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- All Subjects: robotics
Description
This paper presents the design and evaluation of a haptic interface for augmenting human-human interpersonal interactions by delivering facial expressions of an interaction partner to an individual who is blind using a visual-to-tactile mapping of facial action units and emotions. Pancake shaftless vibration motors are mounted on the back of a chair to provide vibrotactile stimulation in the context of a dyadic (one-on-one) interaction across a table. This work explores the design of spatiotemporal vibration patterns that can be used to convey the basic building blocks of facial movements according to the Facial Action Unit Coding System. A behavioral study was conducted to explore the factors that influence the naturalness of conveying affect using vibrotactile cues.
ContributorsBala, Shantanu (Author) / Panchanathan, Sethuraman (Thesis director) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Currently, one of the biggest limiting factors for long-term deployment of autonomous systems is the power constraints of a platform. In particular, for aerial robots such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the energy resource is the main driver of mission planning and operation definitions, as everything revolved around flight time. The focus of this work is to develop a new method of energy storage and charging for autonomous UAV systems, for use during long-term deployments in a constrained environment. We developed a charging solution that allows pre-equipped UAV system to land on top of designated charging pads and rapidly replenish their battery reserves, using a contact charging point. This system is designed to work with all types of rechargeable batteries, focusing on Lithium Polymer (LiPo) packs, that incorporate a battery management system for increased reliability. The project also explores optimization methods for fleets of UAV systems, to increase charging efficiency and extend battery lifespans. Each component of this project was first designed and tested in computer simulation. Following positive feedback and results, prototypes for each part of this system were developed and rigorously tested. Results show that the contact charging method is able to charge LiPo batteries at a 1-C rate, which is the industry standard rate, maintaining the same safety and efficiency standards as modern day direct connection chargers. Control software for these base stations was also created, to be integrated with a fleet management system, and optimizes UAV charge levels and distribution to extend LiPo battery lifetimes while still meeting expected mission demand. Each component of this project (hardware/software) was designed for manufacturing and implementation using industry standard tools, making it ideal for large-scale implementations. This system has been successfully tested with a fleet of UAV systems at Arizona State University, and is currently being integrated into an Arizona smart city environment for deployment.
ContributorsMian, Sami (Author) / Panchanathan, Sethuraman (Thesis advisor) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Yang, Yezhou (Committee member) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Visual Odometry is one of the key aspects of robotic localization and mapping. Visual Odometry consists of many geometric-based approaches that convert visual data (images) into pose estimates of where the robot is in space. The classical geometric methods have shown promising results; they are carefully crafted and built explicitly for these tasks. However, such geometric methods require extreme fine-tuning and extensive prior knowledge to set up these systems for different scenarios. Classical Geometric approaches also require significant post-processing and optimization to minimize the error between the estimated pose and the global truth. In this body of work, the deep learning model was formed by combining SuperPoint and SuperGlue. The resulting model does not require any prior fine-tuning. It has been trained to enable both outdoor and indoor settings. The proposed deep learning model is applied to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute dataset along with other classical geometric visual odometry models. The proposed deep learning model has not been trained on the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute dataset. It is only during experimentation that the deep learning model is first introduced to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute dataset. Using the monocular grayscale images from the visual odometer files of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute dataset, through the experiment to test the viability of the models for different sequences. The experiment has been performed on eight different sequences and has obtained the Absolute Trajectory Error and the time taken for each sequence to finish the computation. From the obtained results, there are inferences drawn from the classical and deep learning approaches.
ContributorsVaidyanathan, Venkatesh (Author) / Venkateswara, Hemanth (Thesis advisor) / McDaniel, Troy (Thesis advisor) / Michael, Katina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
As people begin to live longer and the population shifts to having more olderadults on Earth than young children, radical solutions will be needed to ease the
burden on society. It will be essential to develop technology that can age with the
individual. One solution is to keep older adults in their homes longer through smart
home and smart living technology, allowing them to age in place. People have many
choices when choosing where to age in place, including their own homes, assisted
living facilities, nursing homes, or family members. No matter where people choose to
age, they may face isolation and financial hardships. It is crucial to keep finances in
mind when developing Smart Home technology.
Smart home technologies seek to allow individuals to stay inside their homes for
as long as possible, yet little work looks at how we can use technology in different
life stages. Robots are poised to impact society and ease burns at home and in the
workforce. Special attention has been given to social robots to ease isolation. As
social robots become accepted into society, researchers need to understand how these
robots should mimic natural conversation. My work attempts to answer this question
within social robotics by investigating how to make conversational robots natural and
reciprocal.
I investigated this through a 2x2 Wizard of Oz between-subjects user study. The
study lasted four months, testing four different levels of interactivity with the robot.
None of the levels were significantly different from the others, an unexpected result. I
then investigated the robot’s personality, the participant’s trust, and the participant’s
acceptance of the robot and how that influenced the study.
