QoLT Systems: Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA)

Project Lead:  Rory Cooper, University of Pittsburgh

The objective of PerMMA is to combine manipulation and mobility assistance with perception and decision making wherever a person goes. When end-users were consulted they reported that they wanted “zero-gap” in mobility and manipulation between them and an unimpaired person. We are leveraging our strengths in robotics and mobility aids. A primary goal is to overcome the shortcomings and unmet needs of device that provides coordinated mobility and manipulation. Some of the new functionalities that PerMMA will provide are to detect and/or predict user intent, to provide coordinated movement between a power base and multiple manipulators, to include natural and intuitive user interfaces & control modes, and to incorporate real-world navigation and docking assistance. In order to make interaction easier we will use a wide range of natural and intuitive interfaces that reduce the time to complete tasks and produce fluid human-like motions. We are working on extending mobility range to overcome mobility barriers intransigent to traditional approaches. Lastly, our ultimate goal is in supporting independence so that people can go out and do things without an attendant.

These projects integrate technologies created in cooperation with the Thrusts, and provide a QoLT System for evaluation of the impact of the advances of our systems on people with disabilities and older people.  PerMMA also will meet a real identified need among our targeted end-users, and will serve to promote end-user participation in the design process. The sub-systems serve as platforms for further research within our ERC, and models for others to build upon.