Low-cost Robotic System Research Articles

Validating ArmAssist Assessment as outcome measure in upper-limb post-stroke telerehabilitation.

The ArmAssist is a low-cost robotic system for post-stroke upper-limb telerehabilitation based on serious games. The system incorporates a set of games for the assessment of arm function, the ArmAssist Assessment (AAA), which allows a remote monitoring of the progress of the patient and an automatic adaptation of the therapy. In this study, different components of the AAA are compared against three widely-used clinical tests, the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) [1], the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) [2] and the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) [3] in order to select the most clinically meaningful ones for the final score provided to patients and therapist, and evaluate their capability to predict or even improve some aspects of these standard scales. All four tests were performed in 38 separate sessions in 19 post-stroke individuals in their sub-acute phase, as part of a broader study. Statistically significant correlation could be shown with the three clinical tests. These preliminary results are promising for the validation of AAA as a fast, automatic and clinically meaningful tool for remote progress assessment and therapy adaptation; however, more data and further analysis is needed to confirm this.

Development of a low cost robot system for autonomous measuring of spatial field distributions

Abstract. A new kind of a modular multi-purpose robot system is developed to measure the spatial field distributions of very large as well as of small and crowded areas. The probe is automatically placed at a number of pre-defined positions where measurements are carried out. The advantages of this system are its very low influence on the measured field as well as its wide area of possible applications. In addition, the initial costs are quite low. In this paper the theory underlying the measurement principle is explained. The accuracy is analyzed and sample measurements are presented.

Virtual Reality Based Auxiliary Robot System for Liver

During the liver intervention surgery, the excellent doctor with the help of CT image need puncture the patient several times to find the correct tumor position. Thus, the pain increases for the patient. For the problem a low-cost auxiliary robot system with the help of virtual reality technology for liver invasion surgery is introduced. The auxiliary arm can indicate the punctuation path for doctor and the virtual reality system can find the difference between the planning path of simulation and actual indication path of robot. Then the error can be compensated by modifying and updating the simulation model. Thus the system based on virtual reality is more accuracy and more effective.

Low-cost teleoperable robotic arm

A low-cost robotic arm and controller system is presented. The controller is a desktop model of the robotic arm with the same degrees of freedom whose joints are equipped with sensors. Manipulating the controller by hand causes the robotic arm to mimic the movement in master–slave fashion. This is accomplished simply and at low-cost by taking advantage of widely available hobby radio control components. The system uses the trainer (“Buddy Box”) function available on common radio control transmitters as a simple interface between microcontroller and transmitter. The microcontroller produces a time-division multiplexed signal comprising three channels in proportional pulse modulated (PPM) format. The arm design could be used for various light-duty applications and this paper describes a version fitted with a video camera. The arm prototype is designed for an under-vehicle inspection robot. In this application, the video camera mounted on the robotic arm allows inspection of difficult-to-view locations under vehicles. The master–slave operator interface provides an easy-to-learn method for robotic arm manipulation.

A robotic spectrophotometric analysis system

Abstract A low cost robotic assay system is described which is highly flexible and can handle a wide range of spectrophotometric procedures either completely automatically or incorporating manual chemistry steps. No user intervention is required between different procedures. Information on several different assays can be stored and the assays performed in sequences with no further user attention.