A Study of Human-Assist-Robot. Development of a Prototype Robot for Nursing Use.

Abstract

Human friendly robot that works not replacing human being but working cooperatively with them, are required in the 21st century. The authors developed a human friendly robot to assist human being in physical tasks, and named such kind robot as Human Assist Robot (H.A.R.) . In this report, the authors describe the development of a prototype of H.A.R. for nursing use and physical assistance applications. Since some of the hardest tasks for nurses are to carry the patient to up/down from nursing bed or wheelchairs, the prototype robot is supposed to assist physically in such kinds of tasks. Experiments were carried out to certify the ability of the prototype H.A.R. in such tasks.