Rehabilitation Robotics Jumpstation
Thesis - Håkan Eftring
The useworthiness of robots for people with physical disabilities (1999)
This thesis deals with robotics and the new possibilities it offers
people with physical disabilities. I focus on the user and the use of
the technology and, in particular, on what makes robotic aids
worth using useworthiness as distinguished from usability.
User experience of the wheelchair-mounted Manus
manipulator shows that robotic arms must meet technical
requirements in terms of acceleration, speed, and pattern of
movement. Easy horizontal and vertical adjustment of the end-effector
is another requirement which must be met to enable a user
to carry out the most common movements faster with less
concentration.
Experience of the useworthiness of robots was first obtained
through the development of page-turning end-effectors for the
RAID workstation. The principles of separating pages and the
page-turning movements are analyzed and described in this thesis.
End-effectors are essential to the functionality and useworthiness
of robots. The performance requirements for the automatic
grasping function for simplified robot use have been brought out
through user trials.
The thesis demonstrates that user trials with robots as assistive
devices can result in new knowledge about both the use of the
technology itself and the personal characteristics needs, abilities,
wishes, and dreams of the user.
Parts of the thesis have already been published or will be
published in the form of articles and conference papers:
- Robotics in rehabilitation. IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation
Engineering, vol. 3, no 1, pp. 77-83, March 1995.
- The Manus Manipulator as a Tool for Rehabilitation. To be
published in the Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation
Medicine.
- Technical results from Manus user trials. Proceedings of the
sixth International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics
(ICORR), pp. 136-141, Stanford, California, USA, July 1999.
- Robot control methods and results from user trials on the RAID
workstation. Proceedings of the fourth International
Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), pp. 97-101,
Wilmington, Delaware, USA, June 1994.
- RAID - A Robotic Workstation for the Disabled. Proceedings of
the 2nd European Conference on the Advancement of
Rehabilitation Technology (ECART 2), pp. 24.3, Stockholm,
Sweden, May 1993.