Robotics and Human-Machine Interaction

Human-machine interaction plays a central role in numerous applications – from assistive technologies such as exoskeletons, orthoses, and prostheses to industrial assistance systems and robotics. Significant challenges arise when machines work directly with humans, whether in mobility support, rehabilitation, the control of robotic arms, or enhancing physical performance. Successful and safe interaction requires precise monitoring of human behavior, reliable sensor systems, user-friendly interfaces, and intuitive interaction strategies.

The Department of Measurement and Sensor Technology (MUST) leverages its extensive expertise in hardware design and its interdisciplinary collaboration within the graduate research group LokoAssist (GRK 2761, Project No. 450821862). Only through cooperation with research groups from various disciplines can the interdisciplinary challenges

Our 3D-printed insoles with ferroelectret sensors revolutionize gait detection for wearable robotics. Lightweight, cost-effective, and precise, they track key gait events, such as heel strikes, with minimal delay, enabling seamless biomechanics analysis and exoskeleton control. Designed to support natural movement without laboratory constraints, they pave the way for new advancements in rehabilitation and assistive robotics. Further details can be found in the publication.

Vibrotactile signals can be a helpful addition to visual information. Using multiple vibration motors in an appropriate arrangement, enables to convey more complex information, e.g. direction. In the context of human-robot interaction, such an interface constitutes an information channel that can be used by the robot to communicate with the human.

The illustrated wearable interface uses a vibrotactile illusion to generate vibrotactile cues across all circumferential locations around the human arm. Further details can be found in the publication.

Inertial motion capture provides valuable data in fields like biomechanics, robotics, and human-computer interaction by portable and efficient movement tracking. Our wearable motion capture system integrates open-source hardware with a modular software framework, which offers compatibility with the biomechanical tools OpenSim and OpenSense. The system features automatic sensor-to-segment alignment for self-calibration using arbitrary motion data, promoting plug-and-play functionality. Further technical details and results can be found in the corresponding publication.

In his Bachelor's thesis, Felix Herbst designed this easy to manufacture prototype of a 3D printed 6-axis robot. It is now in its third generation and has been replicated for use across multiple experiments. More information about the backgrounds in this article (German only) by Mareike Hochschild.

Exoskeletons are wearable robotic systems that enhance the power and assist the accuracy of both healthy and disabled individuals. By combining the best of both worlds we can design intelligent human-machine systems for power-assistance, rehabilitation, teleoperation and haptic interaction in virtual reality.

For intuitive and seamless human-machine interaction when using exoskeletons or active prostheses, the use of suitable sensor systems is essential for effective mobility assistance. Especially for everyday use, the sensors need to be as unobtrusive as possible. In our research, we are developing our own force sensors based on ferroelectrets to detect the deformation of individual muscles and infer the user's intention. We use these sensors in everyday tasks such as standing up, which is particularly challenging for people with disabilities. With these systems, we want to give people with limited mobility back some quality of life in their everyday lives. Details and results are explained in the publication.

In contrast to conventional rigid-link robots, continuum robots feature a continuous backbone which replaces vertebrates. The flexible structure offers new capabilities such as performing full body deformation. Continuous joints also remove the dependency on small discrete joints and therefore enable the possibility of advanced miniaturization. Applications for continuum robots are broad including search and rescue operations, object manipulation, and interventional medicine.