INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, vol.37, no.6, pp.486-497, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
This paper addresses the design and control of a dual-arm robot
manipulator that can be used for the treatment of head–neck
orthopaedic disorders. Each arm of this manipulator has six-degrees-
of-freedom (DoF) serial RRRRU topological structure, four of which
are actively actuated and two of which are passive. The head–neck
model in harmony with this underactuated robot arm was designed
as a 4-DoF serial manipulator. Although the system is deficient,
all motions of the head–neck model subjected to rehabilitation can
be fully performed due to the topology chosen for the arms; in
other words, the kinematically closed-loop robotic system can move
without blocking. In this study, kinematic analyses were performed
separately for both the arms and the head–neck model, and the
results were obtained analytically and semi-analytically. Then, the
robotic system described with dynamic analysis was controlled by
the computed torque control method. Here, the quasi-external
forces/moments that supply the desired user-defined rehabilitation
motions to the head–neck model are taken as the force/moment
inputs for the dual-arm robot. The control of the robotic system
was carried out to test the performance of the system according
to the generated torques and the mobility of the rehabilitation
robot.