Hyper-redundant robots (HRR) have many more degrees of freedom (DOF) than required, which enable them to handle more constraints, such as those present in highly convoluted volumes. Consequently, they can serve in many robotic applications, while extending the reachability and manoeuvrability of the operator. The many degrees of freedom that furnish the HRR with its wide range of capabilities also provide its major challenges: mechanism design, control, and path plan-ning. In this paper, we present a novel design of a HRR composed of sixteen DOF. The HRR is composed of two concentric structures: a passive backbone and an exoskeleton which carries self-weight as well as ex-ternal loads. The HRR is 80 cm long, 7.7 cm in diameter, achieves high rigidity and accuracy and is capable of 180° bending. The forward kinematics of the HRR is presented along with the inverse kinematics of a link.

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It was previously shown that beta oscillations of local field potentials in the arm area of the primary motor cortex (MI) of nonhuman primates propagate as travelling waves across MI of monkeys during movement preparation and execution and are believed to subserve cortical information transfer. To investigate the information transfer and its change over time at the single-cell level, we analyzed simultaneously recorded multiple MI neural spike trains of a monkey using a Granger causality measure for point process models before and after visual cues instructing the onset of reaching movements. In this analysis, we found that more pairs of neurons showed information transfer between them after appearances of upcoming movement targets than before, and the directions of the information transfer across neurons in MI were coincident with the directions of the propagating waves. These results suggest that the neuron pairs identified in the current study are the candidates of neurons that travel with spatiotemporal dynamics of beta oscillations in the MI.

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An exoskeleton is a supporting structure on the outside of a body. The name stems from the words exterior and skeleton. In the context of this project, it is an exterior support structure of the human arm amplifying the force delivered by the biceps brachii. The actuator of the exoskeleton taking the place of the biceps is a DC motor acting on the elbow joint of the exoskeleton. The design of this exoskeleton takes its controlling signal from electrical signals in the biceps muscle. This electrical signal, called the Electromyogram (EMG), is a measure of the electrical activity in the biceps. The amplitude of this EMG signal is directly related to the amount of force delivered by the biceps. From this amplitude we can make a close determination of the force delivered by the biceps and translate this force into the torque which can then be sent to the exoskeleton actuator – the DC motor. In this manner, the exoskeleton will assist in bearing a load on the human arm.

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Virtual Reality technology is currently part of advanced physical rehabilitation therapy. However, several questions remain unanswered: Can this technology improve or even substitute the traditional methodologies? Can it really influence the nervous system or does moving within a virtual environment just motivate the individual to perform? In this paper we present the state of the art, the new advanced technology available and the most promising applications in this field. Finally we will introduce our research as a case study in the area.

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In this paper, the development of an experimental procedure for human elbow joint mechanism is described. The experiment will be set up to imitate the human motion of the elbow joint. In this article, the arm supplied with micro electrical linear actuator to mimic the flexion and extension movements of the human elbow. The main component of the mechanism is the two revolute joints (passive and ac-tive) and the aluminum profile material. The CAD model and the Finite Element Analysis were developed by using SolidWorks software to determine the stresses in critical sectionsof the design.

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