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      University of Illinois, Chicago subcontract

Electronic Visualization Laboratory

 

Principal Investigator: James L. Patton, Ph.D. (PI)

Principal Investigator: Robert Kenyon, Ph.D.  (CO-PI)

The goal of this project is to design and develop a new robotic interface for upper-limb rehabilitation of brain-injured individuals. The proposed system will, for the first time, enable full arm motions to be made while being guided and/or disturbed by three-dimensional (3-D) visual cues and robot forces. In order to achieve significant practical application in rehabilitation, human-interface robots must safely operate in three dimensions with a large Workspace and an appropriately designed visual interface. We propose to develop instrumentation allowing movement targets, feedback of force or errors in movement. Most importantly, however, will be that the instrumentation superimposes images on the real-world, preserving the reality of everyday tasks. To do this we propose to interface a state-of-art augmented reality (AR) system with a robot.  The critical collaboration with Dr. Robert Kenyon at The University of Illinois at Chicago brings a first-rate expertise that is not available at Northwestern University.

Robert Kenyon, Ph.D. (Co-PI) possesses unique and proven expertise and a world leader in virtual augmented reality systems.  Dr. Kenyon has access to the structure and know-how of world-renowned Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). The early development of the augmented reality portion of the system will be received, developed, and overseen by Dr. Kenyon at EVL. Dr. Kenyon will also oversee the design and development of the operator interface.