In order to offer a method for the rehabilitation of injured fingers and a means of quantitative detection and evaluation, an exoskeleton based continuous passive motion (CPM) machine is presented in this paper. Corresponding to each finger of human hand, the CPM machine has 4 degrees of freedom (DOF) driven by two DC motors. The joint force and position sensors are all integrated into the machine. The device can be easily attached and also be adjusted to fit different hand sizes. During the injured fingerpsilas flexion and extension motion the machine can always exert perpendicular forces on the finger phalanges, meanwhile it can achieve the precise control of scope, force and speed of the moving fingers. In order to control the CPM machine, we have also designed an embedded control system based on S3C2410 (a kind of 32-bit RISC microprocessor). The whole system is open-ended for new functions and applications. The function modularization method provides a new thinking of design for the control system.

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This paper deals with the mechanical design of a novel haptic hand exoskeleton (HE) that allows exerting controlled forces on the fingertip of the index and thumb of the operator. The proposed device includes several design solutions for optimizing the accuracy and mechanical performances. Remote centers of motion mechanisms have been adopted for delocalizing the encumbrance of linkages of the structure away from the operator’s fingers. An improved stiffness of the transmission and reduced requirements for the actuators have been achieved thanks to a novel patent pending principle for integrating speed reduction ratio with the transmission system.

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An actively powered, augmented, exoskeleton system is studied within a speed-accuracy performance task framework with human subjects. This system has a dual use in military applications as well as for the rehabilitation of patients with neuromotor disorders

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This Paper describes the design of the ESA Human Arm Exoskeleton, which has been developed to enable force-feedback telemanipulations with redundant robotic arms. It is described, how several shortcomings of previous telemanipulation systems were eradicated, to meet the system requirements for a lightweight, easy wearable and comfortable system. The patented novelties towards prior arm exoskeletons are enlightened, and the methodology is shown, according to which the system was designed. The prototype, which has been developed at ESTEC is described in detail, outlining the special features of the design. The paper will also refer to the strengths of the Research and Development (R&D) base in Europe, derived from significant national and ESA programs and a judicious cross-fertilisation with R&D in non-space domains.

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This paper presents a novel 7 (active) +2 (passive) degrees of freedom (DOF) exoskeleton to achieve effective rehabilitation of upper limbs with neurological impairment. The 7+2 DOF robot was designed for allowing anatomically correct motions in the upper extremity, and for measuring 18 axis forces/torques and 9 DOF positions. A novel four-step integrated rehabilitation approach was developed and tested including (1) accurate and quantitative diagnosis which is not practical to do during manual clinical examinations or with existing robotic devices; (2) strenuous stretching of spastic joints based on the diagnosis and with intelligent control to adjust the stretching velocity constantly according to the joint conditions; (3) voluntary movement exercise to perform realistic functional tasks based on the patient-specific diagnosis, and (4) outcome evaluations which assessed the treatment outcome quantitatively with multiple physiological measures.

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