FRIEND -: Functional robot arm with user friendly interface for disabled people

Due to the limited control functionality of nowadays existing assistive technical aids, these systems are unusable for a big group of people with upper-limb impairments. Common interfaces as joysticks and keyboards are not adapted to users with insufficient agility of their fingers and hands. In this paper the development of a multimedia user interface is presented which enlarges the functionality of existing technical aids and is adapted to the requirements of the group of persons mentioned above. The developed assistive system consists of a MANUS robot arm, which is mounted on a power wheelchair and is controlled by a speech recognition system. The man-machine interface combines two concepts - total control of MANUS by the user and semi-autonomous control of MANUS with predefined actions, triggered by the user. As a result, the individual independence of disabled users increases in many routine life situations and their reintegration into work environment becomes possible.