Development of a wheelchair-based rehabilitation robotic system (KARES II) with various human-robot interaction interfaces for the disabled

This paper describes our ongoing project about a new wheelchair-based rehabilitation robotic system for the disabled, called KARES II (KAIST Rehabilitation Engineering Service system II). We shall concentrate on the issues of design and visual servoing of the robotic arm with three human-robot interaction subsystems: an eye-mouse, an EMG interface, and a haptic suit interface. First, the specific required tasks of the robotic arm system are defined according to extensive surveys and interviews with the potential users, i.e., the people with spinal cord injury. In order to design the robotic arm for the predefined tasks effectively, a target-oriented design procedure is adopted. Next, a visual servoing subsystem for the robotic arm is designed and is integrated to perform the predefined tasks in an uncertain/time-varying environment. Finally, various human-robot interaction devices are proposed as interface for diverse users with physical disability. One or more of these interfaces may be selected on the basis of each user's need. These diverse input devices can be used in a complementary way according to the user's preference and to the degree of disability. Experimental results show that all subsystems can perform the defined tasks through the robotic arm in an integrated way.