Kinematic Analysis and Evaluation of Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arms

Abstract

There has been significant progress in bringing commercially-viable wheelchair mounted robotic arms (WMRA) into the marketplace in the past 30 years. This paper focuses on kinematic analysis and evaluation of such robotic arms. It addresses the kinematics of the WMRA with respect to its ability to reach common positions while performing activities of daily living (ADL). A procedure is developed for the kinematic analysis and evaluation of a wheelchair mounted robotic arm. In addition to developing the analytical procedure, the manipulator is evaluated, and design recommendations and insights are obtained. Current commercially-available wheelchair mountable robotic manipulators have been designed specifically for use in rehabilitation robotics. In an effort to evaluate two commercial manipulators, the procedure for kinematic analysis is applied to each manipulator. Design recommendations with regard to each device are obtained. This method will benefit the researchers by providing a standardized procedure for kinematic analysis of WMRAs that is capable of evaluating independent designs.

Kinematic performance enhancement of wheelchair-mounted robotic arm by adding a linear drive

“…For any ADL, the average normalized manipulability index of all possible wheelchair orientations that could achieve the task and qualitative evaluation have been presented in studies [6,18,19]. The normalized manipulability index was generally good, except for access to low kitchen shelf.…”