Wheelchair Robot Workshop

The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Rehabilitation Robotics hosted a Workshop from September 27-28, 1996, the focus of which was assistive robots specifically designed to mount on wheelchairs. Invitations were extended to individuals from throughout the world who have extensive experience in the research, design, development, and evaluation of wheelchair robots. These experts tended to be associated primarily with the Manus and Helping Hand manipulators, due to their prominence as current commercial products.

The objective of the workshop was to identify key areas of success and failure in the development of wheelchair robots towards wide-spread commercial products. The observations of the workshop participants are documented in the workshop technical report (available on the ASEL www site or by contacting the lab). Note that this workshop focused sharply on wheelchair-based systems. For this reason, the information contained in the report does not include other applications of assistive robots.

Table 1 summarizes participant response to four general criteria in wheelchair mounted robots. This was then whittled down to seven pertinent areas for discussion. These areas are:

• Specification of an open architecture
• Evaluation and assessment leading to improved supporting data
• Creation of consumer demand
• Increase in functionality
• Reduction of cost
• Robustness / reliability / technical support
• Integration with wheelchair

Extended discussions were held on the first three points above. The second outcome of the workshop was identification of three action items to be carried out by smaller working groups composed of the workshop participants. These items are as follows:

• Establish internet resources.
• Create a white paper on the specification of an open architecture.
• Formulate a proposal to carry out an extensive North American study.

The outcomes and progress on the action items will be presented at the 5th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, to be held in Bath, England, in April of 1997.--Richard Mahoney and Tariq Rahman, Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories

URL of this document: http://www.asel.udel.edu/ robotics/newsletter/fallwin96/wheel.html
Last updated: February 5, 1997
Copyright © Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories, 1997.