Eye-Gaze Control of a Wheelchair Mounted 6DOF Assistive Robot for Activities of Daily Living

Abstract

Abstract Background: Building control architecture that balances the assistive manipulation systems with the benefits of direct human control is a crucial challenge of human-robot collaboration. It promises to help people with disabilities more efficiently control wheelchair and wheelchair-mounted robot arms to accomplish activities of daily living. Methods: In this paper, our research objective is to design an eye-tracking assistive robot control system capable of providing targeted engagement and motivating individuals with a disability to use the developed method for self-assistance activities of daily living. The graphical user interface is designed and integrated with the developed control architecture to achieve the goal. Results: We evaluated the system by conducting a user study. Ten healthy participants performed five trials of three manipulation tasks using the graphical user interface and the developed control framework. The 100% success rate on task performance demonstrates the effectiveness of our system for individuals with motor impairments to control wheelchair and wheelchair-mounted assistive robotic manipulators. Conclusions: We demonstrated the usability of using this eye-gaze system to control robotic arm mounted on wheelchair in activities of daily living for the people with disabilities. We found high levels of acceptance with higher ratings in evaluation of the system with healthy participants. Trial registration: Not applicable.