Robotic-powered exoskeletons and body joint-adapted assistive units are currently under development for the enhancement of human locomotor performance in the military, in industries, and in patients and the elderly with mobility impairments. They free people from much labor and the burdens of many kinds of manual work. For example, when it comes to automation in the industrial field, factory automation has made good progress. Operators (humans) can be included in a conventional manufacturing process with respect to a formal production line and uniform working conditions. Automation outside the production line, however, especially in common manufacturing stages, has several limitations and difficulties in adapting to actual conditions because the industrial field has but a small part in the process due to its operating characteristics. There have been many approaches to the reduction of labor that do not only fully assist but also partly aid workers, such as in the use of extremely heavy payload-oriented construction equipment, which are manipulated by humans.

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En este trabajo se presenta el diseño e implementación de un dispositivo de rehabilitación de miembro superior para lesiones del Sistema Nervioso Periférico o Muscular. Éste se sujeta al brazo del paciente mediante una férula que se adapta al tamaño del mismo, y en una primera etapa se ha realizado de manera tal que permita realizar movimientos de flexo-extensión. El prototipo está compuesto por una sección fija que sostiene todo el peso del brazo y una sección móvil, que permite realizar movimientos de flexión y extensión de antebrazo sobre el brazo. El sistema es controlado por medio de una interfaz de usuario, a través de un software llamado RehabI, utilizando MatLab como entorno de programación. Este programa conecta al usuario con el prototipo enviando las órdenes de movimiento al dispositivo a través del puerto de salida de la placa de audio de una computadora personal, pudiendo modificarse la terapia que debe realizar el paciente. Adicionalmente, se puede programar la velocidad y el ángulo de flexión que el paciente debe realizar de acuerdo a las limitaciones que posea en sus movimientos.

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I spent the summer creating a virtual environment that could be integrated for use with our exoskeleton arms. I did so using an open source graphics platform called Coin3D. The code I have written can be found in the Visual Studio Projects folder on the main VR computer. This is located in My Documents -> Visual Studio 2008 in Levi’s account. Developers wishing to create games using this environment or add to the code I have already written can skip straight to “The simulation.” However, the other sections contain information that may be relevant to anyone wishing to modify the existing code.

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This is an advanced topics course in Biologically Inspired Neurobotics and Behavioral Robotics (BINBR). The focus is on the development of relevant tools, methods, and design of such systems. The course will develop a theoretical framework for major issues in BINBR. The principles, design, and practice of behavior-based autonomous robotic architectures through a survey of these systems will be given. Relevant biological and psychological models of behavior, knowledge building and learning in autonomous robots, reactive versus cognitive, mind and machine, modular perception, robot colonies, and future trends in robot intelligence will be covered. Programming intellect, such as reinforcement learning and self-organizing algorithms, and mathematical models of mammalian neurons will be covered. Prereq: perm. Graduate standing or instructor permission. This course is offered for the first time at the University of Idaho.

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The goal of the lower limb exoskeleton is to assist soldiers to carry their heavy loads in various terrains. The lower limb exoskeleton aims to reduce stress and fatigue on the body of the soldiers. The development of the lower limb exoskeleton will be lightweight, low powered, and wearable. The design concept will look at the human interface with the exoskeleton. The exoskeleton must react to the human interface quickly using several sensors to indicate where in the structure energy must be stored or released.

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