Assistive robotic device: evaluation of intelligent algorithms

Assistive robotic devices can be used to help people with upper body disabilities gaining more autonomy in their daily life. Although basic motions such as positioning and orienting an assistive robot gripper in space allow performance of many tasks, it might be time consuming and tedious to perform more complex tasks. To overcome these difficulties, improvements can be implemented at different levels, such as mechanical design, control interfaces and intelligent control algorithms. In order to guide the design of solutions, it is important to assess the impact and potential of different innovations. This paper thus presents the evaluation of three intelligent algorithms aiming to improve the performance of the JACO robotic arm (Kinova Robotics). The evaluated algorithms are 'preset position', 'fluidity filter' and 'drinking mode'. The algorithm evaluation was performed with 14 motorized wheelchair's users and showed a statistically significant improvement of the robot's performance.