We have developed a small and light robotic arm, Robotic Arm for Persons with Upper-limb DisAbilities (RAPUDA), taking into consideration future safety certification standards.

RAPUDA is a robotic arm having seven degrees of freedom in arm and hand parts; it weighs approximately 6 kg and has a payload of 0.5 kg. In RAPUDA, a original mechanism of a linear expansion and contraction is adopted in order to enlarge the field of vision of the user during operation and to reduce the number of pinching parts (joints) of the arm. Since RAPUDA has been designed considering future safety certification standards, double sensors for measuring joint movements, a high-reliability communication system and so on are adopted. Further, cost reduction of the robotic arm is considered and the arm should be available at easily affordable prices.

It is expected that this small and light robotic arm can be operated independently by persons with upper-limb disabilities, who would otherwise require assistance. To realize this, evaluations are carried out by users suffering from muscular dystrophy or cervical spine damage.