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A human augmentation device design review: supernumerary robotic limbs

Ziyu Liao (Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China)
Bai Chen (Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China)
Tianzuo Chang (Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China)
Qian Zheng (Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China)
Keming Liu (Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China)
Junnan Lv (Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China)

Industrial Robot

ISSN: 0143-991X

Article publication date: 27 October 2022

Issue publication date: 17 February 2023

529

Abstract

Purpose

Supernumerary robotic limbs (SRLs) are a new type of wearable robot, which improve the user’s operating and perceive the user’s environment by extra robotic limbs. There are some literature reviews about the SRLs’ key technology and development trend, but the design of SRLs has not been fully discussed and summarized. This paper aims to focus on the design of SRLs and provides a comprehensive review of the ontological structure design of SRLs.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the related literature of SRLs is summarized and analyzed by VOSviewer. The structural features of different types of SRLs are extracted, and then discuss the design approach and characteristics of SRLs which are different from typical wearable robots.

Findings

The design concept of SRLs is different from the conventional wearable robots. SRLs have various reconfiguration and installed positions, and it will influence the safety and cooperativeness performance of SRLs.

Originality/value

This paper focuses on discussing the structural design of SRLs by literature review, and this review will help researchers understand the structural features of SRLs and key points of the ontological design of SRLs, which can be used as a reference for designing SRLs.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. NS2020036, No. NP2022304) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (52205018, 52105103).

Declaration of competing interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Citation

Liao, Z., Chen, B., Chang, T., Zheng, Q., Liu, K. and Lv, J. (2023), "A human augmentation device design review: supernumerary robotic limbs", Industrial Robot, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 256-274. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-03-2022-0079

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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