Title :
Development of a skincare robot
Author :
Tsumaki, Yuichi ; Kon, Takayuki ; Suginuma, Asami ; Imada, Kei ; Sekiguchi, Akinori ; Nenchev, Dragomir N. ; Nakano, Hajime ; Hanada, Katsumi
Author_Institution :
Grad. Sch. of Sci. & Eng., Hirosaki Univ., Hirosaki
Abstract :
With aging, human skin develops a dry condition called senile xerosis. The skin lesion can be prevented by daily skin care such as applying an ointment containing moisturizing factors several times a day. Aged persons, however, have difficulties in accessing the back and rely therefore on nursing care for such treatment. Unfortunately, in underpopulated areas such nursing care may not always be available. To tackle this problem, the concept of a skincare robot is proposed. The feasibility of the concept is then confirmed by designing a real skincare robot and by performing experiments for applying ointment on human´s back. The robot developed is able to recognize the shape of the body, to plan the appropriate motion paths for the hand, and to execute the task without applying any excessive forces.
Keywords :
diseases; medical robotics; motion control; patient care; skin; body shape recognition; motion path; nursing care; senile xerosis; skin lesion; skincare robot; Aging; Back; Humans; Medical robotics; Medical services; Robotics and automation; Robots; Safety; Shape measurement; Skin;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation, 2008. ICRA 2008. IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Pasadena, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1646-2
Electronic_ISBN :
1050-4729
DOI :
10.1109/ROBOT.2008.4543660