Assistive Robotics

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Overview

Assistive robotics studies how robots and wearable devices can help people with disabilities, older adults, and patients perform tasks and participate more independently. Approaches include prostheses and exoskeletons controlled by biosignals or learned policies, shared-autonomy systems for manipulation and navigation, and social robots for therapy and care. Systems are tested in simulations, laboratory tasks, clinical or home settings, and user studies that measure safety, task success, physical effort, workload, and user experience. A central challenge is balancing useful autonomy with user agency and safety while making assistance both personalized and reliable across people, tasks, and real-world environments.

Latest papers

CardsList

208 papers27 papers in the last four weeks, down 16% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

  1. A Multi-Layer Navigation System for Smart Wheelchairs with a Limited Input Interface

    Oct 28, 2026Piero Simonetto, Anna Polato, Francesco Pasti +6Robot NavigationSafe Robot Navigation

    Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Italy · Ca’ Foscari University of Venice · European Centre for Living Technology +1

  2. EgoThumb: A Vision-Driven Supernumerary Robotic Thumb for Autonomous Grasp and Holding Assistance

    Oct 27, 2026Jianyu Hou, Jiawei Fu, Weikang Wan +3Robotic Hand DesignAssistive Robotics

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. · Sudo AI GmbH, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland.

  3. Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning of Co-Adaptive Hip Exoskeleton Control (MARL-Exo) for Metabolic Energy Reduction

    Oct 27, 2026Yifei Yuan, Jakob Wolf, Ghaith Androwis +1Hip Exoskeleton ControlAssistive Robotics

    Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA · Kessler Foundation, West Orange, NJ 07052, USA

  4. Whole-Body Motion Guided Reference Generation for Uncertainty-Aware Compliant Assistance

    Oct 22, 2026Muyuan Ma, Long Cheng, Lijun Han +5Assistive RoboticsRobot Motion Generation

  5. Navigating human-robot interaction challenges in private and residential aged care homes

    Oct 22, 2026David Ahmedt-Aristizabal, Mohammad Ali Armin, Akila Pemasiri +4Human-Robot InteractionHealthcare Robotics

    CSIRO, Imaging and Computer Vision Group, Canberra, Australia · Queensland University of Technology, School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics, Signal Processing, Artificial Intelligence and Vision Technologies (SAIVT Lab), Brisbane, Australia · CSIRO, Australian e-Health Research Centre, Sydney, Australia +1

  6. A Transparent 3-DoF Assistive Device for Upper-Limb Tremor and Ataxia Compensation: Design and Experimental Validation

    Oct 22, 2026Thomas Dobosz, Veronika Hofmann, Ahmed Barhoma +12Assistive RoboticsRobotic Control

    Institute of Industrial Manufacturing and Management, University of Stuttgart, Germany · Biomechatronic Systems, Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart, Germany · Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tubingen, Germany +3

  7. Extending Affordance Segmentation for Wearable Robots to Multi-Object Images

    Oct 21, 2026Simone Lugani, Matteo Montani, Paolo Gastaldo +2Robotic Affordance InferenceRobotic Grasping

    DITEN, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

  8. Visual Task Modeling and Automated Planning for Humanoid Robots in Education of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Oct 19, 2026Lada KudláčkováRobot Task PlanningAssistive Robotics

    Department of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematical Logic Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Prague, Czech Republic

  9. ChairNav: Cross-Embodiment Pre-training and Personalization for Long-Horizon Wheelchair Navigation

    Oct 15, 2026Junhua Huang, Zhizheng Liu, Honglin He +2Robot NavigationAssistive Robotics

    University of California, Los Angeles · Louisiana State University

  10. A Flow-Theoretic Multimodal Control Framework Fusing Mental and Physical Engagement for Upper-Limb Rehabilitation

    Oct 15, 2026Jun Leng, Pengcheng Li, Hanze Wang +2Assistive RoboticsContinuous Control

    Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China · Aerospace Center Hospital, School of Life Science, and the Key Laboratory of Convergence Medical Engineering System and Healthcare Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

  11. Attribution-Gated Joint Estimation of Intention and Capability for Assist-as-Needed Upper-Limb Robots

    Oct 15, 2026Pengcheng Li, Shuxiang Guo, Hanze Wang +3Assistive RoboticsContinuous Control

    Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China · Aerospace Center Hospital, School of Life Science, and the Key Laboratory of Convergence Medical Engineering System and Healthcare Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China · Department of Peripheral Vascular Intervention, Aerospace Center Hospital, School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

  12. CarryOn: A Dual-Loop Harness for Personalized and Reliable Robot Assistance

    Oct 15, 2026Zixuan Wang, Yuqi Liu, Yuxin Chen +7Assistive RoboticsRobot Safety

    HKUST · CUHK · SmartMore

  13. An Agentic Framework for Proactive Robots with Procedural Assistance Memory

    Oct 15, 2026Dohyun Lee, Minho Park, Jeonghoon Park +5Proactive AssistanceAssistive Robotics

