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332 HANDBOOK OF ELECTRONIC ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Robots for Supporting Activities of Daily Living (ADL)

Robots have been developed for providing support with performing daily tasks such as
feeding, grooming and lifting by, for instance, power assistance or tremor suppression. An
example of this is the Handy 1 robot (Rehab Robotics, UK), which was initially developed
in 1987 to assist a child with cerebral palsy to eat. The system can be operated with a single
switch. Extensions for the system were later designed to allow it to be used in other appli-
cations such as face hygiene and cosmetics (Topping, 2002). Other commercially available
feeding support systems include MySpoon (Secom, Tokyo, Japan), NeaterEater (Buxton,
UK) shown in Fig. 11-12 and Obi. 16–18
The iARM (Exact Dynamics, Netherlands) is a portable robot arm for object manipula-
19
tion that can be mounted on a wheelchair (Fig. 11-13) . It weighs 9 kg and can be powered
by the user’s wheelchair battery. The system can be controlled by different access methods
such as a keypad, joystick or single switch.
These types of devices appear to have made limited inroads into the homes of people
with disabilities perhaps because of cost, technical or aesthetic reasons (Maciejasz et al.,
2014).

Design Considerations for Robotic Exoskeletons

The following are important features to consider when designing robotic exoskeletons:
Safety: Safety is an important design consideration for exoskeletons. These systems
encapsulate the user who may have pathologies resulting in impaired motor control
and/or muscle weakness. Safety aspects should be considered in all stages of design, and

FIGURE 11-12 (Left) NeaterEater robotic feeding device� (Right) MySpoon robotic feeding device�

16 https://meetobi.com/.
17 http://www.neater.co.uk/neater-eater-2-2/.
18 https://www.secom.co.jp/english/myspoon/.
19 http://www.exactdynamics.nl/site/?page=pictures&id=3.