Perception-Assist with an Active Stereo Camera for an Upper-Limb Power-Assist Exoskeleton

This paper presents perception assistance with an active camera for an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton that assists user perception as well as user motion when the user interacts with the environment using sensors of the exoskeleton. The active stereo camera monitors user interaction with the environment, so the exoskeleton identifies objects that can be touched or grabbed by the user. Stereo camera positioning is controlled to continuously track the exoskeleton end-effector, ensuring that the user's hand always lies within the camera viewfield. If any obstacle might block the camera viewfield, the camera is controlled to avoid the obstacle. The effectiveness of the proposed concept is evaluated in experiments.