An adjustable Robotic Tendon is a spring based linear actuator in which the properties of a spring are crucial to its successful use in a gait assistance device. Like its human analog, the adjustable Robotic Tendon uses its inherent elastic nature to both reduce peak power and energy requirements for its motor. In the ideal example, peak power required of the motor for ankle gait is reduced from 250W to just 81W. In addition, ideal energy requirements are reduced from nearly 36 Joules to just 25 Joules per step. Using this approach, an initial prototype is expected to provide 100% of the power and energy neccessary for ankle gait in a compact 0.84kg package. This weight is 8 times less than that predicted for an equivalent direct drive approach.

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A method for obtaining an assist torque to be applied to a human joint, in a human assist system in order to reduce the load on muscles, according to the present invention comprises the step of obtaining a moment due to gravity, acting on a joint of each human segment, based on equations of force and moment balance on each segment. The method further comprises the step of obtaining an assist torque to be applied to the joint to compensate for the moment due to gravity, acting on the joint. In one embodiment of the present invention, various criteria are used such as mechanical energy, metabolic energy and/or a stability/equilibrium factor. In addition, the present invention can account for the situation where there is substantially no relative motion between segments of a given joint and thus, where the mechanical energy component of gravity compensation is approximately zero.

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A rehabilitation tool based on an innovative mimetic active orthosis for hemiplegics is presented. It follows concepts of neuronal learning from afferent information from movements, similar to those lost after brain damage. An artificial gait pattern is applied on knee and hip articulations of a functional modified limb by using an exoskeleton powered by pneumatic muscles.

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This paper presents the results of a clinical trial employing the PERCRO L-Exos (Light-Exoskeleton) system, which is a 5-DoF force-feedback exoskeleton for the right arm, for robotic-assisted rehabilitation. The device has demonstrated itself suitable for robotic arm rehabilitation therapy when integrated with a Virtual Reality (VR) system. Three different schemes of therapy in VR have been tested in the clinical evaluation trial, which was conducted at the Santa Chiara Hospital in Pisa with nine chronic stroke patients. The results of this clinical trial, both in terms of patients performance improvements in the proposed exercises and in terms of improvements in the standard clinical scales which have been used to monitor patients progresses will be reported and discussed throughout the paper. It is to be noted that statistically significant improvements have been demonstrated in terms of Fugl-Meyer scores, Ashworth scale and increments of active and passive ROMs on shoulder, elbow and wrist joints of the impaired limb.

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This paper presents a concept of an upper-limb power assist intelligent exoskeleton with visual information as a second stage of the research on power-assist exoskeleton systems in order to help daily activities of physically weak persons. The proposedexoskeleton assists not only the motion of the user but also the perception of the user using sensors and a stereo camera. In the proposed power-assist method, the assisted user’s motion can be modified based on the environmental information obtained by the sensors and the camera if problems are found in the user’s motion. The effectiveness of the proposed intelligent exoskeletonwas evaluated by experiments.

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