Design and Development of the Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance
By Grindle, Garrett G.; Wang, Hongwu; Salatin, Benjamin A.; Vasquez, Juan J.; Cooper, Rory A.; Assistive Technology, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 81-92Publication Date: 2011
Paper presents the Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA), a device that provides coordinated mobility and bimanual manipulation for people with both lower and upper limb impairment. The PerMMA design integrates several commercially available and custom technologies to create a bimanual mobile robot with 22 degrees of freedom that can transport a seated person. A Permobil C500 powered wheelchair with powered seat functions provides the mobility feature. The included power seat functions are tilt-in-space, recline, seat elevator, and elevating leg rest. Two Assistive Robot Manipulators (ARMs) are integrated with the mobile base using a custom track and carriage system attached to the seat frame. The ARMs are controlled by an embedded computer. PerMMA is equipped with sensors that allow it to determine its own position and obtain information regarding its environment. The device has three primary operating modes: local user, remote user, and autonomous. It also has a cooperative control mode where two or more of the primary modes can be used simultaneously. Interface devices incorporated into PerMMA include a keyboard, joystick, switch pad, voice control, and master-slave interface using two small robots. The PerMMA was evaluated in a kitchen and was able to perform tasks including the retrieval of a food container from a refrigerator, removal of the container lid, heating of its contents in a microwave oven, and placing of the container on a table. Directions for future development of PerMMA are discussed.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
