Graduation Year
2005
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.S.M.E.
Degree Granting Department
Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor
Dr. Rajiv Dubey.
Keywords
Wmra, Rehabilitation, Reconfigurable, Machine design, Adl, Assistive
Abstract
A wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (WMRA) was designed and built to meet the needs of mobility-impaired persons, and to exceed the capabilities of current devices of this type. The mechanical design incorporates DC servo drive, with all actuator hardware at each individual joint, allowing reconfigurable link lengths. It has seven principal degrees of freedom and uses a side mount on a power wheelchair. A simple, scalable control system allows coordinated Cartesian control, and offers expandability for future research, such as coordinated motion with the wheelchair itself. Design payload including gripper is 6 kg, and the total arm mass with controller is 14 kg. These and other design attributes were confirmed through testing on the completed prototype.
Scholar Commons Citation
Edwards, Kevin D., "Design, construction and testing of a wheelchair-mounted robotic arm" (2005). Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2867