A virtual trainer concept for robot-assisted human motor learning in rowing

Abstract

Keeping the attention level and observing multiple physiological and biomechanical variables at the same time at high precision is very challenging for human trainers. Concurrent augmented feedback, which is suggested to enhance motor learning in complex motor tasks, can also hardly be provided by a human trainer. Thus, in this paper, a concept for a virtual trainer is presented that may overcome the limits of a human trainer. The intended virtual trainer will be implemented in a CAVE providing auditory, visual and haptic cues. As a first application, the virtual trainer will be used in a realistic scenario for sweep rowing. To provide individual feedback to each rower, the virtual trainer quantifies errors and provides concurrent auditory, visual, and haptic feedback. The concurrent feedback will be adapted according to the actual performance, individual maximal rowing velocity, and the athlete's individual perception.

Beyond Cognitive and Affective Issues: Designing Smart Learning Environments for Psychomotor Personalized Learning

“…tangibREC approach relies on an exoskeleton that is coupled to the learner's body part to provide the haptic guidance. However, this guidance can also be applied (when available) using tendon-based parallel robots connected to the objects used by the learner when training the motor skills, such as the oar (Rauter et al, 2011) or the racket (Marchal-Crespo, Raai, Rauter, Wolf, & Riener, 2013).…”

Design sensitivities for interactive sport-training games

“…The work covers a multitude of different sports, from snowboarding [34] to karate [37], rowing [28,30], swimming [3], football [29], handball [22], cricket [17] and golf [33], just to mention a few. The commonality, between the multitudes of systems that has been developed, is the aim to improve the skill performance within the specific sport.…”

Motor learning in a mixed reality environment

“…ACM 978-1-4503-1482-4/12/10. task of rowing [7]. The rowing trainer measures physiological parameters of its user, classifies movement errors, and provides auditory, haptic, and visual feedback.…”

“…A 2D rectangle representation of the arm and marker reduced interference in the motor learning task of object grasp. Our work draws on elements of these projects [2,4,5,7].…”