BeAgain
Human-Robot Collaborative System Design and Control Based on Human Dynamics Analysis for Rehabilitation/Human Augmentation

   The functional electrical stimulation (FES) bike race at Cybathlon is a competition in which a pilot with a spinal cord injury (SCI) drives a robotic bike using his/her paralyzed muscles. The intelligent technologies embedded in the robotic bike stimulate the paralyzed leg muscles and enable these muscles to actuate through electrical stimulation. This is one of many reasons why we named our team ‘BeAGain’, to allow the user to be him or herself again. The proposed novel methods in this work aim to enrich people’s lives by expanding their mobility for rehabilitation and leisure. Especially, due to the energy consumption of human muscles, muscle fatigue should be properly managed to maintain high speeds for a long duration. To address these problems, we have established a force/motion relationship model for time-variant human muscle actuation by using the data acquired via biomechanical simulation. We are currently developing a human-in-the-loop system dynamic control framework based on biomechanical analysis to enhance the performance of the BeAGain project for further application to various bicycles that uses human muscles during pedaling motion.

Related Publications

Toward Sustainable and Accessible Mobility: A Robotic FES Bike with a Fatigue Compensation Algorithm and Mechanism for Cybathlon 2020

Y. J. Kim, S. R.Lee, S. J. Kim, T. de Sa Rosa, Y. J. Gong, C. E. Park, J. H. Wang, K. W. Park, J. Y. Kim, and D. Shin
ICRA 2022, Philadelphia, USA, May 2022

Toward Sustainable and Accessible Mobility: A Functional Electrical Stimulation-Based Robotic Bike with a Fatigue-Compensation Algorithm and Mechanism for Cybathlon 2020

Y. J. Kim, S. R.Lee, S. J. Kim, T. de Sa Rosa, Y. J. Gong, C. E. Park, J. H. Wang, K. W. Park, J. Y. Kim, andD. Shin
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp.32-42, 2021.

A Power Assistant Algorithm Based on Human-Robot Interaction Analysis for Improving System Efficiency and Riding Experience of E-Bikes

D. H. Kim, D. Lee, Y. Kim, S. Kim, and D. Shin
Sustainability, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp.1-18, 2021.

Hybrid Actuation Concept: Analysis of Integrated System of Human Muscle and Electrical Motor

N. H. Kim, D. H. Kim and, D. Shin
In Proceedings of KSPE Spring Conference, Jeju Island, Korea, May 2017.