Eye-gaze control of a wheelchair mounted 6DOF assistive robot for activities of daily living

• Published in: Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 173 - 12
• Main Authors: Sunny, Md Samiul Haque, Zarif, Md Ishrak Islam, Rulik, Ivan, Sanjuan, Javier, Rahman, Mohammad Habibur, Ahamed, Sheikh Iqbal, Wang, Inga, Schultz, Katie, Brahmi, Brahim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 18.12.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: 6DoF; Acceptance; Activities of daily living; Adaptive technology; Assistive robot; Building control; Care and treatment; Control systems; Disabilities; Disabled persons; Eye movements; Eye-gaze control; Graphical user interface; Handicapped assistance devices; Microbalances; Mobility; Motor dysfunction; Motor task performance; Paralysis; People with disabilities; Physiological aspects; Quality of life; Robot arms; Robot control; Robotics; Robots; Service robots; Spinal cord injuries; Technology application; Tracking control; User interface; Wheelchair; Wheelchair mounted robot; Wheelchairs; United States; United States > US; Eye-gaze control; Activities of daily living; Assistive robot; Wheelchair mounted robot; Wheelchair; 6DoF; Motor dysfunction
• ISSN: 1743-0003; 1743-0003
• DOI: 10.1186/s12984-021-00969-2

Building control architecture that balances the assistive manipulation systems with the benefits of direct human control is a crucial challenge of human-robot collaboration. It promises to help people with disabilities more efficiently control wheelchair and wheelchair-mounted robot arms to accomplish activities of daily living. In this study, our research objective is to design an eye-tracking assistive robot control system capable of providing targeted engagement and motivating individuals with a disability to use the developed method for self-assistance activities of daily living. The graphical user interface is designed and integrated with the developed control architecture to achieve the goal. We evaluated the system by conducting a user study. Ten healthy participants performed five trials of three manipulation tasks using the graphical user interface and the developed control framework. The 100% success rate on task performance demonstrates the effectiveness of our system for individuals with motor impairments to control wheelchair and wheelchair-mounted assistive robotic manipulators. We demonstrated the usability of using this eye-gaze system to control a robotic arm mounted on a wheelchair in activities of daily living for people with disabilities. We found high levels of acceptance with higher ratings in the evaluation of the system with healthy participants.