Wheelchair-Mounted Assistive Robot for Activities of Daily Living: Design, and Validation

Abstract

In the last decades, the number of wheelchair users has been increasing at an alarmingrate. Part of these individuals has an upper or lower dysfunction (ULED) resulting from a stroke, spinal cord injury, trauma, accident, or workplace injuries. Due to this, these patients need assistance to conduct their activities of daily living (ADLs). Hence, Wheelchair-Mounted Assistive Robots (WMAR) have a crucial role in Individuals with ULED. This research focuses on the design optimization, development, and validation of WMARs for essential ADLs. The design aims to obtain the link lengths with the most workspace coverage. Moreover, the analysis includes singularity avoidance and collision detection. The optimization method is a Genetic Algorithm (GA) that evaluates the feasible link lengths and finds the most fitness solution. The development includes the manufacturing process and the control strategy’s definition to manipulate the robot. Finally, the validation refers to the experimental testing of the robot in assistance to Individuals with ULED.