In the recent past, several researchers have shown that important variables in relearning motor skills and in changing the underlying neural architecture after stroke are the quantity, duration, content, and intensity of training sessions. Unfortunately, when traditional therapy is provided in a hospital or rehabilitation center, the patient is usually seen for few hours a week. Robot-mediated therapies could improve this situation but even if interesting results have been achieved by several groups, the use of robot-mediated therapy has not become very common in clinical practice. This is due to many different reasons (e.g., the “technophobia” of some clinicians, the need for more extensive clinical trials) but one of the more important is the cost and the complexity of these devices which make them difficult to be purchased and used in all the clinical centers. The aim of this work was to verify the possibility of improving motor recovery of hemiparetic subjects by using a simple mechatronic system. To achieve this goal, our system (named “MEchatronic system for MOtor recovery after Stroke” (MEMOS)) has been designed with the aim of using mainly “off-the-shelf products” with only few parts simply manufactured with standard technology, when commercial parts were not available. Moreover, the prototype has been developed taking into account the requirements related to the clinical applicability such as robustness and safety.

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In recent years, new physicochemical principles and new transducing materials have been discovered, which make it possible to generate mechanical actions that perform the basic functions of an actuator. In today’s world, with increasingly stringent demands for control of widely varying devices, there is a need to find ever more efficient actuators, with more power, bandwidth and precision but smaller in size. This is clearly the case, for example, of actuators for implantation in human beings or for use on space vehicles. The scientific approaches that the research community has adopted toward the new actuators have been very unfocused and sectoral, as readers will appreciate from the long list of over 50 very recent references dealing with specific aspects that are discussed at the end of this book. This generalized situation of fragmented analysis contrasts with the painstakingly comprehensive and rigorous account, which, here, offers the reader an overview of the subject. Its purpose is to help build up a body of doctrine relating to emerging actuator technologies, and its primary virtue is to treat the various different materials as active or semiactive mechatronic devices so as to be able to integrate them in a controlled system. The actuator itself is considered as a mechatronic system with all its attendant derivatives.

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This book has its origins in a meeting entitled ‘‘Toward Replacement Parts for the Brain: Intracranial Implantation of Hardware Models of Neural Circuitry,’’ that took place in Washington, D.C., in August 1999. The meeting was sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the University of Southern California (USC) Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and the USC Center for Neural Engineering. The motivation for the meeting was a growing realization among neuroscientists, engineers, and medical researchers that our society was on the threshold of a new era in the field of neural prosthetics; namely, that in the near future it would be possible to mathematically model the functional properties of different regions or subregions of the brain, design and fabricate microchips incorporating those models, and create neuron/silicon interfaces to integrate microchips and brain functions. In this manner, our rapidly increasing understanding of the computational and cognitive properties of the brain could work synergistically with the continuing scientific and technological revolutions in biomedical, computer, and electrical engineering to realize a new generation of implantable devices that could bidirectionally communicate with the brain to restore sensory, motor, or cognitive functions lost through damage or disease.

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A novel linear stepper piezoelectric actuator is reported in this paper. We designed the configuration of the actuator and fabricated its prototype. A testing system was set up to examine its dynamic characteristic. It has been found that the actuator moves in stepping mode under lower pulse frequency and achieves the highest velocity and the longest range when the duration of high level is 1 ms. The new actuator has a displacement resolution of 0.1
m and a maximum velocity of 0.6 mm/s. Its load may be 200 g and its range may be several centimeters. Besides, it also has a simple configuration and is easy to be controlled. A high precision positioning system can be achieved with it.

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Walking machines have been attempted since the beginning of the technology of transportation machinery with the aim to overpass the limits of wheeled systems by looking at legged solutions in nature. But only since the last part of the 20-th century very efficient walking machines have been conceived, designed, and built with good performances that are suitable for practical appli-cations carrying significant payload with relevant flexibility and versatility. In this chapter we have presented a survey of the variety of current solutions and prototypes of walking machines and we have illustrated fundamental characteristics and problems for their design and operation. The worldwide feasibility of walking machines is presented by discussing the activity at LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino (Italy) as concerning with low-cost easy-operation solutions that can really make the walking machines available to non expert users for many applications.

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