Design and Development of a Semi-physical Simulation for Supernumerary Robotic Limbs

In order to augment human operation ability, a new type of wearable robot is developed, called supernumerary robotic limbs(SRLs). The SRLs have additional robotic limbs that can replace the function of human natural limbs to cooperate with the wearer. This paper aims to develop a semi-physical simulation of SRLs to save costs in the research process. In this study, we developed and realized the physical prototype of SRLs which has a 4-DOFs robotic limb mounted on the waist, and a simulation platform is also developed for this SRLs. Moreover, in order to establish the relationship between the prototype and semi-physical simulation, this study constructed the limb-mapping control system of semi-physical simulation for the SRLs based on the kinematic model. Each joint of SRLs can achieve the one-one mapping relationship with the semi-physical simulation through the established forward and inverse kinematic model based on the screw theory. Meanwhile, this paper also constructed the limb-mapping control system of semi-physical simulation for the SRLs, it established the motion relationship with a robotic limb of SRLs and the human upper limb via the sensor measurement. Finally, we verified the feasibility of the simulation system via the experiments.