Abstract
The Handy 1 was developed in 1987 by Mike Topping to assist an 11-year-old boy with cerebral palsy to eat unaided. The system is the most successful low-cost, commercially available robotic system in the world to date, and is capable of assisting the most severely disabled with several everyday functions such as eating, drinking, washing, teeth-cleaning, shaving, and make-up application. This paper charts the development of the system, gives an overview of some individual Handy 1 studies, and also looks at the development of the robotic aid to independent living (RAIL) system funded by the European Commission BIOMED II program.
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Topping, M. An overview of the development of Handy 1, a rehabilitation robot to assist the severely disabled. Artif Life Robotics 4, 188–192 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02481173
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02481173