Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) has been awarded a grant of up to $41.5 million to develop the Robotic Assisted Mobility and Manipulation Platform (RAMMP) that will combine robotics and new forms of assistive technology “to reimagine a wheelchair and assistive robotic arm that will improve the independence, safety and quality of life for people with disabilities, including veterans.”
HERL researchers made the announcement at a Nov. 4 press conference in Bakery Square, location of offices for HERL and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Coprincipal investigators for the project are Rory Cooper, Ph.D., HERL’s director and distinguished professor of rehabilitation engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, and Jorge Candiotti, Ph.D., associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, and research biomedical engineer at HERL and for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Also participating in the RAMMP project are Kinova Robotics, LUCI Mobility, ATDev, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Cornell University, Northeastern University, and Purdue University. Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA, a high-performance computing and artificial intelligence company, will also be affiliated partners.
The RAMMP project will be developed over five years.
Tackling real-world mobility challenges
“Most powered wheelchairs aren’t designed to overcome many of the common challenges in the real world — and changing the environment to accommodate them is nearly impossible,” Cooper said in a Nov. 4 news release following the press conference. “We need smarter technology that prevents tipping and falling, improves mobility and adds more function such as coordinated mobility and robotic arm manipulation of objects so people with disabilities can fully participate in everyday life.”
The announcement said RAMMP “will integrate advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, a novel operating system, and digital twin technology through the Robotic Assistive Mobility Manipulation Simulation (RAMMS) environment, a virtual platform that enables precise, safe and scalable testing and development within realistic simulated settings.”
Cooper indicated the RAMMP team is “redesigning everything from the ground up. In terms of the seating system, the base, its robotic arm, the control system, the mechanical design, the operating system — everything will be new.”
The RAMMP grant is the first from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) with HERL and the University of Pittsburgh as the lead institution. HERL is an institute under the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Health Sciences.
Celebrating HERL’s work, achievements
Anatha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen dean, school of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, described Cooper as “a force of nature” during the press conference.
“I want to say a few words about this project as the pinnacle of what’s been happening over the last 30 years in this very building,” Shekhar said. “Rory, I was told, walked into this building and said, ‘This is where we’re going to build HERL.’ Since then, this building has not only taken on HERL as its most successful enterprise, but more importantly, it has saved and changed the lives of so many thousands of disabled people thanks to Rory’s leadership.
“We’ve also started to build the whole concept of using technology to transform health care, and particularly in the current environment, using artificial intelligence and computational capabilities and robotics to truly change lives for disabled folks — but beyond that, even transforming health care for average folks. It’s no surprise that Rory has been able to bring together some of the best in the country and in the world, robotics engineers from CMU and Northeastern and Purdue and other powerhouses that are capable of bringing together both health care and engineering transformation.”
Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research, University of Pittsburgh, said, “We are delighted to see this one finally get over the line, get announced today, be shared with the public and celebrated today” after “talking about this award and Rory’s vision for this award for a very long time. I think it’s also extremely fitting that Pitt’s very first ARPA-H award is being won by Rory and his multidisciplinary team for their proposed work on robotic assisted mobility.”
“I’m glad this is going to be a very revolutionary device and it’s a very rewarding feeling [to support] people with disabilities and aging in place,” Candiotti said at the press conference. “We’re happy to start this project.”
A new perspective and approach to independence
Asked at the press conference what this grant will allow HERL to do that the team hasn’t been able to do before, Cooper said, “I think it’s going to integrate robotic mobility and robotic manipulation for the first time. That’s never been done. They’ve been done independently.”
Cooper gave the example of getting milk out of the refrigerator.
“That is right now possible, but it’s a task that may take 45 minutes to an hour, and most of you would probably find an alternative way to get the refrigerator open if that was the case,” he said. “What happens for most people is they ask somebody else to do that, while they would rather do it themselves. You probably had a cup of coffee or orange juice this morning. That is a task that most people would like to be able to perform efficiently, rapidly on their own.”
With current assistive technology, Cooper added, taking a single sip of coffee can require 10 to 15 minutes. “We want to get that down to where it takes a few seconds,” he said. “We want to get it down to where you can open the refrigerator as naturally as possible.”
Cooper also talked about the current difficulties of maneuvering a wheelchair outdoors, over sidewalks that lack curb cuts, are cracked, are uprooted partially by tree roots. “You need more advanced mobility if you want to go for a walk in Schenley Park, right? that’s something that we want to enable people to be able to efficiently and naturally [do] without having to constantly think about their own health and safety.”
Cooper added that many HERL team members are also wheelchair riders themselves.
“This has been a dream of ours for a long time,” he said, “so that we can have the same mobility that many of you in the room have, and the same ability to manipulate objects with the same level of efficiency, and to create that for our brothers and sisters who are people with disabilities as well.”
