December 18, 2009
Robotic Arm (DORA) Opens Doors for the Wheelchair Bound
After robotic arms and legs, comes another innovation that would surely make the lives of the physically-disabled a lot more easier. A robotic hand is made especially to open doors.
Erin Rapacki, a former UMASS Lowell researcher developed a robot hand that enables the wheelchair-bound to open up to 14 different types of doors. It costs cheaper, around $2000 to make, but is an expert in opening mechanical doors.
The door-opening robotic arm, also known as Dora, is a simple device using a single motor. The motor-driven set of gears extends the gripper towards the handle with its three fingers spread apart (see diagram). It's basically a mechanical device, without the expense of sophisticated sensors and cameras, so as to keep it simple.
DORA - Door Opening Robotic Arms opens the door for the wheelchair bound
Rapacki assembled her robotic arm with stiff plastic fingers with plates to constrain their sideways motion and a slip clutch to the drive system, to allow the device to hold and turn the knob at the same time as pushing or pulling.
In the tests conducted, Dora is 85 per cent successful pushing the door and 65 per cent of pulling it.
Click here to read more about Door-Opening Robot Arm or DORAWritten by: John
Filed Under: Robotics
Tags: Arms And Legs, Clutch, Dora, Gears, Gripper, Mechanical Device, Open Doors, Opening Doors, Researcher, Robot Arm, Robot Hand, Robotic Arm, Robotic Arms, Robotic Hand, Sideways Motion, Slip Clutch, Sophisticated Sensors, Three Fingers, Umass Lowell, Wheelchair
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