Robotics Researchers Reveal RIBA
RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research unveils their robotic nurse assistant
Orange County, CA - August 25th 2016 - Hospitals are busy places constantly transferring patients from one wing to another for tests, surgeries, or checkups. When mobility is an issue for a patient, it becomes an issue of the nurse or healthcare provider. Many healthcare professionals and patients alike are injured every year from lifting or moving patients when they don’t have the strength to do so. RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research (RTC) made RIBA for these types of medical situations.
RIBA stands for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance and was developed by RIKEN and Tokai Rubber Industries. It was developed by integrating RIKEN's control, sensor, and information processing with TRI's material and structural design technologies. It is the first nursing-care robot that lifts up and sets down humans from beds and wheelchairs. It is able to do this through novel tactile guidance methods using high-accuracy tactile sensors.
There already exist devices for transferring patients, but they are not often used due to their time requirement, the difficulty of attaching slings, and the possibility of dropping or causing discomfort to the patient. It has also been reported that these devices do not help relieve the caretaker’s physical burden.
Developers debated different hands off methods of controlling RIBA, but these weren’t practical for the delicate movements it had to perform. Instead the RIBA works through human-robot cooperation that doesn’t burden caretakers or patients. It was developed with, “a direct and intuitive ‘tactile guidance’ method, where the caregiver indicates the position, direction, and/or speed of the desired motion by directly touching the robot on the part that is concerned with the motion.” This method was inspired by the way a teacher or coach instructs the motion of a student through touch and directly guides the student’s motion when performing an action.
Three experiments were carried out to assess the current RIBA’s abilities; Handling heavy objects, motion control by touching, and patient transfer. In each case of handling heavy object test, the actual trajectory was within range of the desired trajectory. RIBA’s arms were made to allow 265 lbs., but have only been tested up to 139 lbs. Motion control by touching experiments found that force is better than sliding distance as the operation input for motion. When the operation in put was the pushing force, the adjustments were fine, but when the operation input was the sliding distance, adjustment was not frequent and the actual angle was sometimes moved past the desired angle. The final test of patient transfer, both caregivers made fine adjustments of RIBA’s position and motion. The patient was stable once lifted and no danger of dropping the patient was found.
Another prototype was built by RIKEN-TRI before RIBA named RI-MAN. It also managed to lift a human dummy, but limitations remained leading developers to RIBA. Now, the aims of their future work include increasing the maximum lift weight, ensuring the comfort of the lifted person, and reinforcing safety precautions.
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