Twendy-One – Brandon Norton – 4/24/13

Robot Designed by: WASEDA University Sugano Laboratory, 2009

Assistive Robotics

Assistive Robotics is a field that seeks to help people (usually the elderly or those with disabilities) achieve a higher standard of living through the use of robotics. This includes both physical assistance and emotional/ mental assistance. Twendy-One is designed to assist a person physically. Currently it is able to perform tasks such as helping a person transfer from a bed or chair to a wheelchair, retrieve food from a fridge, place food on a tray, and carry the tray to the person.

Movement and Safety Considerations

Twendy-One has many moving parts including: 7 DOF Arms, 13 DOF Hands, a 4 DOF body, and an omni-directional mobile base. This creates many redundant joints but helps make the types of movement very versatile. For a robot to interact with humans, safety must be the number one priority. To help make Twendy-One safe, several designs have been implemented:

  • The robot moves very slowly. This gives the person plenty of time to get out of the way if something goes wrong and also prevents harmful high speed collisions.
  • The inclusion of passive joints allows the links to bend away when a collision occurs, absorbing some of the energy that would have been transferred to the person.
  • The use of torque control as well as position controlled movement limits the motors to only being able to produce a limited amount of torque so that collisions are less harmful.

Limitations and Cost

Twendy-One has a few drawbacks despite its advanced design.

  • Twendy-One moves very slowly compared to how a human could move. This is for safety and accuracy in completing the task.
  • There are many joints and motors required causing larger power drain and increased expense.
  • Each task must be programmed beforehand which is above the skill level of the average user.
  • If produced in large scale the cost of Twendy-One would be between $110k and $220k.

Conclusion

Twendy-One is capable of carrying out many assistive tasks and does so safely. The robot design has many redundant joints needed for the wide variety of tasks it needs to accomplish. Many safety features make this robot capable of interacting directly with humans. The major drawback is the high expense of this robot. Those who are elderly or have disabilities should find that this robot improves their quality of life and increases their independence.