A new bipedal mobile robot design that combines the benefits of rolling, walking, and climbing locomotion is discussed. The design provides these locomotion primitives without the addition of actuators beyond those required for climbing through the use of a disk-like exoskeleton that provides a rolling surface. Small joint oscillations control the center of gravity of the robot in order to initiate and perpetuate quasi-static rolling motion. Simulation results are also included to validate this algorithm.

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An intelligent externally powered orthotic system (exoskeleton) for the treatment of motor dysfunctions of the upper extremities of stroke patients is described. IROS is an interactive and cooperative human-machine system, with both controlling the human arm. Initially, the machine is the main controller of the arm. As the patient improves, the human control of the arm increases, and the machine control of the arm decreases. The system combines the skills of professional therapists with a sensor-integrated orthosis and a real-time graphics system to ensure proper interaction and cooperation with the patient in order to achieve the goals of therapy. It uses the expertise of the therapists, which is incorporated into its knowledge system, while monitoring the sensory information from the patient, including the force, motion, and electromyogram (EMG) signals. The treatment-related tasks are displayed on the real-time graphic system to increase the interest and enhance the motivation of the patient. Such a system can be used to improve the rehabilitation process for stroke patients

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Rehabilitation robotics is an active area of research in the field of stroke rehabilitation. There is significant potential for improving the current physical rehabilitation methods after stroke through the use of robotic devices. RUPERT is a wearable roboticexoskeleton powered by pneumatic muscle actuators. An adaptive robot control strategy combining a PID-based feedback controller and an Iterative Learning Controller (ILC) is proposed for performing passive reaching tasks. Additionally, a fuzzy rule-base for estimating the learning rate for the ILC is also proposed. The proposed control scheme has the ability to adapt to different subject for performing different reaching tasks. The preliminary results from two able-bodied subjects demonstrate that the proposed controller can provide consistent performance for different subjects performing different reaching tasks.

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Upper limbs of human beings are extremely special and significant, which obtain crucial function to achieve manipulations intelligently and dexterously. Gesture-Changeable Under-Actuated (GCUA) grasping function is presented to improve the capability of robotic hands to achieve humanoid manipulations with low dependence on control and sensor feedback systems, which includes tradi-tional under-actuated (UA) grasping motion and special prebending (PB) motion. Based on GCUA function, GCUA Hand II is developed, which has 5 fingers and 14 DOF. All the fingers use similar tendon mechanisms and motors to achieve GCUA function. With GCUA Hand II, a humanoid robot upper limb system is designed, which has two 3-DOF arms actuated by stepper motors and two 14-DOF hands actuated by DC motors. The control system includes four parts: a computer, a FPGA motion controller, a driver module, and a user module, which can control the upper limb system to do various movements dexterously and exactly. With C++ language, a spatial motion program is designed to assist researchers to determine spatial motions of the upper limb system. This system has a great prospect in the field of rehabilitation engineering, extremely environmental manipulation, humanoid robotics and social services.

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Developments in telepresence have served to demonstrate the requirements for an advanced realistic user interface to remote and virtual entities. Most of these applications have concentrated on visual and audio feedback but recent research has highlighted the need for tactile input, control and feedback. This paper reports on the operator input/feedback robot sensory/control aspects of a dexterous manipulation system possessed of two arms (left and right) and two dexterous multi-jointed skeletal `hands’. The operator input units developed include a light weight 7 degree of freedom arm exoskeleton combined with a cutaneous tactile feedback glove providing finger input control and tactile feedback of contact force, vibrational and thermal data in a system with an overall mass of less than 0.75 kg. This provides a user friendly system that can be used for extended periods without excessive strain

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