An upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot with task-oriented perception-assist

Abstract

Many kinds of power-assist exoskeleton robots have been developed to assist the motion in rehabilitation and daily living of physically weak persons. A method of perception-assist has been proposed to assist not only user's motion but also the interaction with an environment, by applying the modification force to the user's motion if it is necessary. In this paper, task-oriented perception-assist is proposed to assist the daily task of physically weak persons with an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot. The performing task is estimated by grasping tool in the proposed method. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been evaluated by performing experiments.