An Interdisciplinary Capstone Project in Assistive Robotics

Abstract

As the population of the United States ages, their desire to retain independence as their mobility and health may be declining will increasingly look to assistive technologies to support their performance of basic Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Toward the goal of providing such support in the home so as to facilitate aging in place, development of intelligent assistive robotic agents is a field of much ongoing research. Robotic agents that sense the actions of the user, discern intentions and preferences, and respond in an intuitive and socially pleasing manner will be of greatest efficacy in meeting the needs of a population whose abilities are changing over time. This paper presents the design and development of a novel overhead assistive manipulator. The work was undertaken as a senior capstone project by students at Western Carolina University during the 2016-17 academic year. Mechanical, electrical, and software design components were successfully integrated in the construction of a planar two degree-of-freedom (DOF) translation frame on which a manipulator arm is to be mounted. The agent incorporates a gesture-based command interface to support object retrieval tasks for a user in a home or hospital setting. The apparatus serves as a platform for ongoing research in adaptive human-robot interaction.