Design and Analysis of a Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arm with Remote ActuationSystem

摘要

This paper presents a new design of foldable, compact and cost-effective Wheelchair-Mounted- Robotic-Arm (WMRA).The design is based on remote actuation using stepper motors placed near the wheel- chair armrest and a synchronous belt system. This design helps to shift the weight closer to the wheelchair and maintain the required speed, torque and inertia while delivering full dexterity by actively driving each joint of the robot. The robot will assist patients with different conditions of impairments to eat, drink, and move objects accurately. The lightweight structure designed from hollow PVC tubes and aluminum sheets helps to ease and facilitate port ability. The placement of the whole robot and coupled joints are taken into consideration to reduce physical and sensory interference with the user and the wheelchair. The strength and deflection of critical parts of the robot have been tested through finite element analysis (FEA) and the workspace of the robot has been studied through Kinematics analysis. The testing results indicate that the designed WMRA is strong enough to handle and manipulate objects as heavy as 4kg in a wide range of workspace.