Jonathan Realmuto, PhD - US grants

This grant will beneficially impact human health and quality of life by enabling new functionality and improving the state of the art in assistive upper-limb wearable robots to amplify the functional independence of people with movement disorders. Upper-limb wearable robots use body-mounted sensors and actuators to monitor the human user and predict intention to dynamically adapt and provide physical assistance. These devices are envisioned for long-term daily assistance, and could therefore become a primary treatment for a variety of mobility impairments, including cerebral palsy, the most common cause of serious physical disability in childhood. However, the advancement of wearable robots has been limited by critical knowledge gaps in the areas of actuator and control technologies, and such devices are not widely available. This award supports research to develop novel bio-inspired soft robotic actuators and human-robot control algorithms to enable comfortable, low-cost, high-power wearable robots that seamlessly interface with human users. The technologies developed will be adaptable to general use, including providing physical assistance to the elderly, and for deployment in manufacturing, nursing, and other industrial sectors. Through collaborations among academics and clinicians, this project will form linkages between science and engineering and technology development to enhance human health. The project integrates K-12 outreach events at the University of California, Riverside, a Hispanic Serving Institution, to broaden the participation of under-represented groups.<br/> <br/>Most tasks in daily life involve physical interaction with the environment, facilitated by direct modulation of joint impedances. Upper-limb wearable robots arranged parallel to the joints therefore require impedance modulation capabilities. However, constraints on the morphology prohibit the use of sophisticated controllers for physical interaction, including impedance control with high bandwidth motors. This research will harness biological principles to design novel wearable robots with direct impedance modulation capabilities, including leveraging muscle topology, sensorimotor coupling, and exploiting the passive properties of actuators for stability. The research team will develop novel soft actuators with impedance modulation capabilities, proprioceptive reflex loops for actively modulating impedance, and human-in-the-loop controllers to regulate robot impedance through a non-invasive neural interface. A series of human experiments will evaluate the efficacy of the prototype devices. This project will contribute methods and theories in the area of assistive wearable robots with a focus on pediatric movement impairments, resulting in insight into muscle coordination, skill acquisitions, and object manipulation in individuals with motor impairments and neurotypical participants, with and without robotic assistance.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.