Farshid Amirabdollahian | University of Hertfordshire (original) (raw)

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Papers by Farshid Amirabdollahian

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 2015

Assistive and robotic training devices are increasingly used for rehabilitation of the hemipareti... more Assistive and robotic training devices are increasingly used for rehabilitation of the hemiparetic arm after stroke, although applications for the wrist and hand are trailing behind. Furthermore, applying a training device in domestic settings may enable an increased training dose of functional arm and hand training. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility and potential clinical changes associated with a technology-supported arm and hand training system at home for patients with chronic stroke. A dynamic wrist and hand orthosis was combined with a remotely monitored user interface with motivational gaming environment for self-administered training at home. Twenty-four chronic stroke patients with impaired arm/hand function were recruited to use the training system at home for six weeks. Evaluation of feasibility involved training duration, usability and motivation. Clinical outcomes on arm/hand function, activity and participation were assessed before and after six weeks of training and at two-month follow-up. Mean System Usability Scale score was 69 % (SD 17 %), mean Intrinsic Motivation Inventory score was 5.2 (SD 0.9) points, and mean training duration per week was 105 (SD 66) minutes. Median Fugl-Meyer score improved from 37 (IQR 30) pre-training to 41 (IQR 32) post-training and was sustained at two-month follow-up (40 (IQR 32)). The Stroke Impact Scale improved from 56.3 (SD 13.2) pre-training to 60.0 (SD 13.9) post-training, with a trend at follow-up (59.8 (SD 15.2)). No significant improvements were found on the Action Research Arm Test and Motor Activity Log. Remotely monitored post-stroke training at home applying gaming exercises while physically supporting the wrist and hand showed to be feasible: participants were able and motivated to use the training system independently at home. Usability shows potential, although several usability issues need further attention. Upper extremity function and quality of life improved after training, although dexterity did not. These findings indicate that home-based arm and hand training with physical support from a dynamic orthosis is a feasible tool to enable self-administered practice at home. Such an approach enables practice without dependence on therapist availability, allowing an increase in training dose with respect to treatment in supervised settings. This study has been registered at the Netherlands Trial Registry (NTR): NTR3669 .

ACM/IEEE 10th International Conference on Human-Robot Interactions, 2015

How do mistakes made by a robot affect its trustworthiness and acceptance in human-robot collabor... more How do mistakes made by a robot affect its trustworthiness and acceptance in human-robot collaboration? We investigate how the perception of erroneous robot behavior may influence human interaction choices and the willingness to cooperate with the robot by following a number of its unusual requests. For this purpose, we conducted an experiment in which participants interacted with a home companion robot in one of two experimental conditions: (1) the correct mode or (2) the faulty mode. Our findings reveal that, while significantly affecting subjective perceptions of the robot and assessments of its reliability and trustworthiness, the robot's performance does not seem to substantially influence participants' decisions to (not) comply with its requests. However, our results further suggest that the nature of the task requested by the robot, e.g. whether its effects are revocable as opposed to irrevocable, has a significant impact on participants' willingness to follow its instructions.

Biosystems & Biorobotics, 2014

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014

2010 10th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2010

This article describes a pilot study in which children with autism alternated between playing a c... more This article describes a pilot study in which children with autism alternated between playing a co-operative, dyadic video game with an adult human and playing the same game with an autonomous humanoid robot. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the children, all of whom had difficulties communicating and engaging in social play with others, would display more

IEEE ... International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics : [proceedings], 2013

Sustaining independent living for the elderly is desirable both for the individual as well as for... more Sustaining independent living for the elderly is desirable both for the individual as well as for societies as a whole. Substantial care interventions are provided to citizens supporting their independent living. Currently, such interventions are primarily based on human care provision, but due to demographic changes the demand for such support is continuously increasing. Assistive Robotics has the potential to answer this growing demand. The notions research towards service robots that support the independence of elderly people has been given increased attention. The challenge is to develop robots that are able to adequately support with those activities that pose the greatest problems for elderly people seeking to remain independent. In order to develop the capabilities of the Care-O-bot 3 in the ACCOMPANY project, problematic activities that may threaten continued independent living of elderly people were studied. Focus groups were conducted in the Netherlands, UK, and France and...

