Perceived Usefulness of Robotic Technology for Patient Fall Prevention.

Background: Technology has the potential to prevent patient falls in healthcare settings and to reduce work-related injuries among healthcare providers. However, the usefulness and acceptability of each technology requires careful evaluation. Framed by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and using the Adaptive Robotic Nursing Assistant (ARNA) to assist with patient ambulation, the present study examined the perceived usefulness of robots in patients' fall prevention with implications for preventing associated work-related injuries among healthcare providers.

Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Inkjet-Printed Organic Piezoresistive Tactile Sensor on Flexible Substrate.

In this paper, we propose a novel tactile sensor with a "fingerprint" design, named due to its spiral shape and dimensions of 3.80 mm × 3.80 mm.

Motor differences in autism during a human-robot imitative gesturing task.

Background: Difficulty with imitative gesturing is frequently observed as a clinical feature of autism. Current practices for assessment of imitative gesturing ability-behavioral observation and parent report-do not allow precise measurement of specific components of imitative gesturing performance, instead relying on subjective judgments. Advances in technology allow researchers to objectively quantify the nature of these movement differences, and to use less socially stressful interaction partners (e.

In-Process Orbiting Laser-Assisted Technique for the Surface Finish in Material Extrusion-Based 3D Printing.

Material extrusion-based polymer 3D printing, one of the most commonly used additive manufacturing processes for thermoplastics and composites, has drawn extensive attention due to its capability and cost effectiveness. However, the low surface finish quality of the printed parts remains a drawback due to the nature of stacking successive layers along one direction and the nature of rastering of the extruded tracks of material. In this work, an in-process thermal radiation-assisted, surface reflow method is demonstrated that significantly improves the surface finish of the sidewalls of printed parts.

Acceptability of Using a Robotic Nursing Assistant in Health Care Environments: Experimental Pilot Study.

Background: According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurses will be the largest labor pool in the United States by 2022, and more than 1.1 million nursing positions have to be filled by then in order to avoid a nursing shortage. In addition, the incidence rate of musculoskeletal disorders in nurses is above average in comparison with other occupations.

Concurrent surface electromyography and force myography classification during times of prosthetic socket shift and user fatigue.

Objective: Surface electromyography has been a long-standing source of signals for control of powered prosthetic devices. By contrast, force myography is a more recent alternative to surface electromyography that has the potential to enhance reliability and avoid operational challenges of surface electromyography during use. In this paper, we report on experiments conducted to assess improvements in classification of surface electromyography signals through the addition of collocated force myography consisting of piezo-resistive sensors.

Development of a novel visuomotor integration paradigm by integrating a virtual environment with mobile eye-tracking and motion-capture systems.

Visuomotor integration (VMI), the use of visual information to guide motor planning, execution, and modification, is necessary for a wide range of functional tasks. To comprehensively, quantitatively assess VMI, we developed a paradigm integrating virtual environments, motion-capture, and mobile eye-tracking. Virtual environments enable tasks to be repeatable, naturalistic, and varied in complexity.

Human-like object tracking and gaze estimation with PKD android.

As the use of robots increases for tasks that require human-robot interactions, it is vital that robots exhibit and understand human-like cues for effective communication. In this paper, we describe the implementation of object tracking capability on Philip K. Dick (PKD) android and a gaze tracking algorithm, both of which further robot capabilities with regard to human communication.

Optimized Assistive Human-Robot Interaction Using Reinforcement Learning.

An intelligent human-robot interaction (HRI) system with adjustable robot behavior is presented. The proposed HRI system assists the human operator to perform a given task with minimum workload demands and optimizes the overall human-robot system performance. Motivated by human factor studies, the presented control structure consists of two control loops.