A Force-Sensitive Exoskeleton for Teleoperation: An Application in Elderly Care Robotics

With the increasing demand for new healthcare solutions and technologies, such as those resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, and the growing elderly population, exoskeletons for teleoperation are a promising solution for many future medical applications. In this context, we propose two force- sensitive upper-limb exoskeletons for teleoperation, that are characterized by: i) torque-controlled robotic actuators, ii) rigid-body model compensations, and iii) a lightweight design achieved through the use of Bowden cable transmissions and remotely placed actuators. Specifically, we present a semi-active upper-limb exoskeleton for which we demonstrate human- device interaction control and bilateral teleoperation with force- feedback, evaluated via simulation, in the lab and over the Internet. We also introduce a design for a future fully-active upper-limb exoskeleton with two contact force/torque sensors, for a dual-arm device, which features a novel 3-degrees-of- freedom exoskeleton shoulder design and a contact wrench mitigation controller, as demonstrated through simulation. With this work, we propose the essential technical steps towards a novel teleoperation system for elderly care.