Team's members:

• Prof. G. Vassura

The currently devised solution

The WireMan (Wire Manipulator) is a robotic force-feedback, wire actuated device. It consists of a rigid frame to be carried as a knapsack; from three corners of the frame, as many pre-tensed wires converge to a thimble, lodging the user's finger. Measure of the unwinded stretches informs the system on the finger's position with respect to the reference frame of the device.
When the finger reaches the virtual surface, the three motors exert a force - through the wires - simulating the geometrical constraint due to the surface. We are also developing a new kind of WireMan with only one actuated wire.

Alternative solutions

A robotic arm placed on a shoulder, realizing the three polar coordinates, was the first choice. Drawbacks are: weight, needed power, reduced workspace, reduced resolution.

WireMan Photo-Gallery (click on the image to enlarge)

	The three-wire prototype.
	The one-wire first prototype.
	Beam
	Motor and pulleys
	Force sensors
	The new force sensor for one-wire WireMan