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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Категория: Научные статьи | Нет комментариев »

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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Профессор Бум Сук Лим (Bumsuk Lim) из калифорнийского колледжа дизайна (Art Center College of Design) открыл в нём некоторое время назад первый класс дизайна мотоциклов, полагая, что эта сфера была недооценена в последнее время и затерялась на фоне дизайна автомобильного. Ныне же первый опытный класс по данной дисциплине отпраздновал выпуск.

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Категория: Wearable Motorcycle | 11 комментариев »

Robotic rehabilitation for physical therapy has several advantages over conventional manual rehabilitation, especially in the aspects of accuracy and repeatability. Initial attempts at robotic rehabilitation focused on training muscles by moving limbs in a fixed repetitive pattern. Later it was realized that such an approach could be suboptimal. Better approach would be the use of ‘assist-as-needed’ paradigm, where an orthotic device provides just enough assistance to enable the patient to move his leg under his own control. However, at this time, lower extremity devices which can apply appropriate forces to implement this paradigm are still in research and not commercially available. The goal of this work is to develop lower extremity orthotic devices using assist-as-needed paradigm for robotic rehabilitation. To achieve this goal two orthotic devices were developed. They are Gravity Balancing leg Orthosis (GBO) and Active Leg EXoskeleton (ALEX).

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США. Штат Юта. Солт-Лейк-Сити. Исследовательская лаборатория компании Raytheon. Здесь идет работа над одним из самых грандиозных изобретений — костюмом, наделяющим человека мощью боевого робота. Долгое время это был один из наиболее впечатляющих научно-фантастических образов. Но скоро такая разработка войдёт в реальную жизнь. Впрочем, уже почти вошла…

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Категория: XOS 1 | Нет комментариев »