Project Description

This is a project within the Call for IRI MdM Internal Projects 2019, a call of R&D projects addressed to IRI early career researchers, under the María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence Programme.

For many people with upper limb disabilities, simple activities of daily living such as drinking, opening a door, or pushing an elevator button require the assistance of a caregiver. An assistive, robotic system controlled via a human-robot interface could enable these people to perform these kind of tasks autonomously again and thereby increase their independence and quality of life. To encourage rehabilitation of motor functions the remaining body movements and muscle activity (i.e. sEMG) can be captured to provide control signals for the assistive device. This project aims at developing a novel hybrid control interface that combines remaining movements and muscle activity of the upper body to control movement and impedance of a robotic manipulator. The expected outcomes of the project will be an attractive demo for visitors and an IEEE conference publication.