Mexican students develop assistant robot for people with motor disabilities

The prototype was built by students from the Interdisciplinary Professional Unit in Engineering and Advanced Technologies (UPIITA), who designed a system equipped with omnidirectional wheels, a Scara-type robotic arm and a claw that allows objects such as medicines, books or glasses to be manipulated.

The robot has a rectangular structure made with “V”-shaped aluminum profiles, which provides stability against impacts and when moving on surfaces with slight unevenness.

“We saw the possibility of contributing with a system 100% made in Mexico, integrating various methodologies learned during the degree and others acquired in the process,” Arturo Ernesto Negrete Pérez, project leader, explained in a statement.

The device can move in any direction and even rotate on its own axis. In addition, it incorporates a real-time visual monitoring system using two cameras and four ultrasonic sensors, which allow the user to observe both the movement and manipulation of objects from a cell phone.

For its development, the students worked with a volunteer with congenital muscular atrophy in his legs, who can use his hands. From this, they adapted the control of the robot to a video game controller, from which both the mobile system and the robotic arm are operated.

In its programming, the team used technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi connection, UART and USB communication, in addition to the ROS-2 system, which facilitates functions such as autonomous navigation, mapping, control of robotic arms and object recognition through computer vision.

The robot is made up of two subsystems: a mobile one, responsible for movement, and another manipulator, which includes the robotic arm capable of holding objects at a height of between 60 centimeters and one meter, suitable for conventional tables.

The system works with gear motors, servo motors and rechargeable batteries with an approximate autonomy of 12 hours.

The students pointed out that in Mexico there is a limited supply of this type of technology, and that imported devices usually have high costs.which restricts its access to a minority of the population.