A power-assisted arm balancer.
The design described in this paper arose from the need of a polio victim to be able to feed himself. The patient was confined to a wheelchair. His right arm was completely paralysed, but he had limited ability to move his left arm. The arm balancer described allows the patient to swing his left arm freely in a horizontal plane, and also enables him to move his arm vertically, with power assistance under his own control.
D001132:Arm; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D014910:Wheelchairs