Sanford Freedman
Projects

PhysicalTherapyAssistanceRobot

A 'Hands Off' Physical Therapy Assistance Robot

Adviser: Prof. Maja J. Matarić

Developed a system to empirically study the effects of different types of interaction between robotic assistants and cardiac surgery patients. The system assists patients in reaching their physical therapy goals by providing engaging feedback and encouragement during the completion of painful but necessary breathing exercises. Patients of cardiothoracic surgery are required to use special breathing equipment every hour in order to prevent pneumonia and speed recovery. Nurses are too busy to oversee all the sessions throughout the patient’s stay, and patients quickly lose their internal motivation to complete the exercises because of physical discomfort or boredom. The robot employs a ‘Hands-Off’ approach to providing assistance, allowing for lower cost designs and decreased liability. A proof of concept experiment was conducted at the USC University Hospital and experiments were conducted to evaluate the relative effectiveness of purely verbal communication and interaction that incorporated the use of a small PDA type device. The system provided a popular demonstration for the Interaction Laboratory.

Images


Image of Clara

Clara interacting with a student playing the role of a patient

Frontal view of a prototype version of Clara

Side view of a prototype version of Clara

Poster presented at ICORR-05

Flowchart describing Clara's operation

Example hospital room configuration

Spirometer breathing device with colored markers

Experiment conducted at the USC University Hospital. Nurses played the role of patients.

Videos


Early demonstration where patient interaction was performed with colored cards

Feasibility experiment conducted at the Interaction laboratory. USC students played the role of patient.

Experiment conducted at the USC University Hospital. Nurses played the role of patients. The voice recognition system was disabled due to the noisy environment.

Video presented to participants

Project Members

  • Sanford Freedman
  • Kyong Il Kang

Selected Publications

Kang, Kyong Il, Freedman, Sanford, Mataric, Maja J., Cunningham, Mark J., and Lopez, Becky. Hands-off physical therapy assistance robot for cardiac patients. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, pages 337–340, Chicago, IL, June 28 - July 1 2005. BibTeX 

@INPROCEEDINGS{Kang2005,
  author = {Kyong Il Kang and Sanford Freedman and Maja J. Matari{\'{c}} and
	Mark J. Cunningham and Becky Lopez},
  title = {Hands-Off Physical Therapy Assistance Robot for Cardiac Patients},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics},
  year = {2005},
  pages = {337-340},
  address = {Chicago, IL},
  month = {June 28 - July 1},
  abstract = {This paper presents a feasibility study of using socially-aware
	autonomous robots to assist hospitals in reducing the effects of nursing
	shortages. A hands-off assistive robot is described that provides motivation
	and support for cardiac patients who must perform regular but painful
	breathing exercises. Initial validation of the system has garnered positive
	responses from test subjects and shows that robots have a
	potential to aid nursing staff in some tasks requiring patient
	interaction.},
  url = {https://www.sanfordfreedman.com/media/papers/451.pdf}
}

Kang, Kyong Il, Freedman, Sanford, Mataric, Maja J., Cunningham, Mark J., and Lopez, Becky. Hands-off physical therapy assistance robot for cardiac patients. Technical Report CRES Technical Report CRES-05-001, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 2005. BibTeX 

@TECHREPORT{Kang2005b,
  author = {Kyong Il Kang and Sanford Freedman and Maja J. Matari{\'{c}} and
	Mark J. Cunningham and Becky Lopez},
  title = {Hands-Off Physical Therapy Assistance Robot for Cardiac Patients},
  institution = {University of Southern California},
  year = {2005},
  number = {{CRES} Technical Report CRES-05-001},
  address = {Los Angeles, CA},
  abstract = {This paper presents a feasibility study of using a socially-aware,
	autonomous robot to assist hospitals in reducing the effects of nursing
	shortages. A hands-off assistive robot is described that provides
	motivation and support for cardiac patients who must perform regular
	but painful breathing exercises. Initial validation of the system
	has garnered positive responses from test subjects and shows that
	robots have a potential to aid nursing staff in some tasks requiring
	patient interaction.},
  url = {https://www.sanfordfreedman.com/media/papers/440.pdf}
}

Media Coverage

@MISC{Vivian2007,
  author = {Tan Sze Sze Vivian},
  title = {A Hands-Off Physical Therapy Assistance Robot for Cardiac Patients},
  howpublished = {Robot News},
  month = {April},
  year = {2007},
  url = {{\url{http://robotnews.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/a-hands-off-physical-therapy-assistance-robot-for-cardiac-patients}}}
}

Support

This work was supported by USC Provost's Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR) Fellowship and the Okawa Foundation.