Most tele-operation to manipulate an object consists of grasping and manipulation, and two or more 6-DOF haptic devices are usually used in master side. In this article, a new simply designed 7-DOF haptic device, PATHOS II is proposed for 1-DOF grasping and 6-DOF manipulation. The merits of a parallel type haptic device such as high stiffness and accuracy are natural characteristics of PATHOS-II with optimized workspace. Due to its unique symmetric structure, the isotropic manipulability is enhanced within the reachable workspace. This parallel type haptic device can be used in applications which need high precision, stiffness and isotropic manipulability.

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Explaining the energetics of walking and running has been difficult because the distribution of energy use among individual musc-les has not been known. We estimated energy use by measuring blood flow to the hindlimb muscles in guinea fowl. Blood flow to ske-letal muscles is controlled locally and varies directly with metabolic rate. We estimate that the swing-phase muscles consume 26% of the energy used by the limbs and the stance-phase muscles consume the remaining 74%, independent of speed. Thus, contrary to some pre-vious suggestions, swinging the limbs requires an appreciable fraction of the energy used during terrestrial legged locomotion. Mo-dels integrating the energetics and mechanics of running will benefit from more detailed information on the distribution of energy use by the muscles.

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Full or partial loss of function in the upper limb is an increasingly common due to sports injuries, occupational injuries, spinal cord injuries, and strokes.Typically treatment for these conditions relies on manipulative physiotherapy procedures which are extremely labour intensive. Although mechanical assistive device exist for limbs this is rare for the upper body. In this paper we describe the construction and testing of a seven degree of motion prototype upper arm training/ rehabilitation (exoskeleton) system. The total weight of the uncompensated orthosis is less than 2 kg. This low mass is primarily due to the use of a new range of pneumatic Muscle Actuators (pMA) as power source for the system. This type of actuator, which has also an excellent power/weight ratio, meets the need for safety, simplicity and lightness. The work presented shows how the system takes advantage of the inherent controllable compliance to produce a unit that is extremely powerful, providing a wide range of functionality (motion and forces over an extended range) in a manner that has high safety integrity for the patient. A training control scheme is introduced which is used to control the orthosis when used as exercise facility. Results demonstrate the potential of the device as an upper limb training, rehabilitation and power assist (exoskeleton) system.

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Movements of upper limbs are complicated, various and indispensable for daily activities. For patients with impairment of their upper limb, rehabilitation along with medical treatment is needed to recover function. For elderly as well, training is needed to keep their ADL or social activities. Application of robotics and virtual reality technology makes possible for new training methods and exercises and for quantitative evaluations to enhance the qualitative effect of training. However it is difficult for conventional robots to be commercialized for rehabilitation use be-cause of safety insufficiency. The authors have involved in a project managed by NEDO (New Energy and Indu-strial Technology Development Organization), “Rehabilitation System for the Upper Limbs and Lower Limbs,” and developed a 3-DOF exercise machine for upper limb (EMUL). In this paper, the authors report on EMUL which has been developed considering safety. They also mention some software with force display by EMUL, which can help doctors and therapists with their treatment.

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We present an exoskeleton to assist elbow and forearm motion of physically weak persons such as elderly, injured, or disabled persons. The forearm pronation/supination motion and the elbow flexion/extension motion, which are essential motions for the activities of daily living, are assisted by the proposed exoskeleton. The electromyogram (EMG) signals of muscles in forearm and upper-arm of the exoskeleton’s user and the wrist force are also used as input information for the controller. By applying the EMG signals as main input signals to the controller, automatic control can be realized for the physically weak persons without manipulating any equipment. Fuzzy control has been applied to realize the natural and flexible motion assist. Experiment has been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed exoskeleton.

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