UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
             COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

                            presents

                  "Playing Piano Like a Virtuoso:
          How to Build Robotics That Can Train a Human"


                        Dr. Arno Stienen
     (Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, The Netherlands)

                      17 April 2013  (Wednesday)
                           1 pm -2 pm

                  Hatfield, College Lane Campus
                  * * Lecture Theatre LC108  * *

                  Everyone is Welcome to Attend

                  Refreshments will be available

Abstract:


Each year in the Netherlands, 48.000 people suffer a stroke, the leading
cause of disability in the developed world. Three-quarters of stroke
survivors will experience problems with routine activities such as eating
or getting dressed. Recovery requires intensive, targeted training and
is facilitate by rehabilitation devices. These devices have reduced
the workload for stroke therapists but have yet to produce the expected
improvements in functional abilities.

For most healthy subjects, mastering the piano is as difficult and
challenging as relearning everyday movements is for stroke patients. We
postulate that piano playing is an outstanding translational-research
model to advance the field of rehabilitation engineering, benefitting from
analogies in assessment and learning. Combining individualized impairment
assessments with assisted motor relearning of complex functional movements
creates a new paradigm in stroke rehabilitation.

In this presentation, I will discuss our developments in robotics that
make the above possible. For instance, I will talk about the design of
our self-aligning exoskeleton joints, our custom designed series-elastic,
hydro-elastic and passive-breaking actuators, and the control strategies
we have used.

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://cs-colloq.stca.herts.ac.uk