2014 7th International Conference on Human System Interactions (HSI), 2014

ABSTRACT Rehabilitation robots are useful tools to objectively quantify and treat post-stroke imp... more ABSTRACT Rehabilitation robots are useful tools to objectively quantify and treat post-stroke impairments. The SCRIPT Passive Orthosis (SPO) is an passively actuated hand orthosis that can be used for interactive therapy at home. In the last year the SPO was used independently by 24 patients in three EU countries. In this paper we report on the technical challenges this has presented and the feedback we were given by therapists and patients. This includes the range-of-motion of the device, the assistive characteristics, the potential for grasp detection, and the user acceptance.

Advances in Interaction Studies, 2011

ABSTRACT Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Reading, 2003.

It is expected that in a near future, personal robots will be endowed with enough autonomy to fun... more It is expected that in a near future, personal robots will be endowed with enough autonomy to function and live in an individual's home. This is while commercial robots are designed with default configuration and factory settings which may often be different to an individual's operating preferences. This paper presents how reinforcement learning is applied and utilised towards personalisation of a robot's behaviour. Twolevel reinforcement learning has been implemented: first level is in charge of energy autonomy, i.e. how to survive, and second level is involved in adapting robot's behaviour to user's preferences. In both levels Q-learning algorithm has been applied. First level actions have been learnt in a simulated environment and then the results have been transferred to the real robot. Second level has been fully implemented in the real robot and learnt by human-robot interaction. Finally, experiments showing the performance of the system are presented.

Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology, Jan 16, 2015

We drew on an interdisciplinary research design to examine stroke survivors' experiences of l... more We drew on an interdisciplinary research design to examine stroke survivors' experiences of living with stroke and with technology in order to provide technology developers with insight into values, thoughts and feelings of the potential users of a to-be-designed robotic technology for home-based rehabilitation of the hand and wrist. Ten stroke survivors and their family carers were purposefully selected. On the first home visit, they were introduced to cultural probe. On the second visit, the content of the probe packs were used as prompt to conduct one-to-one interviews with them. The data generated was analysed using thematic analysis. A third home visit was conducted to evaluate the early prototype. User requirements were categorised into their network of relationships, their attitude towards technology, their skills, their goals and motivations. The user requirements were used to envision the requirements of the system including providing feedback on performance, motivation...

IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2007

Robot-mediated therapies offer a new approach to neurorehabilitation. This paper analyses the Fug... more Robot-mediated therapies offer a new approach to neurorehabilitation. This paper analyses the Fugl-Meyer data from the Gentle/S project and finds that the two intervention phases (sling suspension and robot mediated therapy) have approximately equal value to the further recovery of chronic stroke subjects (on average 27 months post stroke). Both sling suspension and robot mediated interventions show a recovery over

... Bead highway theory assumes that the end-effector is connected via a spring-damper ... StartP... more ... Bead highway theory assumes that the end-effector is connected via a spring-damper ... StartP= here Figure 2. Bead-Highway state transition diagram 5. Delivering therapy using synthetic worlds ... or less complete functionality without requiring that all the functions be located in the ...

Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2014

ABSTRACT The SCRIPT project aims at delivering machine-mediated hand and wrist exercise to people... more ABSTRACT The SCRIPT project aims at delivering machine-mediated hand and wrist exercise to people with stroke in their homes. In this context, adapting the exercise to the individual needs potentially enhances recovery. We designed a system composed of a passive-actuated wearable device, a personal computer and an arm support. The system enables users to exercise their hand and wrist movements by playing interactive games which were developed as part of the project. Movements and their required speed are tailored on the individual’s capabilities. During the exercise the system assesses whether the subject is in advance (leading) or in delay (lagging) with respect to a reference trajectory. This information provides input to an adaptive mechanism which changes the required movement speed in order to make the exercise nor too easy nor too challenging. In this paper, we show results of the adaptation process in a study involving seven persons with chronic stroke who completed a six weeks training in their homes. Based on the patterns observed in difficulty and lag-lead score, we defined five session types (challenging, challenging-then supporting, supporting, under-supporting and under-challenging). We show that the mechanism of adaptation has been effective in 195 of 248 (78.6%) sessions. Based on our results, we propose the lag-lead based assessment and adaptation as an auto-tuning tool for machine based exercise, with particular focus on rehabilitation robotics. Also, the classification of sessions among different types can be applied to other studies in order to better understanding the progression of therapy in order to maximize its outcome.

International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2002

Smooth trajectories are essential for safe interaction in between human and a haptic interface. D... more Smooth trajectories are essential for safe interaction in between human and a haptic interface. Different methods and strategies have been introduced to create such smooth trajectories. This paper studies the creation of human-like movements in haptic interfaces, based on the study of human arm motion. These motions are intended to retrain the upper limb movements of patients that lose manipulation