Design and implementation of a novel lightweight soft upper limb exoskeleton using pneumatic actuator muscles

Stroke is the leading cause of disability and weakness in the UK and around the world. Thus, stroke patients require an extensive rehabilitation therapy to regain some of the weaknesses. Many rehabilitation robotic devices have been designed and developed to assist the stroke patients to perform their activities of daily living and to perform repetitive movements. However, these devices remain unmanageable to use by the patients alone not only because they are cumbersome to use but also due to their weights, rigid, fix and non-portable characteristics. Thus there is a need to invent a novel exoskeleton soft arm that has a lightweight and a high power to rehab the elbow joint with lower cost and without the need to therapists. Here for elbow joint rehabilitation, we investigate and propose a novel exoskeleton soft robotic arm, which is wearable, lightweight and portable so that it would allow patients to perform repetitive motion therapy more often with a greater intensity in their homes and relevant to their Activities of Daily Living (ADL). The proposed arm consists of various bending pneumatic muscle actuators (pMA), where traditional pMA are not suitable. Testing on various pMA (traditional and bending) revealed its behaviour and the relationship between pressure, length, force, and bending angle in different setups such as isotonic and isometric. Experiments are done to analyse its non-linear behaviour, moreover, geometrical and numerical models are compared to the experimental results to validate the results. A developed control approach to control the soft arm is implemented to validate the design. Model reference adaptive control (MRAC) to control the arm using (Proportional, Integral, and Derivative) PID controller as an input for MRAC. Neural Network (NN) is also used in MRAC to improve the performance of MRAC

Wearable exoskeleton systems based-on pneumatic soft actuators and controlled by parallel processing

Human assistance innovation is essential in an increasingly aging society and one technology that may be applicable is exoskeletons. However, traditional rigid exoskeletons have many drawbacks. This research includes the design and implementation of upper-limb power assist and rehabilitation exoskeletons based on pneumatic soft actuators. A novel extensor-contractor pneumatic muscle has been designed and constructed. This new actuator has bidirectional action, allowing it to both extend and contract, as well as create force in both directions. A mathematical model has been developed for the new novel actuator which depicts the output force of the actuator. Another new design has been used to create a novel bending pneumatic muscle, based on an extending McKibben muscle and modelled mathematically according to its geometric parameters. This novel bending muscle design has been used to create two versions of power augmentation gloves. These exoskeletons are controlled by adaptive controllers using human intention. For finger rehabilitation a glove has been developed to bend the fingers (full bending) by using our novel bending muscles. Inspired by the zero position (straight fingers) problem for post-stroke patients, a new controllable stiffness bending actuator has been developed with a novel prototype. To control this new rehabilitation exoskeleton, online and offline controller systems have been designed for the hand exoskeleton and the results have been assessed experimentally. Another new design of variable stiffness actuator, which controls the bending segment, has been developed to create a new version of hand exoskeletons in order to achieve more rehabilitation movements in the same single glove. For Forearm rehabilitation, a rehabilitation exoskeleton has been developed for pronation and supination movements by using the novel extensor-contractor pneumatic muscle. For the Elbow rehabilitation an elbow rehabilitation exoskeleton was designed which relies on novel two-directional bending actuators with online and offline feedback controllers. Lastly for upper-limb joint is the wrist, we designed a novel all-directional bending actuator by using the moulding bladder to develop the wrist rehabilitation exoskeleton by a single all-directional bending muscle. Finally, a totally portable, power assistive and rehabilitative prototype has been developed using a parallel processing intelligent control chip

Transhumanism and Society: The Social Debate Over Human Enhancement

This book provides an introductory overview to the social debate over enhancement technologies with an overview of the transhumanists\u27 call to bypass human nature and conservationists\u27 argument in defense of it. The author present this controversy as it unfolds in the contest between transhumanists proponents and conservationists, who push back with an argument to conserve human nature and to ban enhancement technologies. Readers are informed about the discussion over humanism, the tension between science and religion, and the interpretation of socio-technological revolutions; and are invited to make up their own mind about one of the most challenging topics concerning the social and ethical implications of technological advancements

