Biosignal-based relaxation evaluation of head-care robot

Abstract

Such popular head care procedures as shampooing and scalp massages provide physical and mental relaxation. However, they place a big burden such as chapped hands on beauticians and other practitioners. Based on our robot hand technology, we have been developing a head care robot. In this paper, we quantitatively evaluated its relaxation effect using the following biosignals: accelerated plethymography (SDNN, HF/TP, LF/HF), heart rate (HR), blood pressure, salivary amylase (sAA) and peripheral skin temperature (PST). We compared the relaxation of our developed head care robot with the head care provided by nurses. In our experimental result with 54 subjects, the activity of the autonomic nerve system changed before and after head care procedures performed by both a human nurse and our proposed robot. Especially, in the proposed robot, we confirmed significant differences with the procedure performed by our proposed head care robot in five indexes: HF/TP, LF/HF, HR, sAA, and PST. The activity of the sympathetic nerve system decreased, because the values of its indexes significantly decreased: LF/HF, HR, and sAA. On the other hand, the activity of the parasympathetic nerve system increased, because of the increase of its indexes value: HF/TP and PST. Our developed head care robot provided satisfactory relaxation in just five minutes of use.

Robotics in Massage: A Systematic Review

“…Fifteen preliminary studies, along with one quasi-experimental, and one randomized controlled trial study, involving a total of 841 adults, comprising 621 healthy volunteers and 220 patients, were included in this review. Geographically, these studies were conducted in various regions: Japan (10 studies), 7 – 16 China (2 studies), 17 , 18 Taiwan (2 studies), 19 , 20 and individual studies in New Zealand, 21 Vietnam, 22 and Spain. 23 Of the 17 studies, five studies 11 , 13 , 16 – 18 did not specify participants’ age and gender.…”

“…The massage was applied to various focal points, including the oral ( n = 9, 53%), 7 , 8 , 10 – 16 head ( n = 3, 18%), 9 , 21 , 22 shoulder ( n = 1, 6%), 20 lower back ( n = 3, 18%), 17 , 18 , 23 and full body ( n = 1, 6%). 19 Massage treatments were administered to both healthy volunteers 9 , 11 , 13 , 16 , 17 , 21 , 22 and individuals with various conditions such as temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction associated with myofascial pain, 7 , 8 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 15 muscular fatigue, 20 anxiety during menopause, 19 and lower back pain. 18 , 23 These interventions were administered over differing timeframes.…”

“…Safety considerations were not addressed in the remaining studies. Approximately 59% of the studies received applicable ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board 7 – 9 , 11 – 15 , 21 , 23 or acquired informed consent from participants. 7 – 9 , 14 , 15 , 19 , 21 , 23 …”

An intelligent control system for robot massaging with uncertain skin characteristics

“…When robots are performing massage applications, the end effector of the robot contacts with a certain area (position) of human skin, and contact force are usually required to be controlled at a suitable level (Huang et al , 2014; Luo et al , 2014; Wen et al , 2019; Dometios et al , 2018; Ando et al , 2013). Impedance control, as a compliance control of force and position, has been applied in massage, physiotherapy and other industries (Luo et al , 2016; Luo and Hsieh, 2018; Li et al , 2020).…”

Localized pressure stimulation using turf‐like structures can improve skin perfusion in the foot

“…Scalp massage with localized pressure points has been identified as a method to increase blood perfusion . Therefore, similar biomechanical mechanism may contribute to increase the blood perfusion in the plantar soft tissue.…”