Walking gait based on actual machine elements that capture the major features of human locomotion may enhance the understanding of human leg morphology and control, and provide necessary background science for the design and control of human-robot exoskeleton interaction system. This paper describes an investigation into the biomechanical effects of human lower limb joints during different loaded walking. Healthy volunteers walked on a level with different loaded (0kg, 10kg, 20kg, 30kg). The experiment results of human walking motion may give the base which joint of power-assisted lower extremity robot should be actuated, and what driving method should be used. At the same time, the kinematics and kinetics data of human walking motion give some bases for the choose of the actuator.

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The objective of this study is to design a robot system to assist the rehabilitation of patients so that they can afterwards do various daily activities. It is difficult to determine the desirable posture of a 9-DOFs exoskeleton manipulator in such a system and each joint control design as well. In this paper, we resolve the difficulties by mapping the kinematics of a human arm to that of the manipulator so that we can avoid going through the ill-postured configurations while searching for the desired solutions, and then reach the desired rehabilitation motion as precisely as possible. In addition, this study combines electromyography (EMG) and force sensor to detect the patient’s motion on his/her volition, so that the rehab-robot can support the human’s upper limb appropriately to fulfill the intended motion. For validation of our rehab-robot design, experiments are conducted and promising results are obtained.

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Our goal is to try to enhance the QoL of persons with hemiplegia by the mean of an active motion support system based on the HAL’s technology. The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) in its standard version is an exoskeleton-based robot suit to support and enhance the human motor functions. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is the development of a new version of the HAL to be used as an assistive device providing walking motion support to persons with hemiplegia. It includes the realization of the single leg version of the HAL and the redesign of the original HAL’s Autonomous Controller to execute human-like walking motions in an autonomous way. Clinical trials were conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of the developed system. The first stage of the trials described in this paper involved the participation of one hemiplegic patient who has difficulties to flex his right knee. As a result, the knee flexion support for walking provided by the HAL appeared to improve the subject’s walking (longer stride and faster steps). The first evaluation of the system with one subject showed promising results for the future developments.

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>We proposed a framework of using neural oscillators to control a robotic suit which learns to synchronize with the human user’s motion. The robotic suit is a lower limb exoskeleton consisting of four actuators which are fixed to the places where the human hip joints and knee joints are. Each actuator has a built-in harmonic drive gear which is equipped with a torque sensor fixed on the flex-spline. The torque sensor helps to measure the mutual joint torque, which will be generated by once there is any differences between human’s and suit’s movement. The neural oscillator connected to each joint controls each actuator through synchronizing the actuator’s desired joint angle with the feedback mutual joint torque. Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control is then used to determine the real joint angle of each actuator. We have conducted experiments to show whether: 1) the synchronous movement of robotic suit is realized; 2) the synchronized movement has the application potential for walking assistance and rehabilitation. The results showed the potential of applying the synchronization based control to the robotic suit for walking assistance and rehabilitation purposes.

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As modern society becomes increasingly more elderly, developing specialized equipment to help assist this growing population in everyday tasks becomes more and more important. Here we have developed a passive gravity balanced arm support system called the «Arm-Balancer». It was designed to assist the arm motion of elderly people with disabilities. The objective of this study is to determine the utility of the «Arm-Balancer». We will evaluate the effect of this device on the arm muscle tension of the user. The «Arm-Balancer» is supported by a gas spring to eliminate gravity and may be attached to a chair, a bed or used on the floor when attached to the «Tatami Mat» seat. The «Arm-Balancer» consists of a two-segment exoskeleton designed for the users upper arm and forearm. The links are made from stainless steel rods whose lengths are designed to parallel the lengths of the users upper arm and forearm. The upper arm segment is telescopic so the length can be adjusted to the size of the users. Driving the evaluation we determined that the «Arm Balancer» had an assistive force of 10N to the arm and 5N to the wrist. Some elderly people with disabilities were receptive to the «Arm Balancer» while others were ambivalent.

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