IEEE Trans Haptics. 2012;5(4):376-83. doi: 10.1109/TOH.2011.67.
The broader goal of our research is to train infants with special needs to safely and purposefully drive a mobile robot to explore the environment. The hypothesis is that these impaired infants will benefit from mobility in their early years and attain childhood milestones, similar to their healthy peers. In this paper, we present an algorithm and training method using a force-feedback joystick with an "assist-as-needed" paradigm for driving training. In this "assist-as-needed" approach, if the child steers the joystick outside a force tunnel centered on the desired direction, the driver experiences a bias force on the hand. We show results with a group study on typically developing toddlers that such a haptic guidance algorithm is superior to training with a conventional joystick. We also provide a case study on two special needs children, under three years old, who learn to make sharp turns during driving, when trained over a five-day period with the force-feedback joystick using the algorithm.
我们研究的更广泛目标是培训有特殊需求的婴儿安全且有目的地驾驶移动机器人来探索环境。假设是这些受损的婴儿将从早年的移动中受益，并达到与健康同龄人相似的儿童成长里程碑。在本文中，我们提出了一种使用力反馈操纵杆和“按需辅助”范式的算法和训练方法，用于驾驶训练。在这种“按需辅助”方法中，如果孩子将操纵杆转向以期望方向为中心的力场隧道之外，那么驾驶员的手会感受到一个偏置力。我们通过对典型发展幼儿的小组研究表明，这种触觉引导算法优于使用传统操纵杆进行的训练。我们还提供了两个特殊需求儿童的案例研究，这两个儿童年龄都在三岁以下，他们在使用该算法经过五天的力反馈操纵杆训练后，学会了在驾驶时进行急转弯。
