Webinar Details
The webinar recording is now available
Robots have been introduced as vehicles that could transform neurorehabilitation through augmenting physical and cognitive engagement of patients and promoting faster neural plasticity for those living with major motor disabilities caused by factors including stroke and spinal cord injuries. In addition, robots, interfaced with the human neural system, have been successfully used to augment motor capabilities of individuals with the lack of a biological limb, for performing a number of activities of daily living. The technology is motivated by a significant challenge of our society: the imbalance between the need for delivering rehabilitation services and the available resources. This challenge became even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the timely delivery of healthcare services. Although neurorobotic systems have shown a great potential for delivering rehabilitation and assistance, there are several challenges ahead to make the technology (a) more reliable and compatible with the variable biomechanical characteristics of the user, (b) more robust and responsive to the intended movements, (c) more accessible, and (d) more intelligent in delivering assistance. That has led to active research in the fields of robotic rehabilitation and assistive prosthetic technologies.
This webinar discussed recent developments in areas related to human-robot physical (tele-)interaction, reliability, stability, and compatibility of rehabilitation robots, telerobots, prostheses. Dr. Atashzar is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University. Prior to joining NYU, he was a senior postdoctoral scientist at Imperial College London, UK, sponsored by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a postdoctoral research associate at Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) center. Recently he has received an NSF-RAPID award to conduct research on smart wearables for detecting health anomalies using machine intelligence. Dr. Atashzar leads the Medical Robotics and Interactive Intelligent Technologies (MERIIT) Laboratory at NYU.
