PhD Position F/M DIGital Tools for accompaniment for Sport for people with disabilities

Wheelchair sports such as soccer, basketball are becoming increasingly popular for athletes with disabilities. In France, the perspective of the 2024 Paralympic Games highlights these sporting disciplines that nowadays appear much more accessible. Sport plays an important role in the well-being of individuals: it is known to improve the self-esteem and the autonomy of people with disabilities, as well as the social inclusion [1]. Practising sport has also a positive impact on rehabilitation and motivation.

The proposed PhD aims then to offer technological tools to improve performances of users of power wheelchairs: analysis of sessions, training aid, rehabilitation tools through sport. To this aim, we propose to design solutions compatible with the virtual reality power wheelchair simulator developed at INSA Rennes as part of the European Interreg ADAPT project. Simulators have already been proven to be efficient in the context of rehabilitation [2] [3] and we want to extend the study of the possibilities offered by these platforms to sport situations. Concretely, our project seeks to play virtual or acquired soccer game scenarios on the simulator for training and rehabilitation sessions. Thus, the idea is to be able to replay game sequences for the analysis and improvement of individual performances.

To do this, it is necessary to detect the static and dynamic elements of the environment and to locate them relatively to the wheelchair. Several kinds of system acquisition will be considered such as motion capture systems in order to provide motion models for virtual scenarios. To get information from all players during a match in a collective game, it is necessary to also consider vision to detect players, ball and equipment. It will be also required to add vision sensors on the wheelchair when possible to get the point of view of the player for feedback. The robustness of the solution with respect to the vibrations of the chair in action should be evaluated.

everyday life and have a different design.

This work is funded by EUR Digisport and will enable to validate strong scientific knowledge on computer vision and robotic on a societal issue. It allies theoritical and practical skills to be evaluated by simulation and experimentations.

Bibliography:

[1] : "De la physique à la pratique physique : la promotion du sport chez les personnes en situation de handicap", Lemahieu Laura, Thèse de doctorat dirigée par Géminard Jean-Christophe, Lyon 2020

[2] : "A meta-analysis and systematic literature review of virtual reality rehabilitation programs", Matt C. Howard, Computers in Human Behavior, vol70, pp 317 – 327, 2017

[3] « ViEW, a wheelchair simulator for driving analysis »,Y. Morere, G. Bourhis, K. Cosnuau, G. Guilmois, E. Rumilly, and E. Blangy. . In Assistive Technology , pages 1–11. Taylor & Francis, 2018

[Olivier12] « Minimal predicted distance: A common metric for collision avoidance during pairwise interactions between walkers »,Olivier, A. H., Marin, A., Crétual, A., & Pettré, Gait & posture, 36(3), 399-404,2012

[Cao19] « OpenPose: Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation using Part Affinity Fields », Z. Cao and G. Hidalgo Martinez and T. Simon and S. Wei

Collaboration:

The thesis will be conducted within a multidisciplinary team combining skills in robotics, image analysis, virtual reality, haptics, mechanics and electronics, and will be based on the recommendations and clinical expertise of the Pôle Saint Hélier. The recruited person will be in close connection with a local team of soccer players with powered wheelchairs (Handisport Rennes Club).

Supervision:

Muriel Pressigout - [email protected]

Sylvain Guégan - [email protected]

Marie Babel - [email protected]