Technological advances in robotic hardware and software have enabled powered exoskeletons to move from science fiction to the real world. The objective of this article is to emphasize two main points for future research. First, the design of future devices could be improved by exploiting biomechanical principles of animal locomotion. Two goals in exoskeleton research could particu-larly benefit from additional physiological perspective: 1) reduction in the metabolic energy expenditure of the user while wearing the device, and 2) minimization of the power requirements for actuating the exoskeleton. Second, a reciprocal potential exists for robotic exoskeletons to advance our understanding of human locomotor physiology. Experimental data from humans walking and running with robotic exoskeletons could provide important insight into the metabolic cost of locomotion that is impossible to gain with other methods. Given the mutual benefits of collaboration, it is imperative that engineers and physiolo-gists work together in future studies on robotic exoskeletons for human locomotion.

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The basic concepts for exoskeletal systems have been suggested for some time with applications ranging from construction, manufacturing and mining to rescue and emergency services. In recent years, research has been driven by possible uses in medical/reha-bilitation and military applications. Yet there are still significant barriers to the effective use and exploitation of this technology. Among the most pertinent of these factors is the power and actuation system and its impact of control, strength, speed and, perhaps most critically, safety. This work des-cribes the design, construction and testing of an ultra low-mass, full-body exoskeleton system having seven degrees of freedom (DOFs) for the upper limbs and five degrees of freedom (DOFs) for each of the lower limbs. This low mass is primarily due to the use of a new range of pneumatic muscle actuators as the power source for the system. The work presented will show how the system takes advantage of the inherent control-lable compliance to produce a unit that is powerful, providing a wide range of functionality (motion and forces over an extended range) in a manner that has high safety integrity for the user. The general layout of both the upper and the lower body exoskeleton is presented together with results from preliminary experiments to demonstrate the potential of the device in limb retraining, rehabilitation and power assist (augmentation) operations.

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The interest of the scientific community in medical Robotics and rehabilitation Robotics is growing every year. Rehabilitation Robotics aims to apply robotic technology (sensors, actuators, control) to the rehabilitation and assistance of disabled people. Only some years ago developers were able to implement viable robotic systems to assist a person with a functional limitation. Thus, devices have been developed to assist mobility and the motor functions of the arms and legs, among others. Tremor is a movement disorder that has a great impact on the quality of life of people who suffer it, mainly to do specific tasks (Rocon et al., 2004). It can affect the head, face, jaw, voice or the upper and lower extremities. In particular, tremor that affects the upper limbs is of major interest, since it can be very disabling to lead an independent life. It is a symptom associated with some abnormal neurological condition or cerebral lesions and degenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, orthostatic tremor, cerebellar diseases, ethylic intoxication, among others.

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Robotics technology is expected to play an important role not only in industries, but also in welfare and medicine. A power-assist exoskeleton, which is directly attached to the human body and assist the motion in accordance with the user’s motion intension, is one of the most effective assist robots for the physically weak persons. A study of power-assist exoskeletons has been carried out for a long time (Mosher & Wendel, 1960). The power-assist exoskeletons, which are sometimes called as power suits, man amplifiers, man magnifiers, or power-assist systems, have been studied for the purpose of military, industry, or medial use (Cloud, 1965; Mosher, 1967; Vukobratovic, 1975; Kazerooni & Mahoney, 1991). Recently, many studies on powerassist robots have been carried out to help the motion of physically weak persons such as disabled, injured, and/or elderly persons in daily activities or rehabilitation (Nagai et al., 1998, Kiguchi et al., 2001-2007; Rosen et al., 2001; Tsagarkis & Caldwell, 2003; Sasaki et al., 2004).

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Humanoid robots are designed and built to bear similitude to humans. Ultimately, they are to resemble the sizes and physical abilities of humans in order to function in human-oriented environment and work autonomously but to pose no physical threat to humans. Humanoid robots need to exhibit artificial skin and facial expressions to create extremely lively human appearances. A humanoid robot that resembles human in its appearance and in its movement is built using powerful actuators paired with gear-trains and joint mechanisms, motor drivers that are all encased in a package no larger than that of the human physique. In this paper, I propose the construction of the humanoid-applicable anthropo-morphic 7-DoF arm completed with 8-DoF hand. A novel mechanical design of this humanoid arm makes it compact enough not only to be compatible with currently available narrating-model humanoids, but also powerful and flexible enough to be functional; the number of degrees of freedom endowed in this robotic arm is sufficient for executing a wide range of tasks including dexterous hand motions. The developed robotic arm is an interactive humanoid robot, with the safety feature actualized in both the software and hardware aspects. Software-wise, the humanoid arm adapts an algorithm to sense and interpret the incoming external force and escapes toward a safe direction. Hardware-wise, it is designed and built to be light and compliant to minimize shocks in case of a collision. The thesis covers the following:
— the development of the anthropomorphic arm and hand hardware for safe human interactions
— the development of an algorithm for detecting an external force input using inverse dynamics
— the development of safe escape algorithms without using the conventional multi-axis Force-Torque sen-sors, torque sensors or contact sensors.
Keywords: humanoid arm, humanoid hand, human robot interaction, interactive robots, safe robot arm, robot motion generation, humanoid robot.

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