Meal-assistance robot operated by head movement

Abstract

The number of crippled people is growing in Japan. They are facing many kinds of difficulties in their daily lives. Especially, it is even difficult in having meals for upper-limb-crippled people. They need system which is able to help them in having meals. There are already several types of robots for meal assist with interface operated with hand originally. The upper-limb-crippled people needs interface with simple operation. Therefore, in this paper a meal assistance robot with maneuverable interface with head movement is proposed for upper-limbcrippled people. The head movement is designed to be detected by a Kinect sensor connected to control unit based on Raspberry Pi. In addition, the proposed robot with orthogonal structure, that offers simple and stable motions, is able to provide foods to users smoothly. Thus, the system in compact size can complete the food providing effectively.