Elucidation of the relationship between pain and facial expression and its application to a joint rehabilitation education support robot

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K12015
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 61050:Intelligent robotics-related
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: LEE JOOHO 立命館大学, 情報理工学部, 教授 (80366434)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 島田 伸敬 立命館大学, 情報理工学部, 教授 (10294034)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 痛み / 表情 / ロボット

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We conducted a study to model the relationship between pain and facial expressions and evaluate its effectiveness in a joint care simulation robot. We recruited participants and recorded their facial expressions, gestures, etc while applying different levels of pain using a commercially available low-frequency massage device. We manually annotated and scored the collected data. Based on the annotated information, we used a fuzzy model to model the relationship between pain and facial expressions. We also developed a program that generates CG representations of facial expressions based on the type and level of pain input. The generated CG was projected onto a display to provide visual FB. We also developed an emotion transition model to enable the robot to express diverse pain expressions by adding personality to it. Our study contributes to the development of robots that can provide effective pain management using facial expression recognition technology.

Free Research Field

ロボティクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この研究では、痛みと顔表情の関係性をモデル化する方法を提供し、関節ケアロボットにおいて痛み表現を可能にする技術の開発に貢献した。これにより、医療現場での痛みの理解や評価、治療の改善に役立ち、より実用的な関節ケアロボットの開発につながる可能性がある。