In-home and remote use of robotic body surrogates by people with profound motor deficits
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People with profound motor deficits could perform useful physical tasks for themselves by controlling robots that are comparable to the human body. Whether this is possible without invasive interfaces has been unclear, due to the robot's complexity and the person's limitations. We developed a novel, augmented reality interface and conducted two studies to evaluate the extent to which it enabled people with profound motor deficits to control robotic body surrogates. 15 novice users achieved meaningful improvements on a clinical manipulation assessment when controlling the robot in Atlanta from locations across the United States. Also, one expert user performed 59 distinct tasks in his own home over seven days, including self-care tasks such as feeding. Our results demonstrate that people with profound motor deficits can effectively control robotic body surrogates without invasive interfaces.
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