Scientists from the University of Ulster and the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur have teamed up to investigate how to develop intelligent robotic devices to help people with severe disabilities achieve greater independence.
The project involves researchers from Ulster’s Intelligent Systems Research Centre on its Magee campus in Londonderry, and scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology.
The three-year project is jointly funded by the Indian and UK Governments under the prestigious UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). UKIERI grant-aids collaborative projects between higher educational institutions in the UK and India.
Dr. Girijesh Prasad, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, who leads the project team, said:
“Thousands of people suffering from neuro-muscular disabilities such as motor neurone disease (MND) and spinal cord injury (SCI), may be completely paralysed.
"While these people have all their senses intact to see, feel and dream, they may have no means of communicating with the external world at all. In order to provide greater independence to such people, the project aims to investigate intelligent systems that facilitate development of a low-cost assistive robotic device.”
The main project objectives are to investigate: