Design and control of a wearable robot

The concept of wearability will be recognized very important in future robotics as in computer science. There is a strong possibility that wearable robots suggest a new direction for human-robot interaction. We propose RoboWear, a robot that an operator wears on his arm. It can be used to amplify human power, to control a remote robot dexterously, to interact with humans in virtual environment. It has 7 DOF. Based on the anatomical analysis of a human arm and the distribution of multiple DOF over the space, authors designed a wearable robot with a hybrid structure consisting of two parallel manipulators and three separate joints. An operator wearing the robot arm can move around freely, because this robot is designed to have its base supported at the shoulder part of the operator. The total weight of the proposed robot arm is approximately 4 kg. Pneumatic actuators are used to reduce the total weight of the robot to improve compliance with human motion and to generate high reactive forces. The feasibility of the wearable robot is demonstrated by examining the control performance and by incorporating the wearable robot with virtual environment.