An Adaptive Robot for Sports and Rehabilitation Coaching

This PhD project aims to explore how, and to what extent, an adaptive robotic coach has the potential to provide extra motivation to adhere to long-term rehabilitation and help fill the coaching gap which occurs during repetitive solo practice in high performance sport. Adapting the behavior of a social robot to a specific user, using reinforcement learning (RL), could be a way of increasing adherence to an exercise routine in both domains.

The requirements gathering phase is underway with systematic observations being conducted with professional squash coaches and rehabilitation physiotherapists. A semi-structured interview study with the same group is planned before the development of the RL algorithm.

This work is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Start Date: 10/09/18