Chung Cheng-Shiu, Ka Hyun W, Wang Hongu, Ding Dan, Kelleher Annmarie, Cooper Rory A
Human Engineering Research Laboratories, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Top Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil. 2017 Spring;23(2):131-139. doi: 10.1310/sci2302-131.
Assistive robotic manipulators (ARMs) have been developed to provide enhanced assistance and independence in performance of daily activities among people with spinal cord injury when a caregiver is not on site. However, the current commercial ARM user interfaces (UIs) may be difficult to learn and control. A touchscreen mobile UI was developed to overcome these challenges. The object of this study was to evaluate the performance between 2 ARM UIs, touchscreen and the original joystick, using an ARM evaluation tool (ARMET). This is a pilot study of people with upper extremity impairments ( = 8). Participants were trained on 2 UIs, and then they chose one to use when performing 3 tasks on the ARMET: flipping a toggle switch, pushing down a door handle, and turning a knob. Task completion time, mean velocity, and open interviews were the main outcome measurements. Among 8 novice participants, 7 chose the touchscreen UI and 1 chose the joystick UI. All participants could complete the ARMET tasks independently. Use of the touchscreen UI resulted in enhanced ARMET performance (higher mean moving speed and faster task completion). Mobile ARM UIs demonstrated easier learning experience, less physical effort, and better ARMET performance. The improved performance, the accessibility, and lower physical effort suggested that the touchscreen UI might be an efficient tool for the ARM users.
辅助机器人操纵器（ARMs）已被开发出来，以便在没有护理人员在场时，为脊髓损伤患者在日常活动中提供更多帮助并增强其独立性。然而，当前商用的ARMs用户界面（UIs）可能难以学习和控制。因此开发了一种触摸屏移动用户界面来克服这些挑战。本研究的目的是使用一种ARM评估工具（ARMET）来评估两种ARMs用户界面（触摸屏界面和原始操纵杆界面）之间的性能。这是一项针对上肢功能障碍患者（n = 8）的试点研究。参与者接受了两种用户界面的培训，然后在使用ARMET执行三项任务时选择其中一种界面：拨动拨动开关、按下门把手和转动旋钮。任务完成时间、平均速度和开放式访谈是主要的结果测量指标。在8名新手参与者中，7人选择了触摸屏用户界面，1人选择了操纵杆用户界面。所有参与者都能独立完成ARMET任务。使用触摸屏用户界面提高了ARMET的性能（平均移动速度更高，任务完成更快）。移动ARMs用户界面展示出更轻松的学习体验、更少的体力消耗以及更好的ARMET性能。性能的提升、易用性以及更低的体力消耗表明触摸屏用户界面可能是ARMs用户的一种有效工具。
