A Scooter-Mounted Robot Arm to Assist with Activities of Daily Life.

Abstract

Many people with motor disabilities struggle with activities of daily life (ADLs), limiting their ability to live independently. This paper details a robotic mobility scooter developed to assist with manipulation-based ADLs to increase independence. We present a system comprised of a Universal Robotics UR5 robotic arm, a mobility scooter, five depth sensors, and a user interface which utilizes laser pointers. The system provides pick-and-drop and pick-and-place functionality in open world environments without modeling the objects or environment. We evaluate our system over several experimental scenarios and show an improvement relative to a baseline established for a similar system.