Robots
can teach people how to move their arm
F. A. Mussa-Ivaldi
Sensory Motor Performance Program
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Physiology, Northwestern University
Chicago, IL 60611
J. L. Patton
Sensory Motor Performance Program
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
PM&R, Northwestern University
Chicago, IL 60611
Proceedings of the 20(X)
IEEE
International Conference on
Robotics & Automation
San Francisco, CA • April
2000
Pages 300-305
Abstract
We describe a new theoretical
framework for robot-aided training of arm movements. This framework is based on
recent studies of motor adaptation in human subjects and on general
considerations about adaptive control of artificial and biological systems. We
propose to take advantage of the adaptive processes through which subjects,
when exposed to a perturbing field, develop an internal model of the field as a
relation between experienced limb states and forces. The problem of teaching
new movements is then reduced to the problem of designing force fields capable
of inducing the desired movements as after-effects of the adaptation triggered
by prolonged exposure to the fields. This approach is an alternative to more
standard training methods based on the explicit specification of the desired
movement to the learner. Unlike these methods, the adaptive process does not
require explicit awareness of the desired movement as adaptation is uniquely
concerned with restoring a preexisting kinematic pattern after a change in
dynamical environment.