Patents
The invention relates to the development of a device which can be used to measure the pose motion of a humans hand while performing a specific task. This measurement can be used to control a slave manipulator based on a surgeons motion analysis (in case of tele/robotic surgery) or for training through virtual surgery (to mimic a skilled surgeons movements) or for rehabilitation/assessment of hand-arm coordination of a patient (including kids) with upper limb movement disorder or an upper limb amputee wearing a prosthesis or for data generation for any skilled/professional task say for an artist etc. This motion & pose measurement will also be useful in devising future autonomous surgical robots mimicking skilled professionals etc. The developed device consists of a combination of planar and spatial mechanical linkages, coupled suitably and mounted with sensors, meant to sense the motion pose of a humans hand so as to measure/record the natural motion through a kinematic algorithm. While performing a task, the device is actuated naturally due to humans hand motion, so there is no need of any external motor or continuous power to operate the device. The proposed device has a cost effective modular design which can be used in different configurations specific to an application.