized with the selection of 8 different ICT–based approaches found in scientific-technical studies, 9 European projects funded by the European Commission that offer eHealth architectures, and other large-scale activities such as smart houses and the initiative City4Age. Conclusions: Stroke is one of the main causes that most negatively affect countries in the socioeconomic aspect. The design of new ICT-based systems should provide 4 main features for an efficient and personalized cognitive rehabilitation: support in the execution of complex daily tasks, automatic error detection, home-based performance, and accessibility. Only 33% of the European projects presented fulfilled those requirements at the same time. For this reason, current and future large-scale initiatives focused on eHealth and smart environments should try to solve this situation by providing more complete and sophisticated platforms., The research presented in this paper has been supported by the European Commission under the Cognitive Rehabilitation of Apraxia and Action Disorganisation Syndrome (CogWatch) project (7th Framework Programme), grant agreement 288912, and the Active Hands European Project, from EIT Health-Call 2015 Innovation by Ideas; this study has received funding from the RoboCity2030-III-CM project (S2013-MIT-2748), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid. Additionally, the authors acknowledge the support and indirect contribution to this work by the members of the different consortiums involved in the European projects mentioned earlier.

This contribution focuses its objective in describing the design and implementation of an innovative system to provide cognitive rehabilitation. People who will take advantage of this platform suffer from a post-stroke disease called Apraxia and Action Disorganisation Syndrome (AADS). The platform has been integrated at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and tries to reduce the stay in hospital or rehabilitation center by supporting self-rehabilitation at home. So, the system acts as an intelligent machine that guides patients while executing Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Journal of Accessibility and Design for All (CC) JACCES, 2014 - 4(3): 238-254. ISSN: 2013-7087 J. M. Cogollor, M. Pastorino, J. Rojo, A. Fioravanti, A. Wing, M. T. Arredondo, M. Ferre, J. Breñosa, J. Hermsdörfer, J. De Teresa, C. Walton, A. Worthington, C. Giachritsis  239 such as preparing a simple tea, by informing them about the errors committed and possible actions to correct them. A short introduction to other works related to stroke, patients to work with, how the system works and how it is implemented are provided in the document. Finally, some relevant information from experiment made with healthy people for technical validation is also shown.

The authors discuss the importance of the TECHNOFUSIÓN facility from the standpoint of Remote Handling and its special features with regard to the other laboratories. This arises to the interest of developing a long-term integrated approach, which covers research, training, exploitation and dissemination of results. Standardization activity is also closely related to long-term strategy. It is shown the actual situation of standardization in Remote Handling for the nuclear industry and the evolution that is currently taking place in this field.

The performance of haptic application is highly sensitive to communication delays and losses of data. It implies several constraints in developing networked haptic applications. This paper describes a new internet protocol called Efficient Transport Protocol (ETP), which aims at developing distributed interactive applications. TCP and UDP are transport protocols commonly used in any kind of networked communication, but they are not focused on real time application. This new protocol is focused on reducing roundtrip time (RTT) and interpacket gap (IPG). ETP is, therefore, optimized for interactive applications which are based on processes that are continuously exchanging data. ETP protocol is based on a state machine that decides the best strategies for optimizing RTT and IPG. Experiments have been carried out in order to compare this new protocol and UDP

Recovery of therapeutic or functional ambulatory capacity in patients with rotator cuff injury is a primary goal of rehabilitation. Wearable powered exoskeletons allow patients to perform repetitive practice with large movements to maximize recovery, even immediately after the acute event. The aim of this paper is to describe the usability, acceptability and acceptance of a hybrid exoskeleton for upper-limb passive rehabilitation using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. This equipment, called ExoFlex, is defined as a hybrid exoskeleton since it is made up of rigid and soft components. The exoskeleton mechanical description is presented along with its control system and the way motion is structured in rehabilitation sessions. Seven patients (six women and one man) have participated in the evaluation of this equipment, which are in the range of 50 to 79 years old. Preliminary evidence of the acceptance and usability by both patients and clinicians are very promising, obtaining an average score of 80.71 in the SUS test, as well as good results in a questionnaire that evaluates the clinicians' perceived usability of ExoFlex., This work has been partially supported by the project “LUXBIT: Lightweight Upper limbs eXosuit for BImanual Task Enhancement” under RTI2018-094346-B-I00 grant, funded by the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades” and the “Programa Propio de I+D+i” of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The Authors would like to thank all patient and clinicians that have been participated in the validation test of the exoskeleton. Also, Aldo wants to thank the CONACYT (Mexico) for the full grant to follow the PhD program at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with the a CVU number 630799-332912 under the scholarship 472074.

