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- 91-03/EXOS.inf
-
- EXOS, Inc.
- 8 Blanchard Rd.
- Burlington, MA 01803.
-
- Pricewise, they are in the U.S. $15k range.
-
- One of their products is the Dexterous Hand Master. This is an
- exoskeleton for the hand (a position sensor to locate the hand in
- 3-space would have to be attached - they are willing to attach one for
- you if you don't have your own engineers for such). The exoskeleton
- is roughly 11 ounces. Straps anchor the exoskeleton to each finger
- joint and the wrist. Finger bending and side to side motions are
- measured, in all 20 distinct angles. These angles are measured by a
- ``Hall Effect sensor'' (don't know what that is) which is accurate to
- half a degree. Each channel can be sampled up to 100 times per second
- (RS422 or RS232 connectors available - RS422 gives maximum output
- rates). There is supporting software for PC AT, Macintosh, and VME
- systems. The sensor technology was ``originally developed at Arthur
- D. Little as an outgrowth of research carried on for NASA.'' Sales
- brochure targets remote operation of robotic hands, control of musical
- performances, and artificial computer environments.
-
- The other product that looks interesting is called GripMaster. It
- comes as an IBM AT compatible critter. One angle sensor is attached
- to the wrist and back of hand and a force sensor is attached to the
- middle joint of each finger (at least in the sales brochure). Force
- sensor can measure in range from 0 to 30 pounds with sensitivity of
- 0.25 pounds. Again, measured at a rate of 100 samples per channel per
- second. Apparently this was developed with looking for potential
- sources of hand/wrist injuries, analyzing comfort in design of tools,
- workstations, and products, and training workers.
-
-