Content area
Full text
Keywords
Robots, Service, Rehabilitation, Disabled, Flexibility
Abstract
Rehab Robotics Ltd and Staffordshire University have been at the leading edge of research and development in the field of rehabilitation robotics for the past 15 years. During this period they have developed the Handy 1 rehabilitation robot which enables people with severe disabilities to gain independence in daily activities such as eating, drinking, shaving, cleaning teeth, washing and applying cosmetics. Handy 1 is widely accepted by experts worldwide as being at the forefront of technology in this area. A consortium of European partners, led by Staffordshire University and sponsored by funding from the European Commission Directorate-General Information Society Technologies, is about to embark on the development of a new robotic system called Flexibot.
Electronic access
The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft
Introduction
During the past 15 years, systems developed within the field of rehabilitation robotics have, broadly speaking, fallen within the following three main categories:
1) Static systems that operate in a structured environment. This type of low cost system has been particularly successful in enabling the disabled and elderly with special needs to achieve independence in everyday living tasks such as eating, drinking, shaving, cleaning teeth, applying cosmetics, washing and leisure type activities. One drawback to this type of system is that some carer assistance is required to set up the various activity trays. Also, a carer must physically move the robot between different rooms if the user wants to use an activity tray in a specific environment, for example to eat in the dining room or to apply cosmetics in the bedroom. And it is not possible for this type of robot to assist with less structured tasks such as picking items up from the floor, completing household chores or preparing meals.
2) Wheelchair-mounted robots. This type of robot has the potential to perform some of the unstructured tasks that the static systems cannot; however, current solutions are not being widely used because of high costs. Another limiting factor is that at the moment there is no wheelchair-mounted robot that can be easily transferred from one wheelchair to another, which would...