Sensory Feedback Device for Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand

In this work, a sensory feedback device for myoelectric prosthetic hand was developed to enhance the quality of life (QOL) of myoelectric prosthetic hand users. Two types of sensory feedback, namely, force sense feedback and temperature sense feedback, were proposed. As for the feedback device of force sense, the device is mounted on the user’s upper arm and provides hardness of the object onto the upper arm by winding a belt using a motor. On the other hand, as for the feedback device of temperature sense, the device is mounted on the user’s upper arm and presents temperature of the object onto the upper arm using a Peltier element. Finally, two-sensory feedback devices were united, and a two-sensory feedback device was built

Design and Control of a Robotic Forceps Manipulator with Screw-Drive Bending Mechanism and Extension of Its Motion Space

AbstractIn this paper, a multi-DOF robotic forceps manipulator that was developed in our laboratory is reviewed. We have developed a new bending technique with a screwdrive mechanism so far, which allows for omnidirectional bending motion by rotating two linkages. The screwdrive mechanism, termed double-screw-drive (DSD) mechanism, was utilized in a multi-DOF robotic forceps manipulator for laparoscopic surgery. Control of a robotic forceps manipulator incorporating the DSD mechanism (DSD forceps) through a teleoperation system was attempted via a joystick-type manipulator. For the teleoperation system, a Lyapunov function based bilateral control law that is capable of motion scaling in both position and force tracking was proposed so as to guarantee stability of the teleoperation system in the presence of time-varying delay. Then, the proposed bilateral control law was adopted for omnidirectional bending of the DSD forceps. Thus, a scalable surgical device that can provide force feedback to surgeon via a joystick-type manipulator was achieved. In addition, to extend the motion space of the DSD mechanism, design of the former DSD mechanism was improved so that the degree of freedom of motion of the tip position is extended, and new DSD mechanism was proposed. In order to control bending motion of the new DSD mechanism, inverse kinematics problem was analyzed, and equations which give the amount of rotations for each linkage were derived. To verify the validity of the derived equations, experimental works were carried out for the new DSD forceps manipulator