Robotic Arm for People with Disabilities

Robotic Arm for People with Disabilities

Computer Science doctoral candidate Katherine Tsui demonstrates "Halo", a prototype robotic arm that she has designed at the UMass Lowell Robotics Lab to help people with physical disabilities reach for objects on a table or shelf. Halo uses tiny webcams mounted over the arm and on the gripper to display the desired object on a flat screen monitor. The operator simply touches the screen to select the object, and the arm then autonomously retrieves the object and brings it to the operator. The project is funded through a research grant awarded to Prof. Holly Yanco from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Robotic Arm
• Robot
• UMass Lowell
• UML
• DORA
• Computer Science
• Holly Yanco
• Physical Disability
• Handicap
• Wheelchair
• Katherine Tsui
• Erin Rapacki
• Robotics Lab
• NSF
• National Science Foundation
• Science
• Technology

[johneastmond]

That seems way too cumbersome. But when you think about it it's a very hard thing to have a robot do! Of coarse there are MANY high speed robotic material handling systems. But they all rely on prox sensors and having objects very accurately positioned to begine with. This will work even as objects get shuffled around by people.