Design of a mobile robotic arm for people with severe disabilities

Abstract

This paper presents a design of a mobile robotic arm for people with severe disabilities. The main body of the robotic arm can be contained in a laptop computer's briefcase. Its weight is only 5 kg, including two 12-V lead acid rechargeable batteries. A drinking tea task was experimentally performed by a person with muscular dystrophy. An eating task was also conducted by two able-bodied subjects. The experimental results showed that they could carry out drinking and eating tasks. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.