WHEELCHAIR-MOUNTED ROBOTIC ARM TO HOLD AND MOVE A COMMUNICATION DEVICE - FINAL DESIGN

摘要

At the 51st Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium we presented a preliminary design for a roboticarm to assist an individual living within an assistive technology smart home. The individual controlsmuch of their environment with a Dynavox Maestro communication device. However, the deviceobstructs the individual’s line of site when navigating about the smart home. A robotic arm wasdeveloped to move the communication device in and out of the user’s field of view as desired. Therobotic arm is controlled by a conveniently mounted jelly switch. The jelly switch sends control signalsto a four state (up, off, down, off) single-axis robotic arm interfaced to a DC motor by high powerelectronic relays. This paper describes the system, control circuitry, and multiple safety features. Thearm will be delivered for use later in 2015.