Wheelchair-bound persons with upper limb motion limitations can utilize a wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (WMRA) to perform activities of daily living (ADL) tasks. In this paper, an optimized control of our 9-DoF system, consisting of a 7-DoF robotic arm and a 2-DoF power wheelchair, is achieved. For effective ADL task execution, positioning the end-effector with proper wheelchair orientation was optimized as part of the control algorithm. Separate wheelchair and end-effector trajectories were simultaneously followed to execute a "Go To and Open the Door" task. The control methodology, implementation and test results in simulation are presented in this paper.

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Abstract-The wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (WMRA) is a mobile manipulator that consists of a 7-DoF robotic arm and a 2-DoF power wheelchair platform. Previous works combined mobility and manipulation control using weighted optimization for dual-trajectory tracking [7]. In this work, we present an image-based visual servoing (IBVS) approach with scaleinvariant feature transform (SIFT) using an eye-in-hand monocular camera for combined control of mobility and manipulation for the 9-DoF WMRA system to execute activities of daily living (ADL) autonomously. We also present results of the physical implementation with a simple "Go to and Pick Up" task and the "Go to and Open the Door" task previously published in simulation, using IBVS to aid the task performance.

A 9-Dof wheelchair mounted robotic arm system (WMRA) has been developed to assist wheelchair-bound persons with upper limb motion limitations to perform activities of daily living (ADL) tasks. In this paper, we utilize mobile manipulation control to keep the end-effector stationary while moving the base and vice versa. This allows easier execution of a group of pre-set ADL tasks including opening and holding a spring loaded door passing through by locking the end-effector position and orientation. Redundancy resolution is achieved by optimizing the manipulability measure while the ADL task is being performed. Combined mobility and manipulation is expanded in this work to turn the USF WMRA into a task-oriented robotic system.

A wheelchair-mounted robotic arm was designed and developed to enhance the capabilities of mobility-impaired persons with limited upper extremities limitations exceeding previous models specifications and performance [1]. The major enhancements of the wheelchair’s mechanical design are the incorporation of DC servo drive with encoders at each individual joint. The arm has seven degrees of freedom (DoF) and is side-mounted on a power wheelchair (fig 1). The control system allows coordinated Cartesian control, and offers expandability for research in combined mobility and manipulation. This paper discusses the control scheme and a virtual simulation of the existing WMRA prototype performing several activities of daily living.