Passive reconfigurable manipulation assistive aids

Articulated mechanical systems with multiple joints possess multiple degrees-of-freedom which are often not required for performing typical low-dimensional manipulation tasks. These excessive degrees of freedom then need to be reduced by application of constraints, either actively by suitable control or passively in hardware, prior to performance of the task. Our interest is in creating articulated manipulation assistive aids, which combine the motion flexibility due to the multiple articulations with the simplicity of reduced degree-of-freedom control due to the presence of hardware constraints. Specifically we investigate the process of design and prototyping of such reduced-degree-of-freedom manipulators whose end-effector is required to closely approximate a desired planar path. We also examine design enhancements that permit easy reconfiguration of our prototype manipulator for multiple sets of tasks, by a controlled variation of the principal structural parameters.