We are developing a manipulator system in order to support disabled people with less muscle strength such as muscular dystrophy\r\npatients. Such a manipulator should have an easy user interface for the users to control it. But the supporting manipulator for\r\ndisabled people cannot make large industry, so we should offer inexpensive manufacturing way. These type products are called\r\nââ?¬Å?orphan products.ââ?¬Â We report on the construction of the user interface system using RT-Middleware which is an open software\r\nplatformfor robot systems. Therefore other user interface components or robot components which are adapted to other symptoms\r\ncan be replaced with the user interface without any change of the contents. A single switch and scanning menu panel are introduced\r\nas the input device for the manual control of the robot arm. The scanning menu panel is designed to perform various actions\r\nof the robot arm with the single switch. A manipulator simulation system was constructed to evaluate the input performance.\r\nTwo muscular dystrophy patients tried our user interface to control the robot simulator and made comments. According to\r\nthe comments by them, we made several improvements on the user interface. This improvements examples prepare inexpensive\r\nmanufacturing way for orphan products.
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