DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MEASURING THE POSITION OF ANIMATE LINKS

• US 20010020140A1
• Filed: 05/05/2000
• Published: 09/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Original Assignee: Virtual Technologies, Inc. (Immersion Corporation)
• Inventors: Kramer, James F.
• Granted Patent: US 6,497,672 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/595
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0261 Strain gauges
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/70 Manipulators specially adapted for use in surgery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1071 measuring angles, e.g. using goniometers A61B5/1123 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4528 Joints A61B5/4533, A61B5/4538 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6825 Hand
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6826 Finger
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/02 Hand grip control means handles or pedals for crane control B66C13/56; for measuring the force applied to control members G01L5/22; hand-held casings for switching devices, e.g. joy-sticks H01H9/0214
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0006 Exoskeletons, i.e. resembling a human figure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves

Abstract

An exoskeleton device is provided for measuring positions of links and angles of joints of an animate body, where the body comprises a plurality of links joined by intervening joints. The device is affixed at a first mobile terminus of said animate body and a second fixed terminus, having device links displaced from animate links, where the device links are connected by device joints and having sensor means for measuring the angle of the device joints. Using the signals from the sensor means, one can determine the position of the terminal device link and based on knowledge of the animate body structure, calculate the animate angle joints.

Claims

1. A method for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain, employing a device kinematic chain having attached device links, each affixed to said terminal animate links by an attachment, said device kinematic chain comprising a plurality of device joints with at least one displaced away from said animate links and joined by device links, where the number of device joints is at least three comprising at least two sensing device joints with two sensing device joints on opposing ends of a device link, the number of said sensing device joints being at least sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links, said method comprising:

measuring the angle of each of said sensing device joints;

transmitting the angle measurement for each of said sensing device joints as an electrical signal to a signal processor; and

determining the relative placement of said two terminal animate links from said electrical signals.

2. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said determining uses inverse kinematics on said animate links and said at least one animate joint.

3. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said two terminal animate links are separated by at least one intermediate animate link, and said determining further includes determining the relative placement of said at least one intermediate animate link using inverse kinematics on said animate links and said at least one animate joint.

4. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said determining further comprises:

calculating the relative placement of said attached device links from said electrical signals; and

calculating at least one animate joint angle using the relative placement of said two attached device links, the site of attachment of said attached device links to terminal animate links, the animate kinematic structure and inverse kinematics.

5. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein the placement on said animate links of said attachments is excluded from said determining.

6. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said device kinematic chain comprises at least three sensing joints.

7. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said device kinematic chain comprises at least 4 device joints, wherein the axes of at least 3 device joints are parallel and one axis is orthogonal to the other axes.

8. A method according to

claim 7

, wherein said device joint having said orthogonal axis is proximal to one of said attachments.

9. A method according to

claim 1

, wherein said method comprises measuring a plurality of said animate kinematic chains.

10. A method for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain, employing a device kinematic chain having terminal attached device links affixed to each of said terminal animate links by an attachment and comprising a plurality of device joints with at least one displaced away from said animate links, where the number of device joints is at least three, comprising at least two sensing device joints with two sensing device joints on opposing ends of a device link and a non-sensing joint connected to a said attached link, as members of said device kinematic chain, the number of said sensing device joints being at least sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links, said method comprising:

measuring the angle of each of said sensing device joints;

transmitting the angle measurement for each of said sensing device joints as an electrical signal to a signal processor;

determining the relative placement of said two terminal animate links from said electrical signals.

11. A method for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain, employing a device kinematic chain having terminal attached device links affixed to said terminal animate links by an attachment and comprising three sensing device joints serially connecting four device links as members of said device kinematic chain, to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links, said method comprising:

measuring the angle of each of said sensing device joints;

transmitting the angle measurement for each of said sensing device joints as an electrical signal to a signal processor;

determining the relative placement of said two terminal animate links from said electrical signals.

12. A method according to

claim 11

, wherein said two terminal animate links are separated by at least one intermediate animate link, and said determining further includes determining the relative placement of said at least one intermediate animate link using inverse kinematics on said animate links and said at least one animate joint.

