Vikram Kapila

This research is led by Vikram Kapila, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Principal authors are Ph.D. students Ashwin Rajkumar, Master's students Fabio Vulpi and Satish Reddy Bethi, and Preeti Raghavan of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU School of Medicince.

Recent years have seen a brisk rise in development and deployment of digital health systems using such technologies as wearable sensors and embedded controllers to enhance access to medical diagnostics and treatments. Because of an accelerating trend in the number of stroke survivors requiring rehabilitation, healthcare services worldwide are considering technological solutions to enhance accessibility to assessment and treatment, particularly during the past year’s period of enforced quarantine due to COVID-19. 

Some of the challenges faced by these technologies are clinical acceptance, high equipment cost, accuracy, and ease of use. 

To address these limitations, the researchers designed wearable inertial sensors for exergames (WISE), a system that includes an animated virtual coach to deliver instruction, and a subject- model whose movements are animated by real-time sensor measurements from the WISE system worn by a subject. The paper examines the WISE system’s accuracy and usability for the assessment of upper limb range of motion (ROM). 

The system uses five wearable sensor modules affixed to a user’s upper body: above the wrist on the left and right forearms, above the elbow on the left and right arms, and on the back. Each WISE sensor module consists of a sensor interfaced with a microcontroller soldered to a printed circuit board, which is connected to a lithium-ion battery. A storage and calibration cube is designed and 3D-printed to house the five WISE system modules and simultaneously calibrate all the sensors prior to placement on a subject. The microcontroller retrieves absolute orientation measurement from the sensor and wirelessly streams it to a computer. The investigators used a Unity3D-based exergame interface to animate the sensor data into a 3D-human model.

Seventeen neurologically intact subjects were recruited to participate in a usability study of the WISE system. The subjects performed a series of shoulder and elbow exercises for each arm instructed by the animated virtual coach; accuracy of the ROM measurements obtained with the WISE system were compared with those obtained with a system using the Microsoft Kinect markerless motion capture system (a platform used for exergames and often tested for rehabilitation capabilities). The results suggest the WISE system performs as well as Kinect.  

The researchers plan future studies with patient populations in clinical and tele-rehabilitation settings.

This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation DRK-12 Grant DRL-1417769, RET Site Grant EEC-1542286, and ITEST Grant DRL-1614085; NY Space Grant Consortium Grant 48240-7887; and Translation of Rehabilitation Engineering Advances and Technology (TREAT) grant NIH P2CHD086841.

This research is led by Vikram Kapila, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Principal authors are Ph.D. students Hassam Khan Wazir and Christian Lourido, and Sonia Mary Chacko, a researcher and recent Ph.D. graduate under Kapila.

Healthcare workers, at risk of contracting COVID-19 when in close proximity to infected patients, may transmit the virus to other hospital-bound patients, including those on dialysis. In order to circumvent this risk, the researchers proposed a remote control system for dialysis machines. The proposed setup uses dialysis machines fitted with robotic manipulators connected wirelessly to tablets allowing remote control by workers outside of patients’ rooms.

The system (see video here) comprises an off-the-shelf four degrees of freedom (DoF) robotic manipulator equipped with a USB camera. The robot base and camera stand are fixed on a platform, making the system installation and operation simple, just requiring the user to properly locate the robot in front of its workspace and point  the camera to a touchscreen (representing a dialysis machine instrument control panel touchscreen) with which the robot manipulator is required to interact. The user interface consisting of a mobile app is connected to the same wireless network as the robot manipulator system. To identify the surface plane of action of the robot, the mobile app uses the camera’s video-feed which includes a 2D image marker located in the plane of the instrument control panel touchscreen, in front of the robot manipulator. The robotic arm can facilitate complicated sequences of button and slider manipulation thanks to a complex series of algorithms that automate some functions of the machine.

The machine attached to the already in-use dialysis machine livestreams data and results directly to a tablet or computer operated by a remote user in another room. Users tend to report a more consistent performance from the system when the user interaction is performed with a computer versus a tablet, though no significant difference has been recorded between the two modes of operation.

One of the most significant features of this new technology is that creating a custom user interface is not required to operate it, given that the user is interacting directly with the video feed from the instrument control panel touchscreen. Thus, the system works on any device with a touchscreen. The proposed device can be administered almost instantly, which can make it useful in an emergency situation. In the future, options of applying AR (augmented reality) features to the system in order to optimize user experience and efficiency may be explored.

This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under ITEST grant DRL-1614085, RET Site grant EEC-1542286, and DRK- 12 grant DRL-1417769.

This research was based on a program developed by Vikram Kapila, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.  

Sparking interest in STEM education is a critical step toward creating a diverse workforce that can confer key advantages to any country in the global tech world. The number of US jobs required in STEM fields has increased nearly 34% over the past decade, but the number of students opting to pursue STEM as a major and career is declining. Many educators, researchers, and funding agencies have devoted significant efforts towards promoting students’ motivation and interests for learning and academic performance at all levels of STEM ecosystem to catalyze students’ entry on the pathways for STEM professions.

For students, robotics seems to be one of the best entryways to the field of engineering and STEM education in general. For example, students using a robot kit made by LEGO in a classroom can have a joyful and entertaining experience as they feel like playing with toys, which can encourage them to participate in robotic-based learning activities. Still, teachers can be reluctant. These programs can require specialized knowledge and teachers often do not have models or understanding of pedagogical approaches to implement technology-integrated courses, in general, and robotics-integrated courses, in particular.

A new study from Tandon researchers describes a professional development (PD) program designed to support middle school teachers in effectively integrating robotics in science and mathematics classrooms. The PD program encouraged the teachers to develop their own science and mathematics lessons, aligned with national standards, infused with robotic activities.

The study is based on a program developed by Vikram Kapila, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and it involves Sonia Mary Chacko, a recent doctoral graduate from NYU Tandon. The lead author of the study, Hye Sun You, served as a research associate in the program and is now an Assistant Professor of Science Education at Arkansas Tech University. The study proposed that a multi-week summer PD and sustained academic year follow-up imparted to the teachers the technical knowledge and skills of robotics as well as an understanding of when and how to use robotics in science and mathematics teaching.

The 41 participants of study consisted of 20 mathematics and 20 science teachers and one teacher who teaches both subjects. Three instruments were administered to the teachers during the PD, and follow-up interviews were conducted to further examine benefits and possible impacts on their teaching resulting from the PD. The data were analyzed by both statistical and qualitative methods to identify the effectiveness of the PD.

This study found the technology integration of LEGO robotics tools has the potential to enhance teaching and learning, and that thoughtful PD programs and ongoing support for teachers can provide specific and practical ways to reduce the barrier to embedding technology in educational curricula. It is expected that the PD focused on improving teachers’ knowledge level, confidence, and attitudes towards technology helps teachers overcome barriers that make it difficult to integrate technology into their instruction and ultimately, transforms the performance of students by effective use of technology. 

This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under ITEST grant DRL-1614085, RET 632 Site grant EEC-1542286, and DRK-12 grant DRL-1417769, and NY Space Grant Consortium grant 76156-10488.