Subscribe to Pittwire Today
Get the most interesting and important stories from the University of Pittsburgh.For people with limited mobility, a wheelchair can be the key to independence — allowing users to travel outside their homes, participate in the workplace and enter social spaces like bars and restaurants — that is, if the world-at-large is accessible to wheelchairs.
On April 21, researchers at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL), an institute under the University of Pittsburgh’s schools of the health sciences and part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, debuted a wheelchair prototype that can empower wheelchair users to navigate common daily challenges: scaling sidewalks without curb cuts, maneuvering uneven terrain, opening doors and even carrying a beverage. The prototype, six months in the making, is formally called the Robotic Assistive Mobility and Manipulation Platform (RAMMP) system, which integrates advanced robotics, sensing and embodied artificial intelligence.
[Read more about the system’s features in Pitt Med magazine.]
“With RAMMP, we’re trying to build the field of robotics for people with disabilities and older adults. Projects like this could inspire generations of people,” said Distinguished Professor of Rehabilitation Engineering Rory Cooper, founding director and VA senior research career scientist of HERL and co-PI of the RAMMP project.
The impetus behind RAMMP is an up to $41.5 million award distributed over five years from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, granted to the University last fall. It’s the first time Pitt has been tapped to lead an ARPA-H project, and the work is happening in partnership with private businesses LUCI, Kinova and ATDev as well as university partners Carnegie Mellon, Cornell and Northeastern.
[See highlights from the demonstration on Instagram.]
“Scientists have a lot of dreams, but without the appropriate support, funding and infrastructure, we cannot achieve those great ambitions that we have to benefit society,” said Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. “The award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health is critical not only to provide support for the research, but also to bring amazing talent from multiple universities together to solve a problem that has been vexing people with disabilities.”
By addressing barriers to mobility, RAMMP could promote users’ independence and help disabled folks further integrate into their communities, said D.J. Stemmler, a Pittsburgh-based disability activist who uses a wheelchair and consulted on the project. She demonstrated the RAMMP at Tuesday’s event.
“Wheelchair users should embrace technology. RAMMP could be a way to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. You’re in control,” she said.
A coordinated arm, base and sensor systems are among the features that make RAMMP the next wave of adaptive technology.
Attached to the RAMMP is a seven degrees of freedom robotic arm consisting of sensors that detect the position of each of its motors in relation to its joints, simulating the complex movements of a human arm. The arm uses cameras to detect objects and drive its grippers, and the captured images are processed using machine learning, a kind of artificial intelligence that uses algorithms to identify patterns and adapt autonomously.
During the demonstration, Stemmler used a touch pad to give orders to the robotic arm. The arm in turn opened doors, retrieved and carried a coffee from Starbucks, and brought the cup to her mouth.
She also showed off the device’s ability to navigate high curbs. Like regular power wheelchairs, RAMMP has six wheels — two central wheels that propel the chair, plus four smaller front and back wheels that are responsible for steering and stability. When RAMMP, which uses robotics to configure the chair’s movements, is faced with ascending a curb, the chair’s front two wheels lift and rest on top of the sidewalk. It then propels forward, lifting the large central wheels onto the curb before another forward push lifts the entire chair so the two back wheels also clear the curb. When descending a curb, the RAMMP performs the same movements but lowers its wheels instead of raising them. Crucially, the device maintains stability throughout the maneuvers.
The team behind RAMMP embraces a design process that centers people with disabilities.
“To be engaged in the community means not just taking but giving back. We reach out to people locally and across the country via our online consumer group,” said Cooper.
Stemmler added, “The human is the most important part of the Human Engineering Research Labs, because you have a lot of engineers and researchers, but pulling it all together requires continuously incorporating people with disabilities.”
Photography by Rayni Shiring/University of Pittsburgh