Rehabilitation robotics is an active area of research in the field of stroke rehabilitation. There is significant potential for improving the current physical rehabilitation methods after stroke through the use of robotic devices. RUPERT is a wearable roboticexoskeleton powered by pneumatic muscle actuators. An adaptive robot control strategy combining a PID-based feedback controller and an Iterative Learning Controller (ILC) is proposed for performing passive reaching tasks. Additionally, a fuzzy rule-base for estimating the learning rate for the ILC is also proposed. The proposed control scheme has the ability to adapt to different subject for performing different reaching tasks. The preliminary results from two able-bodied subjects demonstrate that the proposed controller can provide consistent performance for different subjects performing different reaching tasks.

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Developments in telepresence have served to demonstrate the requirements for an advanced realistic user interface to remote and virtual entities. Most of these applications have concentrated on visual and audio feedback but recent research has highlighted the need for tactile input, control and feedback. This paper reports on the operator input/feedback robot sensory/control aspects of a dexterous manipulation system possessed of two arms (left and right) and two dexterous multi-jointed skeletal `hands’. The operator input units developed include a light weight 7 degree of freedom arm exoskeleton combined with a cutaneous tactile feedback glove providing finger input control and tactile feedback of contact force, vibrational and thermal data in a system with an overall mass of less than 0.75 kg. This provides a user friendly system that can be used for extended periods without excessive strain

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Exoskeletons are wearable robots exhibiting a close cognitive and physical interaction with the human user. These are rigid robotic exoskeletal structures that typically operate alongside human limbs. Scientific and technological work on exoskeletonsbegan in the early 1960s but have only recently been applied to rehabilitation and functional substitution in patients suffering from motor disorders. Key topics for further development of exoskeletons in rehabilitation scenarios include the need for robust human-robot multimodal cognitive interaction, safe and dependable physical interaction, true wearability and portability, and user aspects such as acceptance and usability. This discussion provides an overview of these aspects and draws conclusions regarding potential future research directions in robotic exoskeletons.

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Recent studies have confirmed that with a regular treadmill training walking capabilities in incomplete spinal cord injured subjects as well as in hemiplegic patients can be improved. In the beginning of this training the legs of the patients have to be assisted. So far this has been done by physiotherapists guiding the legs during gait on a moving treadmill. As this can be a very exhausting job for the therapists, the training usually is too short to get optimal results. Therefore a driven gait orthosis has been developed that can move the legs of a patient in a physiological way on a moving treadmill. The orthosis is adjustable in size so different patients can use it. There are actuators at the knee and hip joints that are controlled via a position controller. A passive foot lifter controls the ankle joint. This setup allows the legs of the patient to be moved in different, physiological gait patterns on the treadmill without any assistance of the patient or a physiotherapist. First tests with the orthosis showed good results. Several patients could be trained for more then half an hour and with a higher speed then in the manually assisted training. All trained patients reported no problems with this training; on the contrary, they felt more comfortable with the new method

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In teleoperation, force feedback is essential in making the operator to feel the same force as the slave robot for precise control with unknown environments. A new concept of the exoskeleton type master-arm is introduced. Basically, this master-arm is composed of serial links. To provide maximum range of human motion, several redundant joints are added to the serial links. Intensive graphic simulation was performed to get the optimal design parameters. In order to reduce the number of necessary joint measurement, kinematics of serial links was carefully considered in design. Three measurable, controllable joints and three free redundant joints were used for shoulder axis similar to wrist axis while one measurable, controllable axis was used for the elbow joint. For force feedback, the electric break constraints the joint movement so that the operator can feel the same force as the slave robot does. Calibration algorithm was derived to compensate the variation of the kinematic parameters. The master-arm can be used for teleoperation with a slave robot, or as a motion planner for an industrial robot

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