Development of a head robot with facial expression for training on neurological disorders

Neurological examinations are among the most important clinical skills to identify disorders in the neurological system at early stages. Training on neurological examination for inexperienced doctors plays an important role in improving accuracy of diagnosis. Such training programs have been conducted until now using physical simulators or simulated patients (SPs). However, conventional simulators can simulate only facial features of patients and not their responses or motions. SP cannot simulate them either. We have therefore been developing a whole-body patient robot named WKP(Waseda Kyotokagaku Patient robot) for training on neurological examination. The main advantage of WKP over conventional simulators and SPs is its ability to simulate motions and responses of patients having disorders in their neurological systems. We then developed a head humanoid with facial expression for training on neurological disorders as a part of WKP. This humanoid is equipped with 21 degrees of freedom; it has 2 liquid crystal panels with lenses, and simulates facial movements with imitating the wrinkles and eyeball movements of patients with disorders in their cranial nerves. We then performed a set of experiments to validate the head humanoid. The main focus of this paper is on mechanical design and performance verification of the head humanoid.