Neurobotics

For our first discussion, we talked about neurobotics, which is an exciting new research area that combines neuroscience with robotics. In particular, we discussed the research of University of Washington Professor Yoky Matsuoka. In her research, Prof. Matsuoka and her team are building an anatomically correct testbed (ACT) robotic hand. One of their goals is to create prosthetic hands that move just like human hands and can be controlled directly by neural signals. For this, they not only build robots but they also study neuro-musculo-skeletal functions. In their lab, the team also investigates other related problems including improving the safety of life-size haptic environments, using robots and feedback distortion for rehabilitation, and building a hand exoskeleton.

Neurobotics clearly has the impact of transforming the life of handicapped people. Not only will they be able to recover the use of lost limbs, they will also be able to better fit-in by having prosthetics that look just like real limbs. These devices could also enable faster rehabilitation to patients not only through feedback distortion but also through adequate exoskeleton-type support.

An interesting problem that we discussed is that of sensory feedback. These prosthetics will be controlled by neural signals but should they produce feedback signals? What if a person accidentally cuts off a finger from their robotic hand, should they feel the corresponding pain? Perhaps a good option is for the arm to provide sensory feedback so a person knows that their prosthetic is being damaged but that signal should be attenuated or in a different form so as not to cause too much pain.

Another important problem that we addressed relates to the moral implications of healthy people voluntarily replacing their limbs with artificial ones. Will this ever be a problem? Should we prevent such a practices by limiting the capabilities of these replacement parts? Is this possible since there are always people willing to do anything for money?

Our discussion also covered additional topics including adding extra limbs (wouldn't it be cool to have an extra set of arms and be able to eat and drink while driving?), security (what if someone interferes with the functioning of an artificial limb?), and several others.