• Walterio Mayol-Cuevas

  • Bio: Professor Walterio Mayol-Cuevas is member of the Computer Science Department of the University of Bristol, UK and Principal Research Scientist at Amazon, Seattle, US. His Ph.D. at the University of Oxford developed some of the earliest wearable active vision systems and and jointly with collaborators at Oxford and Bristol, some of the earliest examples of 6D visual SLAM in real time and its application to Robotics and Augmented Reality. Most recent work include novel concepts of human-robot interaction, Computer Vision methods for scene understanding, novel algorithms for massively parallel visual sensors as well machine learning methods to asses skill visually. Together with PhD student collaborators, his interest on developing better HRI approaches, has resulted in a line of work to design, build and evaluate handheld robot platforms that predict user intention and mediate collaboration at different levels of autonomy.

  • Talk Title: Handheld Robots: Bridging the gap between fully external and wearable robots

  • Abstract: In this talk, we will discuss our past and recent work on the development of handheld robots. A Handheld robot is a person-oriented robot that shares properties of a handheld tool while being enhanced with autonomous motion as well as the ability to process task-relevant information and user signals. The application possibilities include helping inexperienced users to perform power tool-type tasks without much task knowledge and with limited training on the tool usage. These robots exploit the Moravec paradox by combining the strengths of human users such as innate obstacle avoidance and navigation skills, with precise motion and memory enhancement by robotic devices. In our recent work we have explored issues of the way to predict user intention from minimal user input such as gaze detection and motion, and issues of conflict of interests between user and robot. We have built prototypes of handheld robots and conducted various pilot studies on the effects of intention prediction, robot rebellion and tele-operation on simulated copy-block and maintenance tasks. We believe handheld robots bridge the gap that currently exists between fully independent robots for which full autonomy is the goal, and wearable or supernumerary robots where the robot is tightly coupled with the user. With handheld robots, we hope to tap into the millions of years that humans have used handheld tools but now with the enhancement possibilities that Robotics can offer. http://handheldrobotics.org/

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• Masahiko Inami

  • Bio: Dr. Masahiko Inami took up his current position as professor at the University of Tokyo after working at the University of Electro-Communications and Keio University. His interests include “JIZAI body editing technology,” the Augmented Human, and entertainment engineering. He has received several awards, including TIME Magazine’s “Coolest Invention of the Year” award and the Young Scientist Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). He is also the co-representative of the Superhuman Sports Society and a director of the VR Consortium.

  • Talk Title: Virtual Cyborgs: Freedom from Body Limitations 

  • Abstract: The social revolutions have accompanied innovation of the view of the body. If we regard the information revolution as establishment of a virtual society against the real society, it is necessary to design a new view of body "JIZAI body  Virtual Cyborg)", which can adapt freely to the change of social structure, and establish a new view of the body. In this talk, we discuss how we understand of basic knowledge about the body editing for construction of JIZAI body (Virtual Cyborg) based on VR, AR and Robotics. Superhuman Sports: Applying Human Augmentation to Physical Exercise. This talk will also present Superhuman Sports, a form of "Human-Computer Integration” to overcome somatic and spatial limitation of humanity by merging technology with the body. We hope to create a future of sports where everyone, strong or weak, young  or old, non-disabled or disabled, can play and enjoy playing without being disadvantaged.

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• A. Aldo Faisal

  • Bio: Dr. Faisal is Reader in Neurotechnology (US equivalent: Associate Professor, tenured) jointly at the Dept. of Bioengineering and the Dept. of Computing at Imperial College London, where he leads the Brain & Behaviour Lab. Aldo is also Director of the Behaviour Analytics Lab at the Data Science Institute. He is also Associate Investigator at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences and is affiliated faculty at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (University College London).

  • Talk Title: Playing the piano with 11 fingers – the neurobehavioural constraints of human robot augmentation

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• Domenico Prattichizzo

  • Bio: Dr. Prattichizzo has been Full Professor at the University of Siena since 2015. From 2002 to 2015 he was Associate Professor of Robotics at the University of Siena. Since 2009 he has been a Scientific Consultant at Istituto Italiano di Tecnoloogia, Genova Italy. In 1994, he was a Visiting Scientist at the MIT AI Lab. He obtained the M.S. degree in Electronics Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Robotics and Automation from the University of Pisa in 1991 and 1995, respectively. His research interests are in haptics, grasping, visual servoing, mobile robotics and geometric control.

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• Monica Malvezzi

  • Bio: Dr. Malvezzi is an Associate Professor of Mechanics and Mechanism Theory at the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione e Scienze Matematiche of the University of Siena and she has been Visiting Scientist at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia since 2015. Her main research interests are in mechanism theory, control of mechanical systems, robotics, vehicle localization, multibody dynamics, haptics, grasping and dexterous manipulation.

