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THE SIR - 1 Robot
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Steven Thomson
| A Computerised Robot Arm with a computer so that the combination can be used in upper limb functional and training assessmentsand as a hands- on display item. The Sir - 1 is a six axes robot modelled similar to the human arm. The robot has a shoulder, elbow,wrist (with control of pitch and roll), gripper and a base. Sir- 1 will be used in the assessment of upper limb control through the use of various attachments that will plug into the IBM computer that is connected to it. The user shall be able to control the robot to varying degrees which will allow us to isolate specific control actions. |  |
The Sir-1 robot came to REHABTech courtesy of Baldwyn Petrochemicals. It was in less than perfect condition - the shoulder system was not working and without a gripper (hand). The first step was to get the robot up and running and then to find a suitable gripper. Three grippers were evaluated - the SIR-1 gripper which was leant to REHABTech by Ron Viney of the Metropolitan College of TAFE, an Otto Bock Greifer and an Otto Bock electric hand.
The evaluation resulted in the greifer being selected due to its superior reach, grip and speed. The gripper was too slow and small while the Otto Bock electric hand an inferior grip to the greifer due to the circular grip of the fingers.
A number of different programming methods may be used to control the robot - the teach pendent, host mode and programming through the computer. The teach pendent is directly connected to the SIR- 1 control and any program entered there is saved in the control's memory, host mode relies on a menu written in basic which allows you to use most of the commands of the teach pendent from the computer keyboard and then there is programming the robot from basic which gives the most freedom and allows for other equipment to be used to control the robot such as joysticks, EMG sensors, key pads and switches.
Presently, the robot has been repaired and improved through the use of the greifer, its programming has been researched, various methods have been put into use and assessed and, the robot has been successfully connected to an IBM PC. In the future, some input equipment will be attached and the whole system will be ready for trial
