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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Категория: Научные статьи | 1 Комментарий »

«Нейрогаджет» EPOC отличается от сходных разработок лёгкостью и беспроводной связью с компьютером. Но главное — он поступает в продажу (фото с сайта gizmag.com).

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Категория: Управление | Нет комментариев »

Группа учёных, возглавляемая Максом Донеланом (Max Donelan) из лаборатории университета Саймона Фрейзера, изучающей способность человека к передвижению (Locomotion Lab), создала небольшое наколенное устройство, которое способно эффективно переводить малую толику сил, затрачиваемых на ходьбу, в электричество для портативной электроники.

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Категория: Энергия | Нет комментариев »

This paper presents the design, control and performance of a high fidelity four degree-of-freedom wrist exoskeleton robot, RiceWrist, for training and rehabilitation. The RiceWrist is intended to provide kinesthetic feedback during the training of motor skills or rehabilitation of reaching movements. Motivation for such applications is based on findings that show robot-assisted physical therapy aids in the rehabilitation process following neurological injuries. The exoskeleton device accommodates forearm supination and pronation, wrist flexion and extension and radial and ulnar deviation in a compact parallel mechanism design with low friction, zero backlash and high stiffness. As compared to other exoskeleton devices, the RiceWrist allows easy measurement of human joint angles and independent kinesthetic feedback to individual human joints. In this paper, joint-space as well as task-space position controllers and an impedance-based force controller for the device are presented. The kinematic performance of the device is characterized in terms of its workspace, singularities, manipulability, backlash and backdrivability. The dynamic performance of RiceWrist is characterized in terms of motor torque output, joint friction, step responses, behavior under closed loop set-point and trajectory tracking control and display of virtual walls. The device is singularity-free, encompasses most of the natural workspace of the human joints and exhibits low friction, zero-backlash and high manipulability, which are kinematic properties that characterize a high-quality impedance display device. In addition, the device displays fast, accurate response under position control that matches human actuation bandwidth and the capability to display sufficiently hard contact with little coupling between controlled degrees-of-freedom.

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Chronic hand impairment is common following stroke. While mass practice of movement has shown promise for rehabilitation, initial impairment of the hand may be too severe to permit even approximations of the desired movement. To facilitate movement, especially of pinch, we are building an exoskeleton to permit independent actuation of each of the three joints of the index finger. Separate actuators are used for flexion and extension, with closed-loop control of either force or position. In the future, a companion thumb exoskeleton will be developed to permit coordinated performance of pinch. This system will be used to assess strategies for optimizing rehabilitation of pinch and reach-to-pinch following stroke. The design of the actuated index fingerexoskeleton is presented here.

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