Conception et évaluation expérimentale d'un manipulateur actionné par des muscles pneumatiques binaires moyennés élastiquement

Actuellement, les médecins utilisent l'échographie pour visualiser la prostate lors de la biopsie. La technique actuelle de biopsie offre un taux de détection du cancer contenant entre 20 et 36 % de résultats faux négatifs, ce qui retarde le traitement du cancer. Ces faux négatifs sont causés en partie par le manque de perceptibilité sous échographie des tumeurs ayant un diamètre inférieur à 5 mm. L'imagerie par résonnance magnétique (IRM) pourrait résoudre ce problème puisque cette technique d'imagerie offre une meilleure résolution et une perceptibilité des tumeurs meilleures que celles obtenues avec l'échographie. Toutefois, l'intervention sous IRM est peu sécuritaire et peu ergonomique pour le médecin en raison de l'intense champ magnétique nécessaire à l'imagerie et de l'accès restreint au patient. Le présent travail présente le développement d'un prototype de manipulateur robotisé permettant aux médecins d'effectuer des interventions précises et rapides à la prostate à l'intérieur même du scanner IRM. Le manipulateur est conçu de manière à ne pas influencer ou être influencé par le champ magnétique de l'IRM, soutenir les forces induites par l'insertion de l'aiguille dans le patient, atteindre une cible avec précision et être suffisamment petit pour être introduit avec le patient dans l'IRM. L'architecture du manipulateur utilise une approche binaire moyennée élastiquement dans une architecture parallèle. Chacun des actionneurs compte seulement deux états discrets. Les actionneurs retenus sont des muscles pneumatiques en raison de la forte densité de force qu'ils génèrent. De plus, ces actionneurs permettent d'éliminer les joints complexes nécessaires à la construction de manipulateur parallèle en utilisant l'élasticité intrinsèque des actionneurs. Un prototype a été construit dans le but d'étudier l'erreur de positionnement obtenue avec le manipulateur et valider l'atteinte des requis cliniques. La justesse a été mesurée à 3,3 mm et la précision a été mesurée à 0,5 mm. La raideur a aussi été mesurée et atteint ~1,14 N/mm au bout de l'aiguille pour s'assurer que le manipulateur est en mesure de soutenir l'insertion d'aiguille sans trop dévier de la trajectoire prévue. Une preuve de concept de valve pneumatique compatible à l'IRM a été prototypée. La valve utilise un actionneur de polymère diélectrique rotatif en raison de la grande compatibilité à l'IRM de cette technologie. Les travaux montrent que la solution proposée est viable et très prometteuse. Le robot est simple, peu couteux et est capable de rencontrer les requis cliniques. Néanmoins, plusieurs travaux sont encore à faire sur le manipulateur, car seulement l'orientation de l'aiguille a été traitée. De plus, l'assemblage des muscles pneumatiques a été réalisé à l'aide de tubes offerts commercialement. Plusieurs modifications pourraient améliorer les performances du manipulateur, dont notamment, mouler les muscles pneumatiques

Biomechatronics: Harmonizing Mechatronic Systems with Human Beings

This eBook provides a comprehensive treatise on modern biomechatronic systems centred around human applications. A particular emphasis is given to exoskeleton designs for assistance and training with advanced interfaces in human-machine interaction. Some of these designs are validated with experimental results which the reader will find very informative as building-blocks for designing such systems. This eBook will be ideally suited to those researching in biomechatronic area with bio-feedback applications or those who are involved in high-end research on manmachine interfaces. This may also serve as a textbook for biomechatronic design at post-graduate level

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2022, held in Hamburg, Germany, in May 2022. The 36 regular papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 129 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: haptic science; haptic technology; and haptic applications