| Volume 27 Issue 2 - Publication Date: 1 February 2008 |
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| Design, Control and Performance of RiceWrist: A Force FeedbackWrist Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation and Training |
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| Abhishek Gupta,
Marcia K. O’Malley Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA, Volkan Patoglu Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Sabanc University, Tuzla, Istanbul 34956, Turkey, and Charles Burgar, MD CTVHCS, Temple, TX 76504, USA |
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| This paper presents the design, control and performance of a high
fidelity four degree-of-freedom wrist exoskeleton robot, RiceWrist,
for training and rehabilitation. The RiceWrist is intended to provide
kinesthetic feedback during the training of motor skills or rehabilitation
of reaching movements.Motivation for such applications is based
on findings that show robot-assisted physical therapy aids in the rehabilitation
process following neurological injuries. The exoskeleton
device accommodates forearm supination and pronation, wrist flexion
and extension and radial and ulnar deviation in a compact parallel
mechanism design with low friction, zero backlash and high stiffness.
As compared to other exoskeleton devices, the RiceWrist allows easy
measurement of human joint angles and independent kinesthetic feedback
to individual human joints. In this paper, joint-space as well as
task-space position controllers and an impedance-based force controller
for the device are presented. The kinematic performance of the
device is characterized in terms of its workspace, singularities, manipulability,
backlash and backdrivability. The dynamic performance
of RiceWrist is characterized in terms of motor torque output, joint
friction, step responses, behavior under closed loop set-point and trajectory
tracking control and display of virtual walls. The device is
singularity-free, encompasses most of the natural workspace of the
human joints and exhibits low friction, zero-backlash and high manipulability,
which are kinematic properties that characterize a highquality
impedance display device. In addition, the device displays fast, accurate response under position control that matches human
actuation bandwidth and the capability to display sufficiently hard
contact with little coupling between controlled degrees-of-freedom. |
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Example
1: Modes of the MIME-RiceWrist
Rehabilitation Setup. (6.52 MB) avi |
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