Development of a upper-limb exoskeleton robot for refractory construction

In this paper, a novel 7-DOF (degree-of-freedom) upper-limb robotic exoskeleton was developed for helping refractory construction operations in furnaces. The exoskeleton is the dual-arm type wearable robot that cooperates with human operators. Each arm includes Force/Torque (F/T) sensors to detect the human's motion, and the robot can handle a refractory of up to 50 kg. The exoskeleton robot generates not only high strength but also various 3-dimensional motions with the load, and it is highly suitable for the refractory construction operation.