The paper deals with the preliminary treatment of the problem of the determination of the relationship between the kinematics and the effective set of wrenches that a mechanical device can exert on the limbs of a human operator. The definition of force replicating devices (FRDs) is given together with a first classification related to their topological features. The analysis of force replication is initially carried out by considering the kinetostatic analysis for a generic mechanical device: the set of replicable wrenches is calculated on the basis of its kinematics properties. Examples are gives by considering two different types of FRD. The aim of the research is the determination of the kinematics features of an ideal FRD capable of replicating the desired set of wrenches to the specific human body part

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Healthcare is a complex system, so effective technologies and algorithms required to obtaining optimal benefits and results. Also, healthcare has a very large domain but as an engineer we can see that many common algorithms are used for healthcare engineering today’s. In this study, we want to review soft computing approaches used for analyze biosignals in healthcare technology issues and specially assistance devices. By attention to variety of assistance devices we can’t mention to all published papers in this area. Actually, we will try to introduce some significant algorithms by order of time to provide a good perspective of this area. It must be noted that we don’t select papers only based on the number of their citation. But also, some significant papers that are not mention too much, for any reason, are introduced.

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In this study, in order to realize an assist of independent life for the elderly or people in need of care and relieve a physical burden for care worker, an active support splint driven by pneumatic soft actuator (ASSIST) has been developed. ASSIST consists of a plastic interface with the palm and arm and two rotary-type soft actuators put in both sides of appliance. In this paper, the fundamental characteristics of ASSIST is described, and then the effectiveness of this splint is experimentally discussed. Finally, the operation of ASSIST based on a human intention is described.

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Current robotic devices for rehabilitation after stroke are often large and complex as they are conceived to train arbitrary movements in the 3D space. This paper analyzes the minimal requirements that the workspace of a robotic device should have in order to promote training of principal activities of daily living, considering the shoulder movement’s limitations of subacute patients. Pick-and-place, drinking and eating movements of five healthy subjects were analyzed. In all these three tasks, approximately 82% of all trials deviate laterally less than 5% of the target distance and we recommend target distances of less than 40% of the arm length in order to minimize improper shoulder movements. The study can be applied for designing simpler, yet efficient robotic devices for rehabilitation of the upper limb or for constraining exercises on existing ones when dealing with stroke patients, especially for those prone to shoulder complications (e.g. subacute patients).

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In this paper, we present a hand rehabilitation system for patients suffering from paralysis or contracture. It consist of two components: a hand rehabilitation machine, which moves human finger joints using motors, and a data glove, which enables controlling the movement of the finger joints attached to the rehabilitation machine. The machine is based on the arm structure type of hand rehabilitation machine; a motor indirectly moves a finger joint via a closed four-link mechanism. We employ a wire-driven mechanism and coupled mechanism for DIP and PIP joints. These mechanism render the machine lightweight, and offer wider range of motion than conventional systems. The design specifications of the mechanisms and experimental results are shown.

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