Outline and Scope

Physical assistant robots are “personal care robots that physically assist a user to perform required tasks by providing supplementation or augmentation of personal capabilities”. The physical assistance can be at the individual joint level or at limb(s) level and it will be typically provided by different types of ‘wearable robots’ to help with performing normal human activities such as walking, reaching, handling, etc. The assistance can be essential for normal daily living activities as we age, as well as support physically demanding tasks, such as heavy lifting, to be performed with less effort. In view of this, and the global ageing societal concerns, it is essential that assistive robot technologies are developed to meet specific needs to improve quality of life of humans at home or in work environments.

The session aims to bring together researchers and companies active in funded applied research projects in the area of wearable robots covered by ISO 13482 (non-medical applications) and IEC 80601-2-78 (medical applications), to report on the latest developments to realise the future needed technologies to meet the global ageing concerns.

 

Topics of Interest

A non-exclusive list of topics to be included in the special session is as follows:

  • Lower-body exoskeletons
  • Upper body exoskeletons
  • Full-body assistive suits
  • Gait enhancement
  • Human biomechanics
  • Safety standardisation
  • Wearable technologies
  • Compliant devices
  • Ergonomic aspects

There are also many projects and commercial activities on-going in this area and the special session will include as many as possible.

Invited contributors likely to be included from the following (to be confirmed):

R&D Projects presentations 

Company presentations

 

Submission of Papers

Contributions on modelling, simulation, control, system design and integration are also welcomed. Prospective authors are invited to prepare their papers in single-line space, single column PDF format with a cover page (with title of the paper, author(s) and title of the special session). Final accepted papers will be limited to 8 pages in length in the prescribed style format given in the paper submission page of the conference web-site (https://www.softconf.com/h/clawar2016/submit.html).

All papers will be peer reviewed, and all accepted papers (subject to registration) will be published in the conference proceedings.

A selection of presented papers will also be recommended for possible publication in reputable international journals.

 

Session Organisers

Prof. Gurvinder S. Virk,
University of Gävle, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden,
Contact Email: gurvinder DOT virk AT hig DOT se

Dr. Jan F. Veneman,
Tecnalia Research and Innovation, Spain,
Contact Email: jan DOT veneman AT tecnalia DOT com

 

CLAWAR 2016 Conference Key Submission Dates:

01 21 February 2016: Submission of Full Draft Papers [extended deadline]

14 March 2016: Notification of Paper Acceptance

15 April 2016: Submission of Final (accepted) Papers