A mobile robotic arm for people with severe disabilities

In this paper, design of a mobile robotic arm for people with severe disabilities is implemented. This system is composed of a robotic arm, microcontroller, and its controller. The main body of the robotic arm can be contained in a briefcase to carry a laptop computer. Its weight is 5 kg, including two 12-V lead acid rechargeable batteries. This robotic arm can be also mounted on a wheelchair. To verify the performance of the mobile robotic arm system, some tasks, such as drinking tea task and eating task were experimentally performed by an able-bodied subject. From the experimental results, it was clear that he could smoothly carry out drinking and eating tasks, and that the robotic arm could firmly grasp a 500-ml plastic bottle, which was commercially available.