Estimation of intention of user arm motion for the proactive motion of upper extremity supporting robot

This research aims at the development of the estimation function of intention of user arm motion supported by the wearable type robot on upper extremity for assisting to have meal. It is shown that the basic concept of the function and the preliminary experimental results focusing on the stability of the robot motion with the function. If the robot arm has an estimation function, it can prepare by moving proactively to the target food in order to decrease the period to reach to the target and reduce the load for operating the robot. The system with the function comprises the processes of the measurement of gaze motion, the estimating of selecting the target, calculating the robot motion and robot control. However, if the robot simply follows the gaze movement, it may cause oscillatory motion which gives unnecessary load to the user. Using the discrimination technique, the robot manipulator can guide the users upper extremity to approach to the target at the timing when the decision is done by the user. The method called ldquoproactive typerdquo provides the stability of the robot motion. The experimental results show the possibility to estimate in advance the position of the food plate to be selected in order to complete the estimation algorithm for the proactive assistive motion of the robot.