The researchers explained that robots have great potential to help people with limited mobility.
MIT added that it is relatively easy for a personhelp another to get dressed, because we instinctively know where and how to hold the garment, how a person can bend his arm, how the fabric will react to movements, and so on. However, robots need to be taught all of this from scratch.
The MIT team led by Shen Lee has developedan algorithm that redefines the safety of the movement of robots, allowing movements that prevent collisions with it. This allows the robot to come into contact with a person without harm to health in order to complete its task, provided that the impact on the person is negligible.
The system for dressing a person worked even ifat that moment he was doing other things - for example, checking the phone. This is achieved by combining several models for different situations, rather than using one model as before. “Our multifaceted approach integrates set theory, human security constraints, predicting human movements, and communication management for safe human-robot interaction,” said Zakori Erickson of Carnegie Mellon University.
Research is still at an early stagetrials, but the ideas of scientists can be used not only in dressing people. They can potentially be applied in various fields of assisted robotics and other types of assistance for people with limited mobility.
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