Universal Dental Robot — 6-DOF Mouth Opening and Closing Training Robot WY-5

Abstract

This paper describes the mechanism, control method, and training results of the 6 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) mouth-opening and -closing training robot WY-5 (Waseda Yamanashi No. 5) that is an application of the Universal Dental Robot (UDR). The mouth-opening training is indicated for the rehabilitation of the patients suffering from disturbance of the mouth-opening and -closing. The six linear actuators manipulate the u-shaped end-effector of UDR. This u-shaped end-effector is a moving platform of 6-DOF parallel manipulator. Each linear actuator has displacement, velocity, and force sensor to measure the position and orientation of the u-shaped end-effector. The WY-5 is a master-slave parallel robot that manipulates the patient’s mandible that can’t widely open. The doctor grasps the 2-DOF master manipulator, and the 6-DOF slave manipulator opens the patient’s mandible according to the master manipulator’s motion. As the result of therapy by using WY-5 for two female patients who cannot open their mouth widely, the mouth opening distance increased.