There is a need for wearable powered upper limb exoskeletons able to apply forces to the upper limb for use by people with disabilities and/or limb weakness or injury. The robotic exoskeleton called WOTAS (Wearable Orthosis for Tremor Assessment and Suppression) presented in this paper will provide a means of testing non-grounded control strategies in order to help these people. For instance, biomechanical loading, in particular, viscous loading of the upper limb has been proposed in the literature as a means for suppressing pathologic tremor. This article describes in detail the general concept for WOTAS, outlining the special features of the design and selection of system components.

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Категория: Научные статьи | Нет комментариев »

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an mounting type action assisting device for suppressing a strange feeling to be given to an mounting person as much as possible, and to provide a method for controlling the device, and its program. SOLUTION: The mounting type action assisting device for assisting the action of the mounting person or taking care of it comprises: an action assisting harness 2 having an actuator 201 for giving power to the mounting person 1; a biological signal sensor 221 for detecting the biological signal of the person 1; a biological signal processing means 3 for acquiring nerve transmission signal for moving the musculoskeletal system of the person 1 and a muscular potential signal accompanied with muscular activity, from the biological signal which is detected by the biological signal sensor; a voluntary control means 4 for generating a command signal to generate in the actuator 201 power which follows the intention of the person 1, through the use of the nerve transmission signal and the muscular potential signal acquired by the biological signal processing means 3; and a driving current generating means 5 for generating current corresponding to the nerve transmission signal and current corresponding to the muscular potential signal respectively to supply the same to the actuator 201, based on the command signal generated by the voluntary control means 4.

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Штуковина притягивает взгляд, ничего не скажешь. Прежде всего, обращают на себя внимание пушки. Вооружение робота выглядит устрашающе. Это что, шагающая боевая машина или просто – нефункциональная поделка какого-то энтузиаста? И вообще – не «Фотошоп» ли? Ни то, ни другое, ни третье.

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Категория: Юмор | Нет комментариев »

Our experience with a Haptic Workstation™ has shown that this device is uncomfortable to use during long sessions. The main reason is the uncomfortable posture of the arms, which must be kept outstretched horizontally while supporting the weight of an exoskeleton. We describe Zero-G, a real-time weight compensation system aimed at improving user comfort by compensating for the weight of both the exoskeleton and arms (zero gravity illusion). We present experimental results complemented with electro myography measures (EMG) as an indicator of muscular activity/fatigue. Our tests show how Zero-G exerts a positive influence on the reduction of muscular fatigue when using a Haptic Workstation™.

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The paper presents the mechanical design of the L-EXOS, a new exoskeleton for the human arm. The exoskeleton is a tendon driven wearable haptic interface with 5 dof 4 actuated ones, and is characterized by a workspace very close to the one of the human arm. The design has been optimized to obtain a solution with reduced mass and high stiffness, by employing special mechanical components and carbon fiber structural parts. The devised exoskeleton is very effective for simulating the touch by hand of large objects or the manipulation within the whole workspace of the arm. The main features of the first prototype that has been developed at PERCRO are presented, together with an indication of the achieved and tested performance.

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