Evaluation of the JACO robotic arm Clinico-economic study for powered wheelchair users with upper-extremity disabilities Veronique Maheu, MSc candidate École de technologie supérieure (ETS), Montreal, Canada Philippe S. Archambault, OT, PhD School of P & OT, McGill University and CRIR, Montreal, Canada Julie Frappier, MSc Data 4 Actions Inc., Montreal, Canada François Routhier, PEng, PhD IRDPQ and CIRRIS Quebec city, Canada Abstract— Many activities of daily living, such as picking up glasses, holding a fork or opening a door, which most people do without thinking, can become insurmountable for people who have upper extremity disabilities. The alternative to asking for human help is to use some assistive devices to compensate their loss of mobility; however, many of those devices are limited in terms of functionality. Robotics may provide a better approach for the development of assistive devices, by allowing greater functionality. In this paper, we present results of a study (n=31) which objectives were to evaluate the efficacy of a new joystick- controlled seven-degree of freedom robotic manipulator and assess its potential economic benefits. Results show that JACO is easy to use as the majority of the participants were able to accomplish the testing tasks on their first attempt. The economic model results inferred that the use of the JACO arm system could potentially reduce caregiving time by 41%. These study results are expected to provide valuable data for interested parties, such as individuals with disabilities, their family or caregivers. Keywords-Robotic device, upper limb, physical disability, clinical evaluation I. INTRODUCTION Accomplishment of many activities of daily living (ADL), such as feeding, self-care and leisure, require proper control and usage of the upper extremities. Impairments in upper extremity movements may occur as a consequence of conditions such as neuromuscular diseases, spinal cord injuries or other diseases. These impairments often have a detrimental effect on ADL [1-3]. Additionally, those individuals often rely on wheelchair to compensate for lower body impairment. Environmental barriers such as furniture, other environmental barriers and restricted positioning in the wheelchair may cause additional difficulties in execution of upper extremity activities [1, 4-6]. Indeed, in a survey of 89 wheelchair users and 52 health care professionals, the ability to reach adequately for objects was rated as the most important concern related to wheelchair use [5]. Presently, many technical aids devoted to compensate for upper limb impairment may be found on the market. However, these existing assistive devices may be limited in terms of functionality and few studies have demonstrated their efficacy [1, 3]. A novel approach for the development of assistive devices, by allowing more functionality, can be provided through robotics. These include robotic arms that can be controlled through a joystick. Some of these robotic arms are commercialized; however data in the literature is scarce, if not non-existent, about their use by the disabled population. Two such studies [7, 8] concern the Manus arm (Exact Dynamics, Netherlands), a joystick-controlled, six degree-of-freedom robotic arm that has many features comparable to the JACO arm. One of these studies consisted in a survey of 21 users of the Manus arm. It demonstrated greater participation in ADL, compared to a non-user group with similar levels of disabilities [7]. A survey of 200 potential users, conducted in 1994, identified the perceived requirements of robotic devices. These included ease of use, reliability, cost and ability to perform various ADL functions such as reaching for objects, eating, self-care and leisure [8]. More recently, Routhier et al. [9] have demonstrated the usability of the JACO robotic arm in terms of accomplishing specific motor tasks performed with the upper limb. An important issue concerning the use of assistive devices is the economic benefit, in terms of employment or decreased need for care. Even if the cost of disability is known to be high, very few studies have addressed these issues [10, 11]. The potential relevance of a robotic arm can be defined as the degree of cost-savings that can be reached by the procurement of the rehabilitation robot on the total cost of care of the user [7]. The total cost of care includes the cost of labor of personal assistance, as well as the cost of assistive devices that could be replaced by a single rehabilitation robot. Besides these direct economic benefits, a rehabilitation robot can potentially save costs at a larger economic scale. 2011 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics Rehab Week Zurich, ETH Zurich Science City, Switzerland, June 29 - July 1, 2011 978-1-4244-9861-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 472