Design, Analysis & Prototyping of a Semi-Automated Staircase-Climbing Rehabilitation Robot

TL;DR

This paper presents SKALA, a semi-automated staircase-climbing rehabilitation robot with innovative mechanical design and control systems, enabling safe and autonomous stair navigation for individuals with disabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanical design and control architecture for a large-sized robot capable of stair navigation, combining teleoperation and autonomous modes.

Findings

Successful mechanical design implementation

Multiple teleoperation modes demonstrated

Autonomous operation architecture developed

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the mechanical design, system overview, integration and control techniques associated with SKALA, a unique large-sized robot for carrying a person with physical disabilities, up and down staircases. As a regular wheelchair is unable to perform such a maneuver, the system functions as a non-conventional wheelchair with several intelligent features. We describe the unique mechanical design and the design choices associated with it. We showcase the embedded control architecture that allows for several different modes of teleoperation, all of which have been described in detail. We further investigate the architecture associated with the autonomous operation of the system.