An Indicating, Leading Manipulator as a Good Hand at Teaching Strokes: A Mental-Image-Creation Support System

Abstract

A mental image creation support system was developed. The mechanical device of the system is a 3-DOF manipulator that is composed of a 2-DOF quadrilateral parallel-link manipulator and an arm-end actuator. A couple of servomotors drive a couple of upper links of the 2-DOF manipulator, and they control the arm-end position. The arm-end actuator is attached to the 2-DOF manipulator’s arm-end: a servomotor controls the orientation of a knob attached to the servomotor axis. The person is assumed to pinch the knob by his/her fingertips. The position of the knob axis traces the strokes of the presented figures sequentially, and the orientation of the knob is controlled to indicate the orientation of the currently tracing point on the stroke. A couple of preeminent functions are embedded to the process: one is the indicating function, and the other is the leading function. That is, the knob indicates to the person with its orientation to which direction the arm end moves: the direction reflects the orientation of the ongoing stroke. And the translation of the knob leads the person along the strokes. The indicating/leading functions play complementary role. Thus, the person is able to perceive the position and the orientation of the strokes of presented images via somatic sensations of his/her fingertip. It is expected to be a good hand at teaching strokes and to be a visual alternative of the blind persons and a visual aid of lazy eye persons at creating mental images.