Feedback loops may improve control of robotic lab equipment

Lab equipment which contains robotic limbs to allow hazardous experiments to be carried out safely may be improved with feedback loops to let scientists know what sensory information the arm is experiencing.

Researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center are working on a range of limbic projects, from why some people experience uncomfortably cold hands to how paralysis patients can be given better functioning prosthetics.

They have discovered in tests on monkeys that giving robotic-arm users more information about the position of the limb can significantly improve its control.

Such discoveries could help to raise control levels in laboratories, where robotic lab equipment may currently be adjusted by sight only.

When monkeys were tasked with controlling a cursor on a screen using a robotic arm, feedback loops raised their performance levels by 40 per cent.

They were able to hit targets faster, as well as taking more direct routes to the desired area of the screen than without a sensitive exoskeletal device.