  • Talk Title (presented together with Prof. Prattichizzo): The robotic sixth finger

  • Abstract: This talk will summarise the main phases of the research that we developed in the framework of human augmentation with supernumerary extra limbs. Stating from our previous experience on robotic hands and grasping, the device that we developed was aimed at integrating the human hand by means of a robotic extra finger. This topic opened a wide set of research questions, both theoretical/methodological and design/technological. The first tests and prototypes were realised with a modular fully actuated extra finger, in which each phalanx was controlled with one actuator, in a serial chain. This first solution allowed us to develop strategies for mapping human hand motion to an augmented bio-artificial hand. A fully actuated solution was not suitable for unexperienced users, due to the complexity and lack of robustness. For this reason we moved to under actuated compliant solution. The solution that we developed was actuated by only one motor, placed on the bracelet supporting the device. Finger closure motion is given by a tendon connecting all the phalanges. Finger phalanges are furthermore connected by deformable joints, with an equivalent compliance defined in the design phase to obtain the desired closure motion and realised by properly controlling manufacturing parameters and  material mechanical properties. In parallel, user interfaces were developed for device control. Also for the user interfaces, wearability, robustness and easy of use were the criteria that guided the design. The most impactful application that we identified for this device was for subjects suffering of upper limb pathologies or diseases, as for instance the stroke. Some preliminary tests conducted with some stroke patients demonstrated that this type of device represents a very useful tool for recovering a part of grasping capabilities and for supporting the patient in several bimanual tasks that are very frequent in everyday life. A video showing the potential of the sixth finger for stroke patients is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbybITNk0N8

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• Hiroyasu Iwata

  • Bio: Hiroyasu Iwata is currently a Professor, Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University. He was leading a human assistive robot project in charge from 2004-2007 and then successfully developed human assistive humanoid robot named TWENDY-ONE with human-like dexterous hands in Nov. 2007. Since 2015, he has served as Director, Global Robot Academia Laboratory, Waseda University as well. He has published 140 papers and received 27 awards such as The Young Scientists' Prize, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2009, etc. He served as the Program Co-chair of AIM2012 and AIM2013, the Program PaperPlaza Management Chair of IROS2013 and General Chair JSME ICAM2015 conferences, etc. His research interests include human assistive robot technology, human augmentation robotics, skin adhesive bio-sensors, echography-based prenatal checkup assistive robot, rehabilitation assistive RT and artificial intelligence for construction machineries.

  • Talk Title: “3rd Arm”: Voluntarily Manipulative SR Device towards Human Augmentation

  • Abstract: This talk covers the development of a voluntarily manipulative wearable robot arm called "3rd Arm", which allows humans to comprehensively perform multiple tasks. Especially, I would like to address the design and evaluation of an intuitive interface to operate "3rd Arm" focusing on face vector and a new concept of SR device called "Detachable body" allowing us to perform a concurrent tasks at two different places simultaneously. We've focused on head movement for manipulating an extra arm and propose a new interface based on a“face vector.”It's a point instruction-type interface, unlike conventional path control-type interfaces, which reduces the cognitive load of the conventional head movement interface. We gave a cocrete body as an eyeglass-shape interface device mounting the gyro sensor and distance sensor for getting coordinate. Also, a laser pointer is attached to the interface to give visual biofeedback to the users, since Because a face vector itself is invisible. The result of experiments under two dual-task conditions shows that the cognitive load of the proposed interface is low enough, even when a high cognitive load task is included in dual-task conditions.It demonstrates that the point instruction interface proposed in this study can shorten working time for both direct and indirect reaching tasks compared to the path control interface in all single task conditions. Detachable body is a new concept of a wearable robot arm as an extended body. It can be detached from user's natural body and attached not only to the other person's body but also anywhere even in the environment. Humans can become to perform dual-presence tasks that allow concurrent tasks executed in two distant places using the detachable body. Also, we designed an information presenting interface to handle both the natural body and the detached body at two distant places simultaneously. The interface consists of a vision presenting system that superimposed two environment images with binocular disparity, and a proprioception presenting system that makes somatosensory feedback of detached arm's position. The usability of the proposed interface was evaluated by the work efficiency and subjective evaluation in a dual-presence task. The result suggested the effects of disparity in the vision presenting system and feedback information.

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• Mohamed Bouri

  • Bio: Dr. Mohamed Bouri is with Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland). He graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1992 and obtained his PhD degree in 1997 in Industrial Automation at INSA LYON, France. He is the head of Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics group at EPFL since 2012 and lecturer of Robotics and Industrial Robotics. His main focus concerns lower limb rehabilitation robotic devices and exoskeletons and is also active in surgical and industrial robotic applications (http://rehassist.epfl.ch)

  • Talk Title: Supernumerary robotic manipulation for Laparoscopic surgery, envisioned scenarios and results.

  • Abstract: Manipulation tasks are often bimanual, regardless that in several cases humans require to be assisted to
    successfully achieve their tasks, could be for assembly or positioning ; could be for precise applications or
    when manipulating heavy objects. To this end, more attention and coordination is required between the two
    persons, or more, involved in the same manipulation task. In our project we envision to give the control to only one operator, who will finally carry out the manipulation using his two biological hands, while being in control of two robotic arms- This supernumerary 4-handed manipulation has the main objective to increase the success of the operation by decreasing communication errors between the operator and his assistant, by increasing the manipulation area and by easing the
    execution of the tasks in giving the full control to only one operator. In [Abdi et al, 2016], we already proved that even in demanding tasks, three-handed manipulation is preferred to two-handed manipulation. This presentation will address the application of laparoscopic surgery [Abdi et al., 2015] [Hernandez et al., 2019]. This work is carried out in collaboration between the research group REHAssist and the lab LASA, both at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. It is a follow up of our investigation to the capabilities of surgeons to foot-control a laparoscopic instrument [Abdi et al., 2017]. A bipedal foot interface has been developed to achieved the control of two robotic arms, 5 degrees of freedom each. This foot-haptic interface [Hernandez et al., 2019] is capable to provide 5 DOFs foot force feedback to improve foot control perception. On the other side, the robots are implemented with assistance control strategies [Amanhoud et al., 2020]. The presented results will point out that force assistance improves human-robot interaction in four-handed manipulation, as well as reduces fatigue, improves ease of use and usefulness.