Robotic Haptic Interface
Perhaps not as well-known as other types of disabilities, but Developmental Coordination Disorder (also known as dyspraxia) has caused difficulties for about 5% of the children in mastering coordination tasks, such as catching a ball, tying shoelaces and standing on one foot. Recent robotic research and development has come up with a device to teach coordination to children who having such problem.
Firstly, certain tasks will be designed by therapists to challenge the eye-hand coordination of individuals. One example is handwriting. The children will hold the robotic arm and perform the task shown on the screen. The robotic arm will follow designed trajectories and provide resistance, thus simulate the effort that is required to perform such task. The robotic arm joined with the computer is known as a robotic haptic interface that incorporate the sense of touching to help children develop their eye-hand coordination. The user will be able to “feel” the virtual environment that is shown on the screen.
With this equipment, the children can practice their coordination repeatedly in interesting tasks. This type of robotic therapy becomes a popular research area in rehabilitation robotics. The pictures show the prototype of such robot in performing handwriting task. Further research and development will enhance such system to perform more complicated tasks.
Jin Peng
U036569E
