Development of Wrist Rehabilitation Equipment Using Pneumatic Parallel Manipulator

In this study, we aim at developing a mechanical device to support humans rehabilitation motion of their wrist joint instead of or to help a physical therapist. Pneumatic parallel manipulator is introduced as the mechanical equipment from a view that pneumatic actuators bring minute force control property owing to the air compressibility and parallel manipulator’s feature of multiple degrees of freedom is suitable for a complex motion of human wrist joint. Impedance control system is introduced to realize several rehabilitation modes. The validity of the proposed system is confirmed through some experiments.</p

Reviewing high-level control techniques on robot-assisted upper-limb rehabilitation

This paper presents a comprehensive review of high-level control techniques for upper-limb robotic training. It aims to compare and discuss the potentials of these different control algorithms, and specify future research direction. Included studies mainly come from selected papers in four review articles. To make selected studies complete and comprehensive, especially some recently-developed upper-limb robotic devices, a search was further conducted in IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science using keywords (‘upper limb*’ or ‘upper body*’) and (‘rehabilitation*’ or ‘treatment*’) and (‘robot*’ or ‘device*’ or ‘exoskeleton*’). The search is limited to English-language articles published between January 2013 and December 2017. Valuable references in related publications were also screened. Comparative analysis shows that high-level interaction control strategies can be implemented in a range of methods, mainly including impedance/admittance based strategies, adaptive control techniques, and physiological signal control. Even though the potentials of existing interactive control strategies have been demonstrated, it is hard to identify the one leading to maximum encouragement from human users. However, it is reasonable to suggest that future studies should combine different control strategies to be application specific, and deliver appropriate robotic assistance based on physical disability levels of human users

Development of Finger ContracturePrevention System For Early Post StrokeRehabilitation

芝浦尾工業大学2016年

Mechanical Design, Control and Evaluation of A Portable Rehabilitation Device for Upper Arm

There is a need for functional and effective rehabilitation devices for humans with upper arm injuries. Existing devices are either too heavy, not portable, or do not have 4 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) on the forearm. In this research, a new mechanical mechanism and structure were proposed to cover the full range of wrist and forearm motions as much as possible without sacrificing portability. In addition, the proposed device would have 4 DOF including wrist flexion/extension and radial/ulnar deviation, forearm pronation/supination, and elbow flexion/extension motions. A prototype was developed using 3D printed parts weighing about 840 grams; by comparison, the lightest existing device weighs 2 kg. The portability of the proposed design can increase the flexibility of therapy programs. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the prototype based on workspace, backlash, accuracy, and repeatability. Compared to other devices, the prototype covers all 4 DOF and the motion range coverage ranges from 88% to 100%. These improvements allow the prototype to cover more complicated rehab motions and thereby facilitate performance of difficult daily activities such as rise from a chair and tie a scarf. Experiments results also suggest that the performance of the prototype is very accurate and repeatable. For example, the average backlash is about 1 mm, the accuracy of the device is about ±0.8 mm, and the repeatability is about 0.5 mm. Future directions include (1) evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype with human subjects, (2) add a human centered sensory and computing device to monitor and provide customized rehabilitation motions