Control and Analysis of a Therapeutic Massage Robot: A Milestone of Human-Robot in Physical Contact

Abstract

A therapeutic massage robot is developed and used to perform therapeutic massage. Impedance control in Cartesian spaces is properly designed to realize different massage techniques. To evaluate the feelings of relaxation for those subjects being massaged with more quantitative index, electrocardiography (ECG) of subjects is measured before and after massage manipulation. The features of heart rate variability (HRV), including mean HR, SDNN, RMSSD and pNN50, are extracted and analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of robotic massage. Comparison between robotic massage and massage by therapist is conducted in the experiments. According to the experimental results, mean HR decreases, whereas SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50 increase. HRV increased in both massage groups, showing the relaxation trend after robotic massage. The result gives a scientific clue that therapeutic massage is feasible to realize on a robotic massage robot.