The Principal Investigator (PI) will explore and test a number of hardware platforms and software algorithms whose goal is to facilitate sub-second human-robot synchronization. To this end the PI will utilize the medium of music, one of the most time-demanding media where accuracy in milliseconds is critical because asynchronous operations of more than 10 ms are noticeable by listeners. Specifically, the PI will develop up to three different kinds of robotic devices intended to allow a drummer, whose arm was recently amputated from the elbow down, to play and synchronize between his organic functioning arm and the newly developed robotic devices. In addition, he will develop and investigate the efficiency of novel anticipation algorithms designed to foresee human actions before they take place and trigger robotic actions with low-latency and in a timely manner. This research will advance our understanding in a variety of areas, including the biomechanics of limb operations, machine-learning techniques for the anticipation and prediction of human gestures, and highly accurate myoelectric robotic devices.
Broader Impacts: This project will ultimately benefit a large population of amputees whose quality of life could improve through the use of low-latency robotic limbs with sub-second synchronization. Facilitating such accurate sub-second human-robot synchronization could also improve efficiency and flow in other human-robot interaction scenarios where humans and robots must collaborate to achieve time-demanding common goals. The novel solenoid-based robotic device(s) created in this research should also benefit musicians in general (that is to say, who are not disabled), who will be able to explore novel drumming techniques and create novel musical results.
