In the nearly six decades since researchers began to explore methods of creating them, exoskeletons have progressed from the stuff of science fiction to nearly commercialized products. While there are still many challenges associated with exoskeleton development that have yet to be perfected, the advances in the field have been enormous. In this paper, we review the history and discuss the state-of-the-art of lower limb exoskeletons and active orthoses. We provide a design overview of hardware, actuation, sensory, and control systems for most of the devices that have been described in the literature, and end with a discussion of the major advances that have been made and hurdles yet to be overcome.

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Humans are the most advanced creatures of the nature. It looks like humanoid robots will be the most advanced creatures of humans. Among the man-made creatures such as automobile, hand-phones and multimedia devices, robots of the future will hopefully be the most ideal assistants to human beings. Robots can live up to this expectation because future intelligent and autonomous robots could free humans from, or ease them up of, repeatedly undertaking physically and mentally challenging routines. For instance, Robot Doctor could provide medical advices, pre-diagnostic, and even assist in surgical operation; Robot Nurse could assist patients in hospital or at home; Robot Soldier could participate in military intervention, and even fight terrorism; Robot Tutor could help our students to have a better learning experience; Robot Guard could make our society much safer; Robot Maid could keep our house clean and secure, and even help look after elderly people at home; Robot Rescuer could be deployed to places where human lives are in danger. The list of potential applications with intelligent and autonomous robots is growing.

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The increasing integration of combining with the hardware (the basic mechanism, electronic circuit board, transducer and actuator) and the software (information processing and overall control) results in integrated systems called mechatronic systems. The development progresses of a mechatronic system involve properly disposing every component for desired function. The progress has a very large influence on a variety of commercial products in the field of advanced robotic systems, Micro/Nanomechatronics, biomechatronics and healthcare, automotive systems, and so on. Indeed, the design concepts usually originate from the biological inspiration. By observing and inspiring the biological phenomena, behavior and similar structures, the correlative principles can be derived or understood and use them to help solve a non-biological problem. In the beginning, this paper enumerates some definitions for mechatronics engineering, and reviews the development history in the field of mechatronic systems. Secondly, the required components, key functions and eminent applications are discussed. In section two, the problems met in the progress from design to realization are proposed, such as biological inspiration and integration aspects. Next, the development of key components for mechatronic system is then described. Numerous literatures have been cited to emphasize the significance of mechatronic applications. Finally, the expectations and future perspectives of mechatronic systems are addressed.

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Ananthropomorphic underactuated prosthetic hand, endowed with position and force sensors and controlled by means of myoelectric commands, is used to perform experiments of hier-archical shared control. Three different hierarchical control strategies combined with a vibrotactile feedback system have been developed and tested by able-bodied subjects through grasping tasks used in activities of daily living (ADLs). The first goal is to find a good tradeoff between good grasping capabilities and low attention required by the user to complete grasping tasks,without addressing advanced algorithm for electromyographic processing. The second goal is to understand whether a vibrotactile feedback system is subjectively or objectively useful and how it changes users’ performance. Experiments showed that users were able to successfully operate the device in the three control strategies, and that the grasp success increased with more interactive control. Practice has proven that when too much effort is required, subjects do not do their best, preferring, instead, a less-interactive control strategy. Moreover, the experiments showed that when grasping tasks are performed under visual control, the enhanced proprioception offered by a vibrotactile system is practically not exploited. Nevertheless, in subjective opinion, feedback seems to be quite important.

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A surface neuroprosthetic device for functional electrical stimulation (FES) having a locating system for locating the device on to a limb segment of a user, and a method therefor, the device including: (a) an at least semi-rigid exoskeleton shell for encompassing at least a portion of the limb segment; (b) at least one electrical stimulation electrode operatively connected with the shell, for making electrical contact with a surface of the limb segment, so as to effect FES of at least one muscle of the limb segment; and (c) a locator, operatively connected with the shell, for determining a positioning of the shell relative to the limb segment, such that the electrode is positioned near an activating point, the locator including: (i) means for determining rotational positioning of the exoskeleton shell on the limb segment, and (ii) means for determining longitudinal positioning of the exoskeleton shell on the limb segment.

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