THRIVE: Therapeutic Humanoid Robot In Virtual Environment

Noosaga Placements

• Human Robot Interactionsubfield90%
  The paper focuses on a socially interactive robot therapist that provides feedback and motivation to children, which is core to human-robot interaction.
  a socially interactive robot therapistdelivers adaptive, dynamic feedback to motivate the childsocially interactive behaviors, such as speaking and gesturing
• Human Factors and Cognitive Engineeringframework80%
  The robot therapist is designed to motivate and guide children, considering human factors and cognitive engagement.
  acts as a motivational coachdelivers adaptive, dynamic feedback to motivate the child
• Roboticssubfield70%
  The system integrates robotics with AI-driven feedback and adaptive difficulty, fitting within the broader AI robotics domain.
  the THRIVE robot, which plays the role of an AI therapistadapting the difficulty level based on individual performance
• Social Robotics and Anthropomorphismframework70%
  The robot is a social companion with expressive behaviors, fitting social robotics and anthropomorphism.
  socially interactive robot therapistsocial companion, the robot’s eyes were designed with LED lights
• Learning and Adaptationframework60%
  The system adapts feedback and game difficulty based on performance, which involves learning and adaptation in HRI.
  adapting the difficulty level based on individual performanceadaptive, dynamic feedback
• Robot Learningsubfield30%
  The system uses adaptive feedback and state-machine-based interaction, but does not focus on robot learning methods.
  state-machine-based approachadaptive, dynamic feedback

Abstract

This paper presents THRIVE (Therapeutic Humanoid Robot In Virtual Environment), an at-home rehabilitation platform that integrates a suite of virtual-reality upper-body rehabilitation games, a real-time camera-based motion-tracking system, and a socially interactive robot therapist. The system is designed for therapy and intervention in children with upper-limb motor impairments, which can be improved through consistent, task-specific practice. THRIVE features a set of newly designed, engaging games that target functional reaching, grasping, and object-manipulation movements through customizable popping, hitting, catching, and grabbing tasks, while the camera-based tracking system captures the child's kinematic performance during play. A robot therapist - deployable either as a physical robotic coach or as a remote-presence virtual agent - delivers adaptive, dynamic feedback to motivate the child and guide their movements toward therapeutic goals. THRIVE decouples the therapeutic games from the robot embodiment, extending the platform to support various embodiments and different robots within one modular system. This robot-agnostic design makes THRIVE affordable, scalable, and readily adaptable for sustained use in the home, offering a practical pathway to more consistent and engaging upper-limb therapy for children with motor function impairments.

Paper Context