The characterization of vibrotactile perception is crucial to accurately configure haptic devices and create appropriate stimuli for improving user performance in human-machine interaction systems. This paper presents a study aiming to determine the absolute and differential vibrotactile thresholds in different areas of the torso to develop reliable haptic patterns to be displayed using a haptic vest. In the absolute threshold experiment, we measure the minimum detectable vibration using a forced-choice task. Furthermore, in the differential threshold experiment, we measure the minimum frequency change needed for users to discriminate two successive vibrotactile stimuli using a vibration matching task. The first experiment does not show differences between absolute thresholds, opening up the possibility of setting a unique minimal vibration for creating haptic patterns. Similarly, the second experiment does not show differences between differential thresholds. Moreover, as these thresholds follow Webers law, it is viable to estimate any upper or lower differential threshold for any reference stimulus using a K-value. These results are a first step for creating vibrotactile patterns over the torso with the employed eccentric rotating mass motors. Moreover, the whole study provides a method to obtain these psychophysical values since the usage of different motors can change these results.

This article describes the performance of a flexible resistive sensor network to track shoulder motion. This system monitors every gesture of the human shoulder in its range of motion except rotations around the longitudinal axis of the arm. In this regard, the design considers the movement of the glenohumeral, acromioclavicular, sternoclavicular, and scapulothoracic joints. The solution presented in this work considers several sensor configurations and compares its performance with a set of inertial measurement units (IMUs). These devices have been put together in a shoulder suit with Optitrack visual markers in order to be used as pose ground truth. Optimal configurations of flexible resistive sensors, in terms of accuracy requirements and number of sensors, have been obtained by applying principal component analysis techniques. The data provided by each configuration are then mapped onto the shoulder pose by using neural network algorithms. According to the results shown in this article, a set of flexible resistive sensors can be an adequate alternative to IMUs for multiaxial shoulder pose tracking in open spaces. Furthermore, the system presented can be easily embedded in fabric or wearable devices without obstructing the user’s motion., This work has been partially supported by the project ‘‘ExoFlex: Exoesqueleto ligero para la generación de fuerzas en las extremidades superiores aplicado a tareas de rehabilitación,’’ under DPI-2015-68842-R grant, funded by the Spanish 'Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad’, and ‘‘LUXBIT: Lightweight Upper limbs eXosuit for BImanual Task Enhancement/Exoesqueleto ligero del tren superior para ayuda a tareas bimanuales’’ under RTI2018- 094346-B-I00 grant, funded by the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades’.

Motion tracking techniques have been extensively studied in recent years. However, capturing movements of the upper limbs is a challenging task. This document presents the estimation of arm orientation and elbow and wrist position using wearable flexible sensors (WFSs). A study was developed to obtain the highest range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder with as few sensors as possible, and a method for estimating arm length and a calibration procedure was proposed. Performance was verified by comparing measurement of the shoulder joint angles obtained from commercial two-axis soft angular displacement sensors (sADS) from Bend Labs and from the ground truth system (GTS) OptiTrack. The global root-mean-square error (RMSE) for the shoulder angle is 2.93 degrees and 37.5 mm for the position estimation of the wrist in cyclical movements; this measure of RMSE was improved to 13.6 mm by implementing a gesture classifier., This work has been partially supported by the project “LUXBIT: Lightweight Upper limbs eXosuit for BImanual Task Enhancement” under RTI2018-094346-B-I00 grant, funded by the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades”.

The Time Domain Passivity Approach (TDPA), a method to inject adaptive damping to satisfy the passivity condition in real-time, has emerged as a powerful tool to stabilize coupled network systems with/without communication delay, such as haptic and teleoperation systems, due to its simplicity and effectiveness. However, we found that the conventional TDPA has unnecessary conservatism especially in delayed coupled network systems due to direction dependent energy calculation and dissipation. In this paper, we propose a new time domain passivity approach with reduced conservatism by considering the energy reflection from an energy storage element in the network. The method is generally formulated with a delayed 2-port network system including an energy storage element and implemented to a teleoperation system. The proposed method is experimentally tested and a comparison with the conventional TDPA reveals improved kinesthetic coupling and transparency in terms of position tracking and force reflection., The authors want to express their sincere gratitude towards Ribin Balachandran (DLR-RM ARR) for his support in the evaluation of effective impedances.

The International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility-DEMO Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) is composed of numerous complex systems and components that need on-site maintenance. Such need requires Remote Handling (RH) operations with advanced technology that is capable of preventing exposure to radiation and complying with stringent plant requirements in hostile environments. Moreover, specific design and integration of the RH systems have to be carried out in order to properly comply with constraints and procedures for remote operations, which in most cases become an engineering challenge. This paper presents a RH methodology that covers all the necessary aspects for the entire rigorous implementation and execution of remote operation in IFMIF-DONES. The methodology is made up of a set of different stages, which are based on the initial cooperation among different teams involved in the remote operation cycle. This approach leads to an iterative process that allows optimization and improvement of remote operations. It aims at accelerating the process with safer and robust concept of maintenance, simplified procedures, minimized breakdowns and reduced cost and time., This work has been partially supported by “Technofusión(II) CM (P2013/MAE-2745). Moreover, this work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 under grant agreement No. 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.

