Physical Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Technologies

The book focuses on the diagnosis, evaluation, and assistance of gait disorders; all the papers have been contributed by research groups related to assistive robotics, instrumentations, and augmentative devices

Development of a Wearable Exoskeleton for Arm Rehabilitation

With the increasing population of aging and disabled individuals, the need for a more effective and efficient solutions is at peak, Powered Exoskeletons are wearable robots that can be attached to the disabled limb with the goal of adding power to, or rectifying the limb functionality , one of its application is rehabilitation. This study review relevant research, technologies and products, while critically analyzing them and addressing some of the current problem faced by the researchers in this field, such as the use EMG signal as a primary input to the controller. This research propose an adaptive EMG-based upper limb exoskeleton that is built on a fuzzy controller. The paper strives to propose a wearable general-user Exoskeleton, Built around an interactive gaming interface to engage the patients in the rehabilitation process. The games and exoskeleton assistance degree can be preset – on medical supervision – to different training patterns. Ultimately, the project strives to afford normal daily life for those who needs it

A review on locomotion mode recognition and prediction when using active orthoses and exoskeletons

Understanding how to seamlessly adapt the assistance of lower-limb wearable assistive devices (active orthosis (AOs) and exoskeletons) to human locomotion modes (LMs) is challenging. Several algorithms and sensors have been explored to recognize and predict the users’ LMs. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear which are the most used and effective sensor and classifier configurations in AOs/exoskeletons and how these devices’ control is adapted according to the decoded LMs. To explore these aspects, we performed a systematic review by electronic search in Scopus and Web of Science databases, including published studies from 1 January 2010 to 31 August 2022. Sixteen studies were included and scored with 84.7 ± 8.7% quality. Decoding focused on level-ground walking along with ascent/descent stairs tasks performed by healthy subjects. Time-domain raw data from inertial measurement unit sensors were the most used data. Different classifiers were employed considering the LMs to decode (accuracy above 90% for all tasks). Five studies have adapted the assistance of AOs/exoskeletons attending to the decoded LM, in which only one study predicted the new LM before its occurrence. Future research is encouraged to develop decoding tools considering data from people with lower-limb impairments walking at self-selected speeds while performing daily LMs with AOs/exoskeletons.This work was funded in part by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) with the Reference Scholarship under grant 2020.05711.BD, under the Stimulus of Scientific Employment with the grant 2020.03393.CEECIND, and in part by the FEDER Funds through the COMPETE 2020— Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and P2020 with the Reference Project SmartOs Grant POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039868, and by FCT national funds, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020

Application of wearable sensors in actuation and control of powered ankle exoskeletons: a Comprehensive Review

Powered ankle exoskeletons (PAEs) are robotic devices developed for gait assistance, rehabilitation, and augmentation. To fulfil their purposes, PAEs vastly rely heavily on their sensor systems. Human–machine interface sensors collect the biomechanical signals from the human user to inform the higher level of the control hierarchy about the user’s locomotion intention and requirement, whereas machine–machine interface sensors monitor the output of the actuation unit to ensure precise tracking of the high-level control commands via the low-level control scheme. The current article aims to provide a comprehensive review of how wearable sensor technology has contributed to the actuation and control of the PAEs developed over the past two decades. The control schemes and actuation principles employed in the reviewed PAEs, as well as their interaction with the integrated sensor systems, are investigated in this review. Further, the role of wearable sensors in overcoming the main challenges in developing fully autonomous portable PAEs is discussed. Finally, a brief discussion on how the recent technology advancements in wearable sensors, including environment—machine interface sensors, could promote the future generation of fully autonomous portable PAEs is provided