EMY: A dual arm exoskeleton dedicated to the evaluation of Brain Machine Interface in clinical trials

B. Morinière (1) , A. Verney (2, 1) , N. Abroug (1) , P. Garrec (1) , Y. Perrot (1)

1 DIASI - Département Intelligence Ambiante et Systèmes Interactifs
2 ACTRIS Brest

EMY (Enhancing MobilitY) is an exoskeleton dedicated to the evaluation of Brain Machine Interface during clinical trials. This paper presents the first version of EMY restricted to upper limbs with four actuated joints per arm. Since an evaluation of a BMI controlled exoskeleton by a disabled person requires clinical trials, a risk management process should be conducted with medical standards as references. More than an exhaustive architecture description of EMY, this paper details relationships between risk management and the proposed technical solutions in order to justify design options. EMY's design is upgradable and future versions of EMY will concern the addition of lower limbs and prehension capability to ultimately obtain a full-body exoskeleton suitable for testing brain controlled locomotion and manipulation tasks.

Keywords: Accident prevention; Biological organs; Brain computer interface; DC motors; Disabled persons; Intelligent robots; Risk management; Robots; Shoulders (road); Torque; Actuated joint; Architecture description; Brain machine interface; Clinical trial; Design option; Manipulation task; Risk management process; Technical solutions; Exoskeleton (Robotics)

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

B. Morinière, A. Verney, N. Abroug, P. Garrec, Y. Perrot. EMY: A dual arm exoskeleton dedicated to the evaluation of Brain Machine Interface in clinical trials. 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Sep 2015, Hamburg, Germany. pp.5333-5338, ⟨10.1109/IROS.2015.7354130⟩. ⟨cea-01813727⟩