2. 1) Introduction
2) Biorobotics & research
3) Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease
4) DDX system
5) Technical Architecture
6) Improvement : Daphne system
7) Applications, Advantages and Disadvantages
8) Conclusion

3. BRINGING BIOLOGY AND ROBOTICS TOGETHER…
 Making robots that emulate and stimulate
living biological organisms mechanically or
even chemically.
 Application of biological ideas to address
technological problems.
 Application of robotics to solve problems
regarding biology and medicine.

4. EUROMOTOR ISEASES
 MNDs are a group of progressive neurological disorders that
destroy motor neurons, the cells that control essential
voluntary muscle activity such as speaking, walking,
breathing, and swallowing.
 Some MNDs are inherited, but the causes of most MNDs are
not known.
 There is no cure or standard treatment for the MNDs.
 EX : Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Progressive muscular
atrophy (PMA)

5.  Disease Detector (DDX), portable equipment with detection
of response time and psychophysical conditions in normal
and exceptional environments.
 a simple joystick with a few buttons, an LCD display and a
simple interface for remote communication of diagnosis.

6. CONTD …
 The external effects require
1) the response to sounds,
2) a soft touch of a button,
3) by pronouncing a word,
4) the touch of the finger in front of a virtual reality
drawing of the finger itself.
 Fuzzy Logic is exploited in order to obtain an intelligent and
reliable detector.
 three basic parameters (reaction, speed and force) are
acquired.

7.  Eccles - recognition of the behavior of the brain control
circuits.
 Analogue concepts developed by Searle and Richards
represent fundamental steps to recognize how much the
robotic systems are helping in the simulation of brain
activity.
 some of the scientific developments linked to biology and
Biorobotics: activation of neuron circuits, recovery of
damaged neuromotor functions, etc.

8. CONTD …

9.  Parkinson's disease is a progressive, degenerative
neurological movement disorder that affects approximately
10 million people world wide.
 Parkinson's disease occurs when the nerve cells in the brain
that make dopamine are slowly destroyed.
 Primary symptoms : Tremor, Rigidity, Postural Instability,
Bradykinesia.
 An estimated seven to 10 million people worldwide are living
with Parkinson's disease.

10.  Causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.
 Symptom : difficulty in remembering
newly learned information.
 Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading
cause of death in the United States
and the 5th leading cause of death for
those aged 65 and older.

11. DDX SYSTEM
 It is used for a soft touch. The person looks at the screen
and reads words of warning and of start. In the same time,
a sound, like a beep, gives the start signal.
 The person must press softly the button with index fingre,
with right or left hand.
 The tremor before and during the pressure on the button is
measured by a switch which detects oscillations of the
hand.

13. contd …
 Button push
1) Fast protocol
2) Virtual protocol
 Vocal Articulation
1) Fast reading
2) Delayed reading
 Result analysis and presentation with fuzzy
logic

14.  Parameters are acquired from the button.
 tremor sensor - measures vibrations of the wrist of
the hand.
 Processor -> Buzzer -> timer starts->sampling ->
sends another impulse to the buzzer -> variable tj -
> patient will press the push button -> variable ti,
variable tf -> The speed of patient motion can be
calculated from these times.
 pressure is calculated using a simple circuit .

16.  Reduced dimension and an hardware &
user-friendly software.
 The system can be used not only in
medical field, but also in the daily
health and sport field.
 Parameters cosidered : reaction time,
speed, tremor, force and ability of
coordination and synchronization.
 Test protocol
 Results analysis : IPF

17.  Experimental tests done on subject affected
from Parkinson’s.
 Experimental tests done on subjects
belonging to the sport field.
 Tests in the professional field: Ferrari Race.

18. contd …

19.  This device is very small and portable device.
 User-friendly machine.
 It is like a mobile phone, with more efficient
diagnostic results.
 The ability to hold the joystick with a single hand is
the fundamental aspect of this system.
 A person’s state of health may be tested daily.

20. contd …
 It also provides the ability of transferring diagnosis
through a remote communication interface in order
to monitor daily the state of health of a patient.
 The system is an intelligent-machine based on soft
computing techniques.
 Its efficiency can be improved considering more
example for membership function calibration or,
moreover, improving the response correctness by
using a self learning technique.

21.  The DDX control system consists of a small board
with an internal fuzzy logic. It is clear that the main
disadvantage of such circuit switched networks is
that they are not able to adequately cope with
highly variable traffic.

22.  The system is an intelligent biorobotic system based on soft
computing techniques and, as such, its efficiency maybe
improved via extended function calibration or by improving
response correctness with self-learning techniques.
 Daphne device allows to obtain a quantitative and exact
measure of the neuromotor health condition of a person
and of it reflects very well the psychological condition.
 The application to the diagnosis of the Parkinson’s disease
was the first result of this system.

23.  Rovetta , A. Cucè , D. Platania ,C. Solenghi,” New equipment for
the detection of the neuromotor diseases and efficiencies in the
motion control”.
 Eduardo Tolosa, Gregor Wenning, Werner Poewe, “The diagnosis
of Parkinson’s disease”,2006.
 W. Richards, “Natural Computation”, Mit Press,1998
 http://sitesearch.alz.org
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0049051/
 http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/motor_neuron_diseases/
 http://www.emedicinehealth.com/
 www.alz.org/gmc

24. 

26. THANK
YOU ;)