Meal Assistance Robot with Blink Operation Interface

Abstract

The number of people with disabilities is growing in Japan. They are facing many kinds of difficulties in their daily lives (1,2) . Especially, for the people with upper limb disabilities, it is even difficult in having meals by themselves. The systems which are able to help them in having meals are expected. There are already several types of assistant robots which are operated with joysticks or touch sensors. However, people with upper limb disabilities can barely operate the robots with full functions. Therefore, a maneuverable meal assistance robot which is easy to operate with an eye-interface is proposed for people with upper limb disabilities. The proposed robot with orthogonal structure, that offers simple and stable motions, is able to provide foods to users smoothly. The robot is operated by user’s eye blink. The blink is designed to be detected by a web camera connected to control unit based on Raspberry Pi. Thus, the system in compact size can complete the food providing effectively.