Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev demonstrated for the first time their current development - a robotic system that incorporates play, and in particular X-Circle, which helps improve the basic functions of patients in rehabilitation processes
Designing a social robot that helps rehabilitate patients is a new field that requires in-depth research and many experiments to determine what the optimal conditions are. The researchers' findings were recently published in the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.
The interdisciplinary research team designed a game with a robotic arm to simulate XNUMXD functional activities of daily life – activities that people perform every day, such as drinking from a glass, which are often the focus of rehabilitation.
The research was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Danny Eisikowitz, a post-doctoral student from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, under the joint guidance of Dr. Sheli Levi-Tzedek from the Department of Physiotherapy of Ben-Gurion University and the Zalotovsky Center for Neuroscience, Prof. Yael Iden from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management and the ABC Robotics Initiative and Prof. Iris Tabak from the Department of Education.
"Playing x-circle with cups instead of drawing x's and circles is an example of a game that can help in the rehabilitation of arm movement - people pick up and place cups a large number of times during the game, and improve their performance while enjoying the game," says Dr. Sheli Levy- Tzedek from the Department of Physiotherapy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Zalotovsky Center for Neuroscience.
To test whether the physical presence of the robot during the game is important, the researchers compared the participants' motivation to play with the robot versus playing in front of a group of LED lights that were remotely controlled by a computer.
The system was tested on 62 healthy people from two age groups: 40 young people with an average age of 25 (23 women and 17 men) and 22 adults with an average age of 75 (10 women and 12 men). Both groups preferred the robotic system over the LED lights group. The adults explained that they preferred the interaction that seemed more human to them, while the young people reported the robot as "more interesting, fun and attractive".
When asked in which system they would prefer to play two more games, both teams chose the robotic system. However, when asked to play ten more games, the youngsters preferred to play against the LED lights group while the adults continued to prefer the robotic system.
"Some of the young people complained that the robot moved too slowly, so they preferred the faster system (the LED lights) when they were asked to play more games," says Dr. Levi-Zedek. "This means that the speed of the robot should be customized for each participant."
An unexpected finding was the change in human movement in response to the robotic movement. Both groups moved more slowly when they played with a slow robot than when they played with the fast light system.
The results indicate that people are interested in continuing to interact with a social robotic device, and that its physical embodiment plays an important role. This is a positive sign for the future of such systems. Now that they have established the importance of the robotic system, the researchers recommend testing this system in the rehabilitation of people who have experienced a stroke.
The research was supported in part by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev through the Helmsley Foundation, the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics (ABC) initiative, the Markus Endowment Fund, Rabbi V. Gunther Plaut, Chair of Industrial Engineering. Additional funding was provided by the Brandeis Lair Foundation, the Brandeis Bronfman Foundation, the Promobilia Foundation, a grant from the Borten Family Foundation, the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the I-CORE Program, and the Israel National Science Foundation.