ContributorsMiller, Jordan (Author) / McDaniel, Troy (Thesis advisor) / Michael, Katina (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy (Committee member) / Bryan, Chris (Committee member) / Li, Baoxin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
With an aging population, the number of later in life health related incidents like stroke stand to become more prevalent. Unfortunately, the majority those who are most at risk for debilitating heath episodes are either uninsured or under insured when it comes to long term physical/occupational therapy. As insurance companies lower coverage and/or raise prices of plans with sufficient coverage, it can be expected that the proportion of uninsured/under insured to fully insured people will rise. To address this, lower cost alternative methods of treatment must be developed so people can obtain the treated required for a sufficient recovery. The presented robotic glove employs low cost fabric soft pneumatic actuators which use a closed loop feedback controller based on readings from embedded soft sensors. This provides the device with proprioceptive abilities for the dynamic control of each independent actuator. Force and fatigue tests were performed to determine the viability of the actuator design. A Box and Block test along with a motion capture study was completed to study the performance of the device. This paper presents the design and classification of a soft robotic glove with a feedback controller as a at-home stroke rehabilitation device.
ContributorsAxman, Reed C (Author) / Zhang, Wenlong (Thesis advisor) / Santello, Marco (Committee member) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The intent of this project was to design, build, and test a female-intended vibrator that incorporates elements of haptic feedback, biomimicry, and/or micro robotics. Device development was based on human-centered user design elements and the study of physiological arousal, as sexuality and sexual functioning are a part of a human’s overall assessment of health and well-being. The thesis sought to fill the gap that prevents data collection of a female entire sexual response from initial arousal to final orgasm.
ContributorsDirks, Jessica (Author) / Ralston, Laurie (Thesis director) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Human Systems Engineering (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Touch plays a vital role in maintaining human relationships through social andemotional communications. This research proposes a multi-modal haptic display
capable of generating vibrotactile and thermal haptic signals individually and simultaneously.
The main objective for creating this device is to explore the importance
of touch in social communication, which is absent in traditional communication
modes like a phone call or a video call. By studying how humans interpret
haptically generated messages, this research aims to create a new communication
channel for humans. This novel device will be worn on the user's forearm and has
a broad scope of applications such as navigation, social interactions, notifications,
health care, and education. The research methods include testing patterns in the
vibro-thermal modality while noting its realizability and accuracy. Different patterns
can be controlled and generated through an Android application connected to
the proposed device via Bluetooth. Experimental results indicate that the patterns
SINGLE TAP and HOLD/SQUEEZE were easily identifiable and more relatable to
social interactions. In contrast, other patterns like UP-DOWN, DOWN-UP, LEFTRIGHT,
LEFT-RIGHT, LEFT-DIAGONAL, and RIGHT-DIAGONAL were less
identifiable and less relatable to social interactions. Finally, design modifications
are required if complex social patterns are needed to be displayed on the forearm.
ContributorsGharat, Shubham Shriniwas (Author) / McDaniel, Troy (Thesis advisor) / Redkar, Sangram (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Wenlong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The knee joint has essential functions to support the body weight and maintain normal walking. Neurological diseases like stroke and musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis can affect the function of the knee. Besides physical therapy, robot-assisted therapy using wearable exoskeletons and exosuits has shown the potential as an efficient therapy that helps patients restore their limbs’ functions. Exoskeletons and exosuits are being developed for either human performance augmentation or medical purposes like rehabilitation. Although, the research on exoskeletons started early before exosuits, the research and development on exosuits have recently grown rapidly as exosuits have advantages that exoskeletons lack. The objective of this research is to develop a soft exosuit for knee flexion assistance and validate its ability to reduce the EMG activity of the knee flexor muscles. The exosuit has been developed with a novel soft fabric actuator and novel 3D printed adjustable braces to attach the actuator aligned with the knee. A torque analytical model has been derived and validate experimentally to characterize and predict the torque output of the actuator. In addition to that, the actuator’s deflation and inflation time has been experimentally characterized and a controller has been implemented and the exosuit has been tested on a healthy human subject. It is found that the analytical torque model succeeded to predict the torque output in flexion angle range from 0° to 60° more precisely than analytical models in the literature. Deviations existed beyond 60° might have happened because some factors like fabric extensibility and actuator’s bending behavior. After human testing, results showed that, for the human subject tested, the exosuit gave the best performance when the controller was tuned to inflate at 31.9 % of the gait cycle. At this inflation timing, the biceps femoris, the semitendinosus and the vastus lateralis muscles showed average electromyography (EMG) reduction of - 32.02 %, - 23.05 % and - 2.85 % respectively. Finally, it is concluded that the developed exosuit may assist the knee flexion of more diverse healthy human subjects and it may potentially be used in the future in human performance augmentation and rehabilitation of people with disabilities.
ContributorsHasan, Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim (Author) / Zhang, Wenlong (Thesis advisor) / Aukes, Daniel (Committee member) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021