Massaging human feet by a redundant manipulator equipped with a tactile sensor

Jingguo Wang, Yangmin Li

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingConference article published in proceeding or bookAcademic researchpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Reflexology is a kind of assisting physical care through massaging or applying pressure to parts of the feet where will reflect an image of the human body in order to improve general health of the human. Based on this principle, we propose a new application of 7-DOF(degree of freedom) redundant manipulator to do the massaging work for human feet with the tactile sensor equipped to the end-effector. To facilitate the flexible and dexterous manipulation of redundant manipulator, the hybrid impedance control is adopted and extended to include the null space motion, not only to generate a desired motion of the end-effector, but also manage the contact force between the end-effector and the human feet. In order to improve the safety and comfortability, the reactive forces of the tactile sensor cells are monitored and recorded. A real massaging experiment is carried out on the human feet and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2010 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM 2010
Pages7-12
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2010
Externally publishedYes
Event2010 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM 2010 - Montreal, QC, Canada
Duration: 6 Jul 20109 Jul 2010

Conference

Conference2010 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM 2010
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal, QC
Period6/07/109/07/10

Keywords

  • Foot massage
  • Impedance control
  • Redundant manipulator
  • Reflexology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Software
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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