Full or partial loss of function in the upper limb is an increasingly common due to sports injuries, occupational injuries, spinal cord injuries, and strokes.Typically treatment for these conditions relies on manipulative physiotherapy procedures which are extremely labour intensive. Although mechanical assistive device exist for limbs this is rare for the upper body. In this paper we describe the construction and testing of a seven degree of motion prototype upper arm training/ rehabilitation (exoskeleton) system. The total weight of the uncompensated orthosis is less than 2 kg. This low mass is primarily due to the use of a new range of pneumatic Muscle Actuators (pMA) as power source for the system. This type of actuator, which has also an excellent power/weight ratio, meets the need for safety, simplicity and lightness. The work presented shows how the system takes advantage of the inherent controllable compliance to produce a unit that is extremely powerful, providing a wide range of functionality (motion and forces over an extended range) in a manner that has high safety integrity for the patient. A training control scheme is introduced which is used to control the orthosis when used as exercise facility. Results demonstrate the potential of the device as an upper limb training, rehabilitation and power assist (exoskeleton) system.

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A robotic exoskeleton and a control system for driving the robotic exoskeleton, including a method for making and using the robotic exoskeleton and its control system. The robotic exoskeleton has sensors embedded in it which provide feedback to the control system. Feedback is used from the motion of the legs themselves, as they deviate from a normal gait, to provide corrective pressure and guidance. The position versus time is sensed and compared to a normal gait profile. Various normal profiles are obtained based on studies of the population for age, weight, height and other variables.

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Movements of upper limbs are complicated, various and indispensable for daily activities. For patients with impairment of their upper limb, rehabilitation along with medical treatment is needed to recover function. For elderly as well, training is needed to keep their ADL or social activities. Application of robotics and virtual reality technology makes possible for new training methods and exercises and for quantitative evaluations to enhance the qualitative effect of training. However it is difficult for conventional robots to be commercialized for rehabilitation use be-cause of safety insufficiency. The authors have involved in a project managed by NEDO (New Energy and Indu-strial Technology Development Organization), “Rehabilitation System for the Upper Limbs and Lower Limbs,” and developed a 3-DOF exercise machine for upper limb (EMUL). In this paper, the authors report on EMUL which has been developed considering safety. They also mention some software with force display by EMUL, which can help doctors and therapists with their treatment.

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The invention relates to an arm exoskeleton comprising a moving system of joints placed in parallel with the joints of the human arm, the exoskeleton comprising a shoulder exoskeleton, an elbow exoskeleton, and a wrist exoskeleton. In all, the exoskeleton has sixteen joints providing sixteen degrees of freedom. A support worn on the torso of a human operator comprises a rigid front plate and a rigid back plate. The shoulder exoskeleton has its proximal end fixed to the front plate, whereby the front plate provides a fixed reference for all movements of the exoskeleton, and the wrist exoskeleton is fixed to a rigid glove worn on the hand of the operator. Active joints are controlled by flexible cable tendons bridging the exoskeleton, said tendons themselves being actuated by control units disposed on the rigid back plate. Inflatable cushions prevent the wrist exoskeleton and the shoulder exoskeleton from moving relative to the arm of the operator. The invention is applicable in particular to remotely controlling a robot in space.

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Современный научный мир — это ФАБРИКА ПО ПРОИЗВОДСТВУ КИБОРГОВ. В производственном процессе задействованы лучшие дизайнеры, инженеры, ученые. Термин «научная фантастика» постепенно изживает себя, поскольку с сегодняшним темпом развития технологий, современные фантасты вполне могут реализовать даже самые бредовые идеи в реальном мире:).

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