Human Engineering Research Laboratories, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Med Eng Phys. 2013 Nov;35(11):1613-9. doi: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2013.05.008. Epub 2013 Jun 12.
The Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA) is a recently developed personal assistance robot created to provide people with severe physical disabilities enhanced assistance in both mobility and manipulation. PerMMA aims to improve functional independence when a personal care attendant is not available on site. PerMMA integrates both a smart powered wheelchair and two dexterous robotic arms to assist its users in completing essential mobility and manipulation tasks during basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADL). Two user interfaces were developed: a local control interface and a remote operator controller. This paper reports on the evaluation of PerMMA with end users completing basic ADL tasks. Participants with both lower and upper extremity impairments (N=15) were recruited to operate PerMMA and complete up to five ADL tasks in a single session of no more than two hours (to avoid fatigue or frustration of the participants). The performance of PerMMA was evaluated by participants completing ADL tasks with two different control modes: local mode and cooperative control. The users' task completion performance and answers on pre/post-evaluation questionnaires demonstrated not only the ease in learning and usefulness of PerMMA, but also their attitudes toward assistance from advanced technology like PerMMA. As a part of the iterative development process, results of this work will serve as supporting evidence to identify design criteria and other areas for improvement of PerMMA.
个人移动与操纵设备（PerMMA）是一种最近开发的个人辅助机器人，旨在为严重身体残疾的人提供在移动和操纵方面的增强辅助。当现场没有个人护理人员时，PerMMA 旨在提高功能独立性。PerMMA 集成了智能动力轮椅和两个灵巧的机械臂，以帮助其用户在基本和工具性日常生活活动（ADL）中完成基本的移动和操纵任务。开发了两种用户界面：本地控制界面和远程操作员控制器。本文报告了对具有基本 ADL 任务的最终用户的 PerMMA 评估。招募了上肢和下肢受损的参与者（N=15）来操作 PerMMA，并在不超过两小时的单个会话中完成最多五个 ADL 任务（以避免参与者疲劳或沮丧）。通过参与者使用两种不同控制模式（本地模式和协作控制）完成 ADL 任务来评估 PerMMA 的性能。用户的任务完成表现和预/后评估问卷的答案不仅展示了 PerMMA 的易用性和有用性，还展示了他们对像 PerMMA 这样的先进技术辅助的态度。作为迭代开发过程的一部分，这项工作的结果将作为支持证据，以确定 PerMMA 的设计标准和其他改进领域。
