The Assistive Robotic Arm

Description of Project:

The Assistive Robotic Arm is a National Science Foundation sponsored senior design project. The device was implemented to help a fifth grade boy with quadriplegic, athetoid cerebral palsy function more independently in his integrated classroom setting. The goal of this design was to provide a child with only gross motor skills a way to eat independently and also provide a grip mechanism that would resemble the human hand. The device is mountable to the child's wheelchair. The design also closely resembles the movements of the human arm by providing a full range of motion about the x, y, and z axes and throughout the three primary planes of motion. Along with range, the device is capable of flexion, extension, pronation, supination, circumduction, abduction, adduction, opposition, reposition, and rotation. These anatomical conventions can be viewed here.

The Assistive Robotic Arm to date