Abstract
Robotics to support elderly people in living independently and to assist disabled people in carrying out the activities of daily living independently have demonstrated good results. Basically, there are two approaches: one of them is based on mobile robot assistants, such as Care-O-bot, PR2, and Tiago, among others; the other one is the use of an external robotic arm or a robotic exoskeleton fixed or mounted on a wheelchair. In this paper, a modular mobile robotic platform to assist moderately and severely impaired people based on an upper limb robotic exoskeleton mounted on a robotized wheel chair is presented. This mobile robotic platform can be customized for each user’s needs by exploiting its modularity. Finally, experimental results in a simulated home environment with a living room and a kitchen area, in order to simulate the interaction of the user with different elements of a home, are presented. In this experiment, a subject suffering from multiple sclerosis performed different activities of daily living (ADLs) using the platform in front of a group of clinicians composed of nurses, doctors, and occupational therapists. After that, the subject and the clinicians replied to a usability questionnaire. The results were quite good, but two key factors arose that need to be improved: the complexity and the cumbersome aspect of the platform.
Highlights
There is evidence that early and intensive rehabilitation therapies are associated with better functional gains in patients with acquired brain damage [1]
There are two kinds of assistive robotic devices: one of them is based on mobile robot assistants, such as Care-O-bot, PR2, and Tiago, among others; the other one is based on the use of an external robotic arm or a robotic exoskeleton fixed or mounted on a wheelchair
As mentioned above, the system developed was validated in different experiments that allowed improving the robotic device, and the control and the different user interfaces
Summary
There is evidence that early and intensive rehabilitation therapies are associated with better functional gains in patients with acquired brain damage [1]. There are some motor functions that cannot be recovered In this case, assistive robotics have shown good results in assisting patients with acquired brain damage in performing activities of daily living and/or in supporting elderly people in staying active, socially connected, and living independently. There is another approach based on the use of: (i) an external robotic arm fixed or mounted on a wheelchair; or (ii) an exoskeleton robotic device. JACO and iARM are two of the most popular external robotic arms fixed or mounted on wheelchairs Both robotic arms were designed to be mounted on a user’s motorized wheelchair; they have six degrees of freedom and can reach objects at a distance of 90 cm [5]. On the other hand, dressing, toilet use, transfer, wheelchair control, moving nearby items, and handling food have shown high demand for the necessity of upper limb exoskeletons. Meng et al presented a mobile robotic exoskeleton with six degrees of freedom (DOFs) based on a wheelchair [9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
