The neurorehabilitation robotics is a promising research field that allows improvements of the therapy effects. Some interesting systems for the neurorehabilitation of the upper limb are based on standard robotic arms and their applicability and effectiveness are based on the presence of patient’s residual motor control synergy. On the other side, the exoskeletons overcome the single joint control allowing the full control of the arm kinematics. This paper presents the first results obtained at ARTS lab for the development of an exoskeleton for upper limb, starting from one of its building block that is a stand-alone active orthesis for functional assessment of the human wrist. We are addressing the design with a biomechatronic approach, based on an extensive analysis of the state-of-the-art. The design rules of sensorized wrist orthesis for functional assessment of the wrist and its first prototype are presented.

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This paper presents a method taking advantage of medically available MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) data to derive the kinematics of a knee joint. The bio-joint model is applied to the design of a compliant sensing mechanism with two examples. The first investigates the effect of materials and characteristic geometry of the compliant mechanism on the knee joint, while the second (utilizing the bio joint model as boundary conditions to measure the knee joint rotation and internal forces involved) provides a better understanding on the interaction between the human knee and compliant sensing mechanism. The results potentially help establish a new topic of accommodating human bio-joint variations and nature degrees-of-freedom movements in the design of an exoskeleton.

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Many kinds of power-assist exoskeleton robots have been developed to assist the motion in rehabilitation and daily living of physically weak persons. A method of perception-assist has been proposed to assist not only user’s motion but also the interaction with an environment, by applying the modification force to the user’s motion if it is necessary. In this paper, task-oriented perception-assist is proposed to assist the daily task of physically weak persons with an upper-limb power-assistexoskeleton robot. The performing task is estimated by grasping tool in the proposed method. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been evaluated by performing experiments.

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Integrating humans and robotics technology into one system offers multiple opportunities for creating assistive technologies that can be employed in biomechanical, industrial, and aerospace applications. The present study deals with employing the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach in rule base derivation for powered exoskeleton intelligent control to assist paraplegic patient mobility. By employing the hybrid learning algorithm, optimal distributed membership functions to describe the mapping relation in the input and output parameters of the gait cycle were derived. As the proposed control strategy was unaffected by changing human dynamics, the reliability and robustness of the controller for safe interaction with humans were increased.

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This paper proposes an electromyography (EMG) signal based control method for a seven degrees of freedom (7DOF) upper-limb motion assist exoskeleton robot (SUEFUL-7). The SUEFUL-7 is able to assist the motions of shoulder vertical and horizontal flexion/extension, shoulder internal/external rotation, elbow flexion/extension, forearm supination/pronation, wrist flexion/extension, and wrist radial/ulnar deviation of physically weak individuals. In the proposed control method, an impedance controller is applied to the muscle-model-oriented control method by considering the end effector force vector. Impedance parameters are adjusted in real time by considering the upper-limb posture and EMG activity levels. Experiments have been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed robotic system.

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