Integrated control of MANUS manipulator and wheelchair enhanced by environmental docking

Abstract

Realisations and concepts are presented on the control of the MANUS wheelchair-mounted telemanipulator arm by severely disabled persons with few residual functions. Functional aspects are stressed as a basis for technical implementations, with special attention to the ergonomics of interactive control of the manipulator-wheelchair system in unstructured human environments. Adaptability of the control is accentuated, both with respect to abilities and impairments of the individual user and with respect to characteristics of the environment and the task to be executed. Some methods to improve adaptability are discussed, and the need for standard interfacing methods is underlined. Control configurations in actual daily use by persons with different severe disabilities are presented in some detail. A first implementation of integrated chin joystick control of MANUS manipulator and electric wheelchair, in daily use by a person with a C4/C5 spinal cord lesion, is reported as an example.

Smart wheelchair control through a deictic approach

“…Then, a trajectory is planned and tracked using odometer data. This approach is also used in assisting the prehension of objects by a robotic arm mounted on an electric wheelchair [23].…”

Home Service Robotics

“…serving a meal and a beverage, picking up an object from the floor, shaving, wiping a face with a wet towel, and turning on or off a switch Examples: Handy 1 robot arm [17] MANUS robot [18] KARES II robot [19] Limitations: very difficult to change its location the arm is permanently fixed on either the left-or right-hand side of the wheelchair permanently is fixed on a side of the mobile vehicle Table 1: Main concepts of service robot manipulators Feature: Home Service Robotics interaction system proposal, particularly for a service robot, is to make people feel that the robot is not a mere machine, but a reliable living assistant in the home [16] . The methodology used is multimodality recognition of the user's emotion using for example voice, dialogue and touch.…”

Evaluation of New User Interface Features for the MANUS Robot Arm

“…During the lab evaluation, the functionality of the following features were evaluated: a new method of mode switching [4], a new control mode called pilot mode [4,5,7,9], and an altered centre of rotation of the gripper [4]. These features were evaluated using healthy able-bodied subjects.…”