The research objective of this award is realization of Networked Mobile Assistive Systems (NMASs) that allow people to receive physical assistance and rehabilitation treatments anywhere, at any time with feedback regarding adequacy and appropriateness of training. The approach taken will consist of two major elements: a body-sensor network and a highly reliable wireless network. Most of the data acquired from a body-sensor network and the algorithms for the control of mobile power assistive devices will be stored on a host server, and users will access the system with any portable computer while receiving appropriate assistance and rehabilitation treatment. The networked systems will also allow doctors to observe the stored information without compromising the important, sensitive personal interactions between the provider and the patient.
If successful, the benefits of this research will contribute to the improved quality of life for physically impaired people (young or old) who have problems with community mobility and specific gait limitations. It will also provide a powerful tool to physical therapists in the treatment of patients. The project team consists of two PI?s from Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and a consultant from Physical Therapy. This team uniquely links engineering with clinical applications. The interdisciplinary research opportunities will be made available to engineering students and students in physical therapy. The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley provides a unique environment and opportunity to the team to interact and share research findings with other researchers and students.
The project is an Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) Project jointly funded by ENG/CMMI and CISE/CNS.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE This project investigates the "smart shoe" technology that is a real-time mobile gait rehabilitation system to transform outpatient rehabilitation from being performed in a closed environment at a hospital to an open, home or community environment. This is a joint research effort between the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco. Although intensive efforts have been put into building assistive systems to help the elderly and the informed, there are still many challenges to tackle before research products can be applied in the real clinical environment. Most research in this field focuses on specific components in the assistive system, but very few are designed from a system point of view. It is actually more important to design each component of the assistive system considering possible integration requirements with other components to improve performance of the overall system. In this joint research project, we have built a wireless real-time mobile gait rehabilitation system testbed to integrate heterogeneous sensors and assistive devices through advanced wireless technologies. We study 1) smart sensor design for accurate human motion capture; 2) wireless protocol design with high sampling rates and guaranteed real-time performance; and 3) networked controller design in a complex network environment.The results of our research can be applied to the development of commercial products that will help the aging population to cope with locomotion disabilities and to have a better quality of life. As our next step, we hope to perform field studies involving patients in home-like settings. This is made possible by the dependable wireless technology that has resulted from the research in this project.