Tesis Doctoral para la obtención del Título de Grado de Doctor. xiii, 166 p. : il., diagr. Fecha de defensa de la Tesis Doctoral: 7 de julio de 2014. Calificación: Sobresaliente cum laudem, Robots have constantly been moving towards better design and increased predictability in task execution, leading to expanding and increasing robot presence in several fields and applications. One of which is modular robots in large scientific facilities. Modular robots are characterised for not having a fixed configuration but this presents challenges that need to be overcome, to benefit from the large set of advantages. The large scientific facilities presents a challenging environment for robot deployment due to the presence of hazard like ionising radiation and access controlled complicated environment. This thesis explains, the elements of criteria & constraints, hardware design of the robot system and connector mechanism, applications and RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) approach. The basic applications in maintenance tasks is presented along with advanced applications of cooperation, collaboration and integration with planning tool using robot prototype and simulation results. This work extends the use of modular robotic systems to prevent human interventions for maintenance tasks in workspaces with ionising radiation hazard. The different research performed towards improving the RAMS aspects of robot deployment are presented with experiments and results. They focus on mobile robot energy optimisation, force sensorless estimation of external force and energy perspective for bilateral control in telemanipulation. The thesis assesses the use of a modular robot system to perform maintenance and inspection tasks such as, remote inspection, manipulation and cooperation with deployed or existing robotic systems inside the facilities. The proposed heterogeneous modular robotic system is evaluated using simulations and the prototype across selected robot configuration to perform tasks. Results obtained, show the advantages and ability of the modular robot to perform the necessary maintenance tasks, as well as its flexibility to adapt and evolve depending on the future needs. Therefore, proving to be a possible solution for inclusion in large scientific facilities to perform maintenance tasks.

At present, surgical master-slave systems lack any kind of force feedback. Typically, controllers giving good stiffness transparency for soft environments cannot guarantee stability during hard contact. This paper presents a pragmatic method to avoid instability of a asterslave system during hard contacts, which does not affect the stiffness reflection for soft environments. The time derivative of the interaction force with the environment is used to detect a hard contact. Upon detection of a hard contact the force feedback is switched off and a virtual wall is activated at the master side in order to guarantee the perception of hard contact by the operator. The experiments demonstrate good stiffness transparency for soft environments, while the system remains stable for both soft and hard environments. ispartof: pages:73-82 ispartof: Haptics: Perception, Devices and Scenarios (EuroHaptics 2008) vol:5024 pages:73-82 uri: http://www.disam.upm.es/~eurohaptics2008/ ispartof: 6th International Conference on Haptics: Perception, devices and scenarios location:Madrid, Spain date:11 Jun - 13 Jun 2008 status: published

This paper introduces a new pedagogical tool using haptic feedback and visual analogy, to improve perception and learning of nanoscale phenomena, for people without prior knowledge of nanophysics. This tool is a haptic and virtual-reality simulator of a foremost one-dimensional nanophysical phenomenon: the approach-retract cycle of an Atomic Force Microcope (AFM) probe, with a force-feedback device and two graphic representations. One representation is a virtual AFM cantilever and the other one is a virtual magnet-spring system, whose haptic behavior is analog. Preliminary results from an experiment conducted with forty-five students seem to show a better efficiency with the combination of both haptic feedback and visual analogy.

Space robotics will become a key technology for the exploration of outer space and the operation and maintenance of space stations, satellites and other platforms, saving costs and relieving man from dangerous tasks. But we do not have to wait until robots are really autonomous or intelligent, since by modern teleoperation and telepresence we are able to remotely control robot systems from the ground in the sense of “prolonging man’s arm into space”. Humans, with their several hundred thousand years of evolution, will not adapt themselves to the hostile space environment, whilst robots, which have only been developed for just over 40 years, can be much more easily adapted to such an environment. As presented within this work, few pioneering telerobotic experiments like ROTEX, the first remotely controlled space robot system, ETS-VII, the first free-floating space robot experiment, or ROKVISS, Germany’s recent advanced space robot experiment on the International Space Station, have been proposed and conducted on the way towards a space robot assistant system for the usage as an artificial astronaut to perform On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) tasks.

There is considerable worldwide interest in the use of groups of autonomous marine vehicles to carry our challenging mission scenarios, of which marine habitat mapping of complex, non-structured environments is a representative example. Relative positioning and formation control becomes mandatory in many of the missions envisioned, which require the concerted operation of multiple marine vehicles carrying distinct, yet complementary sensor suites. However, the constraints placed by the underwater medium make it hard to both communicate and localise the vehicles, even in relation to each other, let alone maintain them in a formation. As a contribution to overcoming some of these problems, this paper deals with the problem of keeping an autonomous marine vehicle in a moving triangular formation with respect to two leader vehicles. Simple feedback laws are derived to drive a controlled vehicle to its intended position in the formation using acoustic ranges obtained to the leading vehicles with no knowledge of the formation path. The paper discusses the implementation of this solution in the MEDUSA class of autonomous marine vehicles operated by IST and describes the results of trials with these vehicles exchanging information and ranges over an acoustic network.