URATech

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URATech is an innovation centre for yoUR Assistive Technology needs. We provide customised solutions for end users and offer R&D services to partner organisations for hi-tech prototype and product development.

Team Size:
4
Location:
Australia
Founders:
Tansel Ersavaş, Şafak Akinci, Ali Goktogan
Program(s):

The Problem

Over the past few years, as part of my social responsibility duty (not for commercial interest), I have developed various assistive technology solutions for a wide range of people with disabilities, both in Australia and overseas. I also motivated some of my engineering students to participate in these efforts. Due to the limited space on the online application pages, I will list only a few examples from a more extensive set of demonstrated assistive technology projects. I seek advice and guidance on the business and commercialization of selecting from these or similar projects to establish business cases to serve more people. • Problem-1: People with severe disabilities are limited in their options for independent mobility. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) etc., seriously affect the extremities and make the operation of commercially available electric wheelchairs through a joystick difficult or near impossible. Furthermore, existing electric wheelchairs have no "self-driving" feature to make users' lives easier. • Problem-2: Wheelchairs are considered the primary solution for mobility for people with paraplegia. However, transferring to and from wheelchairs remains an issue for some users. This issue is crucial because conventional wheelchairs are mostly front-mounted. Therefore, some people have to lift their bodies with their arms to mount and dismount. These movements are difficult and risky and almost impossible to do without assistance, especially for overweight and/or older people, which is most often the case for people with lower limb disabilities. • Problem-3: Loss of mobility on upper extremities such as paralysis, hemiparesis or long-term muscle weakness can result from various neuromuscular or neurological diseases, strokes or accidents. Patients with these conditions may partially or fully lose control of their upper extremities. Traditional therapy methods may not restore the lost functions. However, it has been shown that Robot-Assisted Rehabilitation Therapy (RART) can improve the outcome of rehabilitation efforts. Furthermore, robotic orthotic exoskeletons can partially replace some of the lost functions and positively affect patients' ADLs. Toward this goal, we developed an upper-limb orthotic exoskeleton, "URArm''. It has a multimodal HMI and can be controlled by a rehabilitation therapist locally or remotely for telerehabilitation sessions. • Problem-4: Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) is a rare disease occurring in children affecting the grey matter of the spinal cord. In some cases, the resulting paralysis can render the child permanently dependent on a mechanical ventilator that they are unable to carry while at the same time still being able to walk. To allow the child with AFM to retain as much independent mobility as possible, a solution is required to carry the ventilator at a safe operating distance. • Problem-5: People with Speech and Motor Impairment (SSMI) may lack the ability to turn their heads to view their surroundings; however, the majority of them still have control over their eyes. This project asks the question of what we can do for people with SMMI so that they can see/browse their surroundings without moving their heads.

The Solution

• Solutions for Problem 1: We developed two different solutions for this problem, titled (a) "A Semi-autonomous Smart Electric Wheelchair Control System, with Multimodal User Interface" and (b) "Smart Wheelchair Assistant Autonomous Navigation (SWAAN) System". These solutions enable autonomous navigation for existing power wheelchairs in an urban environment. Both systems were developed as add-on devices for existing electric wheelchair platforms that provide an alternative set of Human-Machine Interface (HMI) modalities for user selection. They offer users control through either speech recognition, teleoperation, or autonomous navigation, which is beneficial to people with different levels of disability. These solutions address the constrained application of singular control modalities and minimize the physical and cognitive effort required for Activities of Daily Life (ADL). These systems demonstrated successful autonomous navigation through outdoor urban environments at Victoria Park, next to the University of Sydney, and Sydney Olympic Park. (See also: • "Enabling Autonomous Navigation for Existing Power Wheelchairs in Urban Environment" - https://youtu.be/k-RU_-YcDGk • "Semi-autonomous Smart Electric Wheelchair" - https://youtu.be/gUabOoXzICo) • Solution for Problem 2: We developed the "RMP2 - A Robotic Mobility Platform for Paraplegics". This robotic platform allows people with paraplegia to stay upright/standing while being supported from the hip on the platform and enables them to navigate through indoor and outdoor environments. While positioned on the RMP2 platform, users' hands are free to let them reach anywhere needed for the ADL, such as reaching a cabinet door, cooking, etc. Standing on the RMP2 platform helps people with paraplegia to have eye-level social contact for social interaction. By standing upright on the platform, RMP2 users gain psychological and physical benefits such as improved breathing, bladder functions, bone density, digestion, and bowel functions. • Solution for Problem 3: We developed three different versions of "URArm-An Upper-Limb Orthotic Exoskeleton for Telerehabilitation with Multimodal User Interface" to provide users and rehabilitation experts to perform upper limb exercises. URArm can be monitored and controlled locally by the user and/or the local physiotherapist or remotely by the experts via telerehabilitation sessions. As the whole world unfortunately experienced, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may continue to impose further restrictions on healthcare delivery for non-life-threatening situations such as one-to-one interaction with physiotherapists and other rehabilitation therapy specialists. RART systems can be used in these circumstances, such that specialists can remotely program and/or interactively operate the system in remote physiotherapy, i.e. in telerehabilitation sessions. (See also: "URArm: Devel. of an Upper-Limb Orthotic Exoskeleton for Telerehab. with Multimodal UI" - https://youtu.be/nNjBb4EKRXM) • Solution for Problem 4: We developed a "Robotic Platform to Carry a Ventilator for Children with Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM)" to address the needs of children with AFM. The follower robot is equipped with an interface and control system that a child can intuitively understand. Many opportunities exist for robots to positively impact the lives of people who would benefit from assistance carrying burdensome loads, such as life-supporting equipment required to be in very close proximity to a patient. Our robotic platform explored such an opportunity, with particular consideration given to children suffering from AFM requiring mechanical breathing who may benefit from a simple and robust tether-controlled human follower robot capable of operation in typical operating environments consistent with a person's daily life. (See also: "Semi-autonomous Smart Electric Wheelchair" - https://youtu.be/gUabOoXzICo "Venture: A Robotic Platform to Carry a Ventilator for Children with AFM" - https://youtu.be/BLCW0vyA4EE) • Solution for Problem 5: We developed a system called "GazePal" to enable its users to control the pan and tilt of a scene camera to view their surroundings without moving their heads. GazePal is a hardware-agnostic solution that performs gaze tracking using the user's webcam. A set of deep-learning algorithms are used to map the images of the user's eye to Functional Regions (FRs) on the screen. The spatial and temporal state of the user's estimated gaze activates components on the Graphical User Interface (GUI), which leads to the control of the scene camera's pan and tilt values, and its view is displayed in the GUI. GazePal is tested with a standard laptop with an integrated webcam and achieves a classification accuracy of 89% at a frame rate of 28.6 fps. GazePal's ability to generalise is also demonstrated through testing. (See also: "Enabling Autonomous Navigation for Existing Power Wheelchairs in Urban Environment" - https://youtu.be/k-RU_-YcDGk)