Wearable robots are devices that can improve the quality of life for its users. The particular wearable robot covered in this thesis is an orthotic robot in the form of an upper-limb exoskeleton that will be mounted onto a wheelchair. The robot consists of three ROBOTIS Dynamixel actuators, which have a built-in microcontroller. The microcontroller allows for position feedback, load information, and an inbuilt proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. The motivation for the research is to design a lightweight robotic arm. The possibility of such a device is explored with the inclusion of a constant force spring to compensate for gravity. In addition, with the motor's ability to provide load information, this thesis will explore how well the built-in features of the actuator help determine user intent.
