Smart Robotic Exoskeleton: a 3-DOF for Wrist-forearm Rehabilitation

In order to regain the activities of daily living (ADL) for patients suffering from different conditions such as stroke and spinal cord injury, they must be treated with rehabilitation process through programmed exercises. The human motor system can learn through motor learning. This study concerned with the rehabilitation of wrist and forearm joints to restore the ADL through designing and constructing a robotic exoskeleton. The exoskeleton was designed to rehabilitate the patients by providing a 3 degree of freedom (DOF) include flexion/ extension, adduction/abduction, and pronation/ supination movements. It is specified as being portable, comfortable, lightweight, and compatible with the human anatomical structure, in addition to providing a speed and range of motion (ROM) as that of a normal subject. It was designed with SolidWorks software program and constructed with a 3D printer technique using polylactic acid (PLA) plastic material. The overall exoskeleton was controlled with electromyography and angle information extracted using EMG myoware and gyroscope sensors respectively. it was applied for evaluation with 5 normal subjects and 12 subjects of stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI). The results were found that the exoskeleton has a strong effect on regaining muscle activity and increasing the ROMs of wrist and forearm joints. These results give proof of this exoskeleton to be used for performing physiotherapy exercises

Smart Robotic Exoskeleton: Constructing Using 3D Printer Technique for Ankle-Foot Rehabilitation

Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, and coronavirus patients must undergo a rehabilitation process involving programmed exercises to regain their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). This study focuses on the rehabilitation of the foot-ankle joint to restore ADL through the design and implementation of a rehabilitation exoskeleton with three degrees of freedom (abduction/adduction, inversion/eversion, and plantarflexion/dorsiflexion movements). increase the patients cause worker fatigue, emotional exhaustion, a lack of motivation, and feelings of frustration, all contributing to a decrease in work efficacy and productivity. The robotic exoskeleton was developed to overcome this limitation and support the medical rehabilitation section.   The main goal of this study is to develop a portable exoskeleton that is comfortable, lightweight, and has a range of motion (ROM) compatible with human anatomy to ensure that movements outside of this range are minimized, the anthropometric parameters of a typical human lower foot have been considered. In addition, it's a home-based rehabilitation device which means the exoskeleton can be used in any environment due to its lightweight and small size to accelerate the rehabilitation process and increase patient comfort.  The proposed autonomous exoskeleton structure is designed in Solid Works and constructed with polylactic acid (PLA) plastic, the reason PLA was chosen is its lightweight, available, stiff material, and low cost, using 3D printing technology the exoskeleton was manufacturing. Electromyography (EMG) and angle data were extracted using EMG MyoWare and gyroscope sensors, respectively, to control the exoskeleton. It was evaluated on its own then with 2 normal subjects and 17 patients with stroke, spinal cord injury (SCI), and coronavirus. The limitation that has been faced was that the sessions were limited due to the limited time provided for the study. According to the improvement rate, the exoskeleton has a significant impact on regaining muscle activity and improving the range of motion of foot-ankle joints for the three types of patients. The rate of improvement was 300%, 94%, and 133.3% for coronavirus, SCI, and stoke respectively. These results demonstrate that this exoskeleton can be utilized for physiotherapy exercises

A Robust Controller Design for Simple Robotic Human Arm

Nowadays, the manipulator of two degrees of freedom (2DOF) has many applications. One is a human arm that may be utilized in robotic rehabilitation. The 2DOF controlled robot manipulator usually acts like human arms. This paper aims to design a robust, stable controller for the upper limb robotic model. A sliding mode control (SMC) approach is proposed to realize stability, tracing accuracy, and robustness for 2DOF robotic manipulator. Based on the general manipulator equation of motion, two SMCs are designed. The first is designed according to the input–output stability constraints. The second is designed according to the adaptive law. Not only the trajectory tracking is guaranteed but also stability is ensured. The stability of the controllers is examined based on Lyapunov stability criteria. The controllers and the robotic arm are formulated analytically. The MATLAB platform is adopted to examine and validate the proposed controller’s performance. The addition of adaptation law in the SMC scheme improves the results for the two designed controllers and shows remarkable trajectory tracking and system stability as well. The improvement rate shows an enhancement of 40.5% and 36.7% for manipulator joints 1 and 2, respectively

A Review Study for Robotic Exoskeletons Rehabilitation Devices

Nowadays, robotic exoskeletons demonstrated great abilities to replace traditional rehabilitation processes for activating neural abilities performed by physiotherapists. The main aim of this review study is to determine a state-of-the-art robotic exoskeleton that can be used for the rehabilitation of the lower limb of people who have mobile disabilities as a result of stroke and musculoskeletal conditions. The study presented the anatomy of the lower limb and the biomechanics of human gait to explain the mechanism of the limb, which helps in constructing a robotic exoskeleton. A state-of-the-art review of more than 100 articles related to robotic exoskeletons and their constructions, functionality, and rehabilitation capabilities are accurately implemented. Moreover, the study included a review of upper limb rehabilitation that has been studied locally and successfully applied to patients who exhibited significant improvements. Results of recent studies herald an abundant future for robotic exoskeletons used in the rehabilitation of the lower extremity. Significant improvement in the mechanism and design, as well as the quality, were observed. Also, impressive results were obtained from the performance when used by patients. This study concludes that working and improving the robotic devices continuously in accordance with the cases are necessary to be treated with the best results and the lowest cost

Adaptive Control of Robot Manipulators with Velocity Estimation and Bounded Torque

The robot manipulator output feedback problem points out to the controlled system in which the measurements of the joint position are available. In this study, all kinematic and dynamic parameters of robot manipulator are supposed unknown and the manipulator have to follow the desired trajectory. Therefore, the adaptive control problem for robot manipulators based on velocity estimation is investigated. According to the practical robot actuator power limitation, the bounded torque input is also considered in this study. The control algorithm is applied for 2-link manipulator to evaluate controller effectiveness. The design parameters that guaranteed the control performance of closed loop system are chosen by using optimization output constrained method. The proposed controller performances are provided by numerical simulations

Optimal Selection of Stiffness for Prosthetic Foot and Ankle: Manufacturing and Testing

A major object of prosthetics fitting procedure has to provide the amputee with the greatest potential long-term rehabilitation result by providing the finest feasible design. The foot keel and ankle joint are two key components for transtibial prosthetic users. This essay's objective is to determine the effect of systematically altering the stiffness of prosthetic foot keel and ankle joint on standing in individuals who have undergone unilateral transtibial amputations. A balance analysis was carried out to select the optimal combination of prosthetic foot and joint. According to the findings, the medium foot and soft ankle joint is the best one for standing analysis