This award will support US participation in a US-UK workshop on the topic or rehabilitation robotics, to take place in Cambridge, England in April 1991. The co-organizers are: Dr. Richard Howell, Ohio State University and Dr. Ray Gosine, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. The rapidly expanding research area which has been termed "rehabilitation robotics" is dedicated to the development of functional robotic assistive tools for use by severely physically disabled individuals in home, work or educational environments. As a new area of endeavor, rehabilitation robotics is composed of information from the disciplines of engineering, rehabilitation, education and computer science. The task of merging these disparate areas into a cohesive effort is made more difficult by the few operational research projects from which to draw information, and which are quite isolated from one another throughout the world. The proposed workshop will feature an international gathering of research scientists in rehabilitation robotics, who will present summaries of current research efforts and discuss a series of topics focusing on the disabled use of robotic devices. The topics will include: the user interface, safety issues in robotic environments, the needs and perceptions of the users, and user acceptability of robotic devices. In addition, sessions are proposed on the current progress in hardware and software, and aspects related to commercialization of robotic systems.
