The will of humans with physical disabilities to move has found realization through the development of powered roboticexoskeleton. In this study, an energy-efficient gait pattern and swing trajectory of the powered robotic exoskeleton was proposed through function distribution analysis and the dynamic-manipulability ellipsoid (DME). To verify its feasibility and the effect of the proposed optimal gait pattern from the point view of the integrated system (human and exoskeleton), simulations were performed in the cases of walking on level ground and stair ascent/descent. Experiments such as on the metabolic cost of the human body with or without the assistance of the exoskeleton were conducted, and the power consumption of the exoskeleton was assessed, with the aim of improving the efficiency of the integrated system.

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A garment for stimulation of a wearer’s sensory motor system. The garment includes a main body portion that includes an anterior portion and a posterior portion and at least one sensory motor stimulation member associated with the main body portion. The garment is configured to be worn over at least a portion of the wearer’s torso and is form-fitting when worn by the wearer. The at least one sensory motor stimulation member contacts the wearer’s skin when the garment is worn. The garment is fabricated from an elastomeric material that causes the at least one sensory motor stimulation member to stimulate the cutaneous nerve receptors in the wearer’s skin contacted by the at least one sensory motor stimulation member.

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Disclosed herein is a control system for an exoskeleton haptic device, having: a frame structure, to be coupled to the body of a subject; actuators, carried by the frame structure and operable to cause movement of a number of joints of the body; and sensors, coupled to the body to detect first signals indicative of an intention of movement of the subject. The control system is provided with: a feedback stage, controlling a position of the joints based on a reference position; a feedforward stage, controlling a compliance presented by the exoskeleton haptic device to the subject based on the detected first signals; and a combining block, combining outputs from the feedback stage and feedforward stage in order to generate a driving signal for the actuators, thereby imposing a controlled position to the joints. This primary control action may also be integrated with a posture equilibrium control, for controlling postural equilibrium of the subject during the movement.

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A system for arm therapy comprises a first drive (M2) that can be fixedly connected to an element (10) determining the position of a user (19) and rotationally driving, about a first axis (A2), a part (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, M1, 26) of the arm therapy system which can be connected to an upper arm module (26, M3, M4). The driven part of the arm therapy system comprises a second drive (M1) adapted to rotationally drive said upper arm module (26, M3, M4) about a second axis (A1), wherein said second axis (A1) is oriented orthogonal to the first axis (A2). The system can provide a statically determined exoskeleton with correct anatomical axes and misaligned technical axes.

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Many robotic systems, like surgical robots, robotic hands, and exoskeleton robots, use cable passing through conduits to actuate remote instruments. Cable actuation simplifies the design and allows the actuator to be located at a convenient location, away from the end effector. However, nonlinear frictions between the cable and the conduit account for major losses in tension transmission across the cable, and a model is needed to characterize their effects in order to analyze and compensate for them. Although some models have been proposed in the literature, they are lumped parameter based and restricted to the very special case of a single cable with constant conduit curvature and constant pretension across the cable only. This paper proposes a mathematically rigorous distributed parameter model for cable-conduit actuation with any curvature and initial tension profile across the cable. The model, which is described by a set of partial differential equations in the continuous time-domain, is also discretized for the effective numerical simulation of the cable motion and tension transmission across the cable. Unlike the existing lumped-parameter-based models, the resultant discretized model enables one to accurately simulate the partial-moving/partial-sticking cable motion of the cable-conduit actuation with any curvature and initial tension profile. The model is further extended to cable-conduit actuation in pull-pull configuration using a pair of cables. Various simulations results are presented to reveal the unique phenomena like backlash, cable slacking, interaction between the two cables, and other nonlinear behaviors associated with the cable conduits in pull-pull configuration. These results are verified by experiments using two dc motors coupled with a cable-conduit pair. The experimental setup has been prepared to emulate a typical cable-actuated robotic system. Experimental results are compared with the simulations and various implications are discussed.

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