    KAIST AI

  14. A Mode-Unified, Continuous, and Biomimetic Control Strategy of a Robotic Lower Limb Prosthesis

    Oct 13, 2026Hanjun Kim, Sixu Zhou, John Shim +3Robotic ControlAssistive Robotics

    Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405 USA · Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405 and with the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405 USA

  15. Learning Robot Policies for Whole-Body Mobility Assistance via Dynamic Human Motion Generation

    Oct 13, 2026Shikun Ban, Shohei Nagai, Qingyang Song +4Assistive RoboticsRobot Imitation Learning

    The Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, USA · Intuitive Autonomy San Jose, USA

  16. HelpMeOut: A Neuropsychology-Grounded Benchmark for Error-Aware Monitoring of Household Task Execution

    Oct 13, 2026Haoran Wang, Jingwei Huang, Anqing Duan +2AI Agent MonitoringAI Agent Benchmarks

    University of Auckland, New Zealand · MBZUAI, United Arab Emirates

  17. FallGown: A Soft Pneumatic Wearable Device for Fall Prevention

    Oct 8, 2026Megan C. Coram, Haoran Lei, Steven H. Collins +4Pneumatic ActuationAssistive Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA. · General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

  18. COOL: Curiosity-Driven Object Ownership Learning for Personalized Robotic Assistance

    Oct 7, 2026Samira Huber, Ruben Hammele, Sören PirkRobot LearningService Robotics

    Department of Computer Science, Kiel University, Germany

  19. A Unified Kinematic Representation Enables Reusable Biological Joint Moment Estimation

    Oct 6, 2026Jinwoo Hwang, Ilseung Park, Changseob Song +3Assistive Robotics

    Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

  20. Proactive Robot Assistance via Event-Driven Reasoning over State Changes

    Oct 6, 2026Fengkai Liu, Hao Su, Haozhuang Chi +6Human-Robot CollaborationVLM Reasoning

    The University of Osaka · Nanyang Technological University · The University of Tokyo

  21. Bi-manual Stabilization of the Cervical Spine for Safe Physical Human-Robot Interaction in Rolling Maneuvers

    Oct 3, 2026Elizabeth Peiros, Moira Bohley, Lucas Yager +6Human-Robot InteractionAssistive Robotics

    Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA · Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA · Columbia University Irving Medical Center, National Outdoor Leadership School Wilderness Medicine Institute

  22. Physical Twins: Accelerating and Enabling Robot Learning with Phantom Platforms

    Oct 3, 2026Elizabeth Peiros, Derek Chen, Lucas Yager +4Human-Robot InteractionRobot Learning

    Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA · Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA

  23. A Biomimetic Gaze Control to Restore Head-Neck Movements

    Oct 2, 2026Colin Rubow, Haohan ZhangAssistive RoboticsEye Tracking

    Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. · Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.

  24. Lightweight and Resource-Efficient Perception for Robotic Guide Dogs

    Oct 2, 2026Jinse Kwon, Yoojin Lim, Choonghan Lee +3Camera-LiDAR FusionAssistive Robotics

    Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea · School of Computer Science and Engineering, Pusan National University, Korea · Division of Electronics and Information Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Korea

  25. Subject-Specific Predictive Musculoskeletal Simulations of Lower-Limb Exoskeleton Assistance: Metabolic and Biomechanical Effects of Joint Assistance Strategies

    Oct 2, 2026Neethan Ratnakumar, Mariya Tohfafarosh, Xianlian ZhouEnergy-Efficient Robot LocomotionUpper-Limb Exoskeletons

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka · Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, 07102, USA

  26. Towards Physical Underwater Robotic Assistance for Scuba Diver Movement in Confined Spaces

    Oct 1, 2026Demetrious T. Kutzke, Junaed SattarRoboticsUnderwater Robotics

  27. ShowerFlex: Achieving Pseudo-Static Balancing in a Continuum Shower Hose

    Oct 1, 2026Zhiyu Ren, Girish KrishnanMechanism DesignAssistive Robotics

    Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61801

  28. General Performance Guarantee for Human Torque Estimation-Based Task-Agnostic Assistive Exoskeleton Control

    Sep 30, 2026Duy Hoang, Bastien Berret, Olivier Bruneau +1Robotic ControlHip Exoskeleton Control

    Universit´e Paris-Saclay, CNRS, ENS Paris-Saclay, LMF, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France · Universit´e Paris-Saclay, Inria, CIAMS, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France · Universit´e Paris-Saclay, ENS Paris-Saclay, LURPA, 91190 Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

  29. AIfred: Augmented Learning through Functional Robotic Embodiment at the Desk

    Sep 30, 2026Gregorio Orlando, Milan Groshev, Eduardo Castelló FerrerGenerative AI in EducationAssistive Robotics

    CyPhy Life, Robotics & AI Lab, School of Science & Technology, IE University, Spain

  30. TALK-Dem: Benchmarking Embodied Task Planning under Dementia-Associated Communication Patterns

    Sep 29, 2026Guangxin Zhao, Yiran Hu, Yuan Cao +7Large Language Model-Based Robot PlanningRobot Task Planning

    University of Notre Dame · Nanyang Technological University · Tohoku University