| Date and Time: | April 26 (Mon.), 2021, 13:10 – 15:00 |
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| Place: | Online (Zoom) |
| Speaker: | Prof. Hiroshi YOKOI (Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering) |
| Chair: | Prof. Hiroshi YOKOI |
| Title: | Cyborg Technology – Towards the Robotic Rehabilitation System for Motor Function Recovery — |
| Abstract: | One of the major application fields of robotics is the field of services that support life and life, such as medical care, long-term care, and welfare, and plays an important social contribution to provide safety and security. With the development of robot technology in recent years, artificial objects that were conventionally static, subordinate, and single-function machines are changing to dynamic, autonomous, and multifunctional machines, so the range to be considered has expanded. It is going on. In particular, the field of mechanical systems that replaces human physical functions is being positioned at the boundary with the fields of neuroscience and medical welfare. In this field, robots are placed in close contact with or attached to humans, making it possible to operate the robot intuitively, and in addition, a relationship in which a robot failure is felt as pain or fatigue, that is, interaction. There is an big scientific interest of this mutual relationship amang man and machine in this cyborg technology. Our research group is developing research on the relationship between robot systems with learning functions and human adaptive functions, using myoelectric prosthetic hands as an example, and we will give an overview in this presentation. The myoelectric prosthetic hand developed in our laboratory learns the complex myoelectric signals of each user by mechanical learning calculation using a computer, and drives the robot as a finger movement that intuitively matches the activity of the individual’s forearm muscles. This system is also called cyborg research, and was registered as a part for completing prosthetics by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as a myoelectric prosthetic hand system with a learning function in early 2018. We are in the process of developing a lightweight myoelectric prosthetic hand. In addition, since artificial limbs need to deal with various types of amputation, chipping, or transection situations, not only the development of machines and control systems in engineering, but also the wearing method in cooperation with hospitals and medical schools. At the same time, we are also developing materials and forms for sensors and sensors, and we will also describe these efforts. |