Eye Gaze Controlled Robotic Arm for Persons with Severe Speech and Motor Impairment

Recent advancements in the field of robotics offers new promises for people with different range of abilities although making a human robot interface for people with severe disabilities is challenging. This paper describes the design and development of an eye gaze controlled interface for users with severe speech and motor impairment to manipulate a robotic arm. Two user studies were reported on pick and drop and reachability studies involving users with severe speech and motor impairment. Using the eye gaze controlled interface users could undertake representative pick and drop task at an average duration less than 15 secs and reach a randomly designated target within 60 secs.