Bi-manual Stabilization of the Cervical Spine for Safe Physical Human-Robot Interaction in Rolling Maneuvers
Elizabeth Peiros, Moira Bohley, Lucas Yager, Derek Chen, Rebecca Fellbaum, Chris D'Ambrosia, Ananya Rao, Xiao Liang, Michael C. Yip · N/A · 2026
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Summary
The neck, specifically the cervical spine, is a highly fragile and mobile part of the body with a high risk of catastrophic injury.
Abstract Summary
Key Points
- The neck, specifically the cervical spine, is a highly fragile and mobile part of the body with a high risk of catastrophic injury.
- Whether someone is injured on a battlefield, in a natural disaster, or in an athletic event, great care is always taken with the cervical spine when transporting, rolling, or moving the patient.
- In this work, we present an algorithm and adaptations for bi-manual robots to stabilize the cervical spine during rolling maneuvers.
- We investigate techniques to maximize grip strength within safety bounds and present a control approach for proper neck rotation.
- We found that with our approach, a bi-manual robot is capable of achieving human-level performance in maintaining target rotational alignments.
Methods
The overall method is broken down into sub-tasks which are completed in the following sequence. The head-mounted camera on the bimanual robotic platform locates two ArUco markers: one attached to the casualty head and one attached to the casualty torso. The robot records the location of the head marker relative to the robot’s base frame.
The robot runs a planning algorithm with the goal of moving its hands such that each hand is on either side of the head.
Experiments and Results
We placed heavy emphasis on safety metrics to evaluate the algorithm’s performance and the platform’s ability to execute this task. To compare robotic execution with human capabilities, we compared the robot’s safety metrics and responses with human experience, including novices and top performers, or ”experts”. The tasks require hardware capable of tracking a head and torso, grasping a head, and rotating it.
Sources and Demonstrations
Figures are reproduced from Peiros et al. See the full paper for experimental details and the project page, when the paper links one, for demonstrations and videos.
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