13. A method for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain, employing a device kinematic chain having terminal attached device links affixed to said terminal animate links by an attachment, said device kinematic chain comprising at least four device joints having parallel axes and joined by device links, with at least one device joint displaced from the surface of said animate kinematic chain, the number of said sensing device joints being at least sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links, said method comprising:

measuring the angle of each of said sensing device joints;

transmitting the angle measurement for each of said sensing device joints as an electrical signal to a signal processor; and

determining the relative placement of said two terminal animate links from said electrical signals.

14. A method for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by at least two animate joints of at least one animate kinematic chain, said animate kinematic chain comprising a portion of a hand including at least a portion of a finger, employing a device kinematic chain having terminal device links affixed to said terminal animate links by an attachment, said device kinematic chain comprising a plurality of device joints with at least one displaced away from said animate links and joined by device links, where the number of device joints is at least three comprising at least two sensing device joints with two sensing device joints on opposite ends of a device link, where the number of sensing device joints is sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links, said method comprising:

measuring the angle of each of said sensing device joints;

transmitting the angle measurement for each of said sensing device joints as an electrical signal to a signal processor; and

determining the relative placement of said two terminal animate links of said portion of said hand from said electrical signals.

15. A method according to

claim 14

, wherein said terminal animate links are the distal phalanx of said finger and the metacarpus of said hand.

16. A method according to

claim 14

, wherein said method comprises measuring a plurality of said animate kinematic chains.

17. A device for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain, said device comprising:

(1) at least one device kinematic chain comprising;

two attaching means for individual attachment to said two terminal animate links;

at least three device joints comprising at least two sensing device joints;

at least two device links;

wherein two sensing device joints are situated on opposite ends of a device link in said device kinematic chain, the number of sensing device joints being at least sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links;

each said sensing device joint comprising means for producing electrical signals related to the angle of said sensing device joint; and

said attaching means connected to separate attached links in said device kinematic chain; and

(2) signal transmission means for transmitting said electrical signals to a signal processing means to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links.

18. A device according to

claim 17

, wherein said device comprises at least two device kinematic chains.

19. A device according to

claim 18

, wherein two said kinematic chains share a common attached link.

20. A device according to

claim 17

, comprising at least three sensing joints.

21. A device according to

claim 17

comprising at least 4 device joints, wherein the axes of at least 3 device joints are parallel and one axis is orthogonal to the other axes.

22. A device according to

claim 21

, wherein said device joint having said orthogonal axis is proximal to one of said attachments.

23. A device for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain, said device comprising:

individual attachments for attaching to each of said two terminal animate links;

at least four sensing device joints in said kinematic chain displaced from said animate joints, the number of said sensing device joints being at least sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links;

each said sensing device joint comprising means for producing electrical signals related to the angle of said sensing device joint;

five device links in series joined by said four sensing device joints as members of said animate kinematic chain, with individual device links connected to each of said attachments and displaced from said animate links; and

signal transmission means for transmitting said electrical signals to a signal processing means to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links.

24. A device according to

claim 23

, wherein the axes of at least 3 device joints are parallel and one axis is orthogonal to the other axes.

25. A device for measuring the relative placement of two terminal animate links separated by an animate joint of at least one animate kinematic chain comprising a portion of a hand including at least a portion of a finger, said device comprising:

(1) at least one device kinematic chain comprising;

two attaching means for individual attachment to said two terminal animate links;

at least three device joints comprising at least two sensing device joints;

at least two device links;

wherein two sensing device joints are situated on opposite ends of a device link in said device kinematic chain, the number of sensing device joints being at least sufficient to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links;

each said sensing device joint comprising means for producing electrical signals related to the angle of said sensing device joint; and

said attaching means connected to separate attached links in said device kinematic chain; and

(2) signal transmission means for transmitting said electrical signals to a signal processing means to determine the relative placement of said two terminal animate links.

26. A device according to

claim 25

, wherein said terminal animate links are the distal phalanx of said finger and the metacarpus of said hand.

27. A device according to

claim 25

, wherein said device comprises at least two device kinematic chains.

28. A device according to

claim 27

, wherein two of said device kinematic chains share a common attached link at the metacarpus of said hand.