Recent Trends on Innovative Robot Designs and Approaches

The use and function of robots are evolving at a fast pace, sparking interest in creative solutions within a quickly expanding potential market in cutting-edge industries with applications including service robotics, surgical and rehabilitative robotics, and assistive robotics [...]

Design and construction of a wireless robot that simulates head movements in cone beam computed tomography imaging

One of the major challenges in the science of maxillofacial radiology imaging is the various artifacts created in images taken by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging systems. Among these artifacts, motion artifact, which is created by the patient, has adverse effects on image quality. In this paper, according to the conditions and limitations of the CBCT imaging room, the goal is the design and development of a cable-driven parallel robot to create repeatable movements of a dry skull inside a CBCT scanner for studying motion artifacts and building up reference datasets with motion artifacts. The proposed robot allows a dry skull to execute motions, which were selected on the basis of clinical evidence, with 3-degrees of freedom during imaging in synchronous manner with the radiation beam. The kinematic model of the robot is presented to investigate and describe the correlation between the amount of motion and the pulse width applied to DC motors. This robot can be controlled by the user through a smartphone or laptop wirelessly via a Wi-Fi connection. Using wireless communication protects the user from harmful radiation during robot driving and functioning. The results show that the designed robot has a reproducibility above 95% in performing various movements.

A hybrid cable-driven parallel robot as a solution to the limited rotational workspace issue

Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) are still gaining attention thanks to their interesting characteristics compared to serial or classic parallel manipulators. However, the limited range of rotation of their end-effectors reduces their application fields to predominantly translational movements. In this context, the issue of extending the rotational workspace of a CDPR while maintaining a compact robot structure is addressed in this paper. This work is motivated by the need to find the optimal CDPR for upper limb rehabilitation allowing to assist the patient’s hand along a set of prescribed tasks. Firstly, a reconfigurable robot, where the motors’ locations are movable, is proposed in order to help reaching all the prescribed poses. Although this solution presents promising results compared to classical CDPRs, it involves a sizable robot structure inadequate to rehabilitation application. To improve the obtained solution, another approach is proposed, based on combining the large translational workspace of CDPRs and the large rotational workspace of serial manipulators. The optimal structure of a hybrid robot will be considered for the prototype design.