The aim of rehabilitation robotic area is to research on the application of robotic devices to therapeutic procedures. The goal is to achieve the best possible motor, cognitive and functional recovery for people with impairments following various diseases. Pneumatic actuators are attractive for robotic rehabilitation applications because they are lightweight, powerful, and compliant, but their control has historically been difficult, limiting their use. This article first reviews the current state-of-art in rehabilitation robotic devices with pneumatic actuation systems reporting main features and control issues of each therapeutic device. Then, a new pneumatic rehabilitation robot for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation therapies and for relearning daily living skills: like taking a glass, drinking, and placing object on shelves is described as a case study and compared with the current pneumatic rehabilitation devices.

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Opto-mechanical motion capture system for indirectly measuring the movement of bodies and objects, mainly focused on joints of flexible materials, or which have deformations, which makes difficult the instrumentation with rigid sensors such as potentiometers. This invention consists of an image acquisition device or camera and a visualization bed in which there is a series of transmission cables which convey to the visualization bed the movements generated in the flexible parts to be sensed. The camera is set in such a way that it is possible to capture the image of the transmission cables, enabling the determination of its displacement and thus of the sensed objects. The main object of this invention is to enable the measurement of the movements of the flexible parts of the human body in a simple, cheap and comfortable way for the user of the device.

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A method for actuating a mechanism imposing a prefixed relative movement between a first and a second rigid link and a hand exoskeleton obtained by utilizing the method. The mechanism includes revolute joints and may be a parallelogram mechanism, a pantograph remote center of rotation mechanism, or a multiple-degrees-of-freedom mechanism. The method provides coaxially arranging at one or more selected revolute joints a number of idle pulleys which are greater than the number of degrees of freedom of the mechanism, the first of the selected revolute joints preferably having its rotation axis fixed with respect to the rigid link; the method also provides arranging an inextensible cable between a traction point and a terminal point on the mechanism or on the second rigid link. By pulling the inextensible cable at the traction point, a multiplied torque is produced which is the sum of singular torques produced by the inextensible cable at each idle pulley, the multiplied torque causing a relative movement between the links.

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A modular body armour system (100) includes an upper shoulder harness (102) in which shoulder straps (106, 108) are pivotally rotatable relative to each other and also to front and back connecting bridges (112, 114) that define a closed loop for the harness (102). Armour plates (124, 126) are attachable to the bridges (112, 114) and extend generally downwardly to protect the front and back torso regions of a wearer of the body armour (100). Pivotal articulation of the body armour (100) permits the armour to roll advantageously with the movement of its wearer such that movement, such as crouching or the adoption of a firing position, is not generally restricted. A lower girdle (104) incorporates additional plates and panels (140, 142, 105, 152) to provide enhanced protection to the wearer, which lower girdle (104) may be entirely independent of the upper shoulder harness (102). By providing for chest expansion through an elasticated connection within both the shoulder harness (102) and the lower girdle (104), a wearer is placed under less physiological stress during times of exertion and mental stress, thereby improving the overall performance of the wearer.

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Surface electromyography signals (SEMG) are the most common form of non-invasive-measurement of muscle activities. To acquire proper SEMG for particular limb function, the placement of electrodes on the skin over respective active group of muscles becomes very important. Measurement of SEMG depends on a number of factors/parameters like amplitude, time and frequency domain properties. In the present investigation, analysis was carried firstly; to study the grip force vs. SEMG parameters at acupressure points on arm, using single channel approach. At all the selected acupressure points a linear increment of SEMG was observed. Secondly; to discriminate four elbow movements from different locations on arm using two channel approach with single parameter. The parameter for the analysis chosen was the root of mean of square (RMS) value of SEMG. Further; principal component analysis was used to verify the elbow movement discrimination. Extension and supination were the two operations which were observed to be easy to realize by prosthetic devices. The selection of these locations was done on the basis of acupressure points and anatomy of elbow. Matlab-softscope was used for acquiring the SEMG from line-in input port of PC-sound card. This study will also be helpful for the researchers in understanding the behavior of SEMG for elbow movement in development of prosthetic or exoskeleton devices.

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