To strengthen fingers which are injured in an accident, a new type of SMA (shape memory alloy)-made dynamic splint used for finger joints is proposed.

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Many diseases and conditions can cause reduced motor function in joints throughout the body. This paper identifies such health issues that affect the function of the wrist and hand in particular. After identifying these conditions, a concept three degree of freedom (two DOFs of the wrist plus cylindrical grip) robotic exoskeleton design is presented that is intended to augment a patient’s remaining function and strength while remaining portable and lightweight. With this in mind, the device is intended to allow a patient to use and operate it independently, without the presence of a therapist. The mechanical design of the exoskeleton is described in depth, along with details of potential actuation methods. The main idea for control of the device is to detect small torque values as a patient attempts a movement and in turn predict what the intended outcome would be if the patient were at full strength. After processing this information the robot would assist the patient in facilitating the antici-pated movement. This is in contrast to alternate control methods, which rely primarily on electromyography (EMG) to detect signals to muscles that control certain movements. Electromyography can be unreliable because many of the conditions that cause debilitated function also cause an interruption or break in these signals.

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37. Ещё одна студенческая разработка — прототип будущих экзоскелетов для увеличения возможностей организма и повышения качества жизни инвалидов. По сути это усилители мускул. Например, я держу 50 килограмм риса и не чувствую усталости и тяжелого веса, потому что надетый экзоскелет поддерживает руки, спину и не дает им опускаться и сгибаться под тяжестью груза.

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Robots are becoming more interactive and assisting to human beings day by day. They are serving humanity in the fields of industry, defense and medicine. Exoskeletons are also devices that reside in category of wearable robotics. An exoskeleton is an external structural mechanism with joints and links corresponding to those of the human body. With applications in rehabilitation medicine and virtual reality simulation, exoskeletons offer benefits for both disabled and healthy populations. Exoskeletons can be used as a capability magnifier or assisting device. This paper presents a proposed design for smart active exoskeleton for lower limbs. This proposed exoskeleton design not only assist a person but also tries to improve its GAIT. The twin wearable legs are powered by Actuators, all controlled by a microprocessor. The simulation results of the control mechanism shows its smart capabilities. In addition, the processor based control produces a more natural muscle like activity and as such can be considered a soft and bio-mimetic actuation system. This capacity to “replicate” the function of natural muscle and inherent safety is extremely important when working in close proximity to humans. The integration of the components sections and testing of the performance will also be considered to show how the structure and actuators can be combined to produce the various systems needed for a highly flexible/low weight clinically viable rehabilitation exoskeleton.

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This work deals with neural network (NN)-based gait pattern adaptation algorithms for an active lower-limb orthosis. Stable trajectories with different walking speeds are generated during an optimization process considering the zero-moment point (ZMP) criterion and the inverse dynamic of the orthosis-patient model. Additionally, a set of NNs is used to decrease the time-consuming analytical computation of the model and ZMP. The first NN approximates the inverse dynamics including the ZMP computation, while the second NN works in the optimization procedure, giving an adapted desired trajectory according to orthosis-patient interaction. This trajectory adaptation is added directly to the trajectory generator, also reproduced by a set of NNs. With this strategy, it is possible to adapt the trajectory during the walking cycle in an on-line procedure, instead of changing the trajectory parameter after each step. The dynamic model of the actual exoskeleton, with interaction forces included, is used to generate simulation results. Also, an experimental test is performed with an active ankle-foot orthosis, where the dynamic variables of this joint are replaced in the simulator by actual values provided by the device. It is shown that the final adapted trajectory follows the patient intention of increasing the walking speed, so changing the gait pattern.

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