Comparative study of actuation systems for portable upper limb exoskeletons

Upper-Limb Exoskeletons for Physically Weak Persons

Compliant Actuation of Exoskeletons

This chapter discusses the advantages and feasibility of using compliant actuators in exoskeletons. We designed compliant actuation for use in a gait rehabilitation robot. In such a gait rehabilitation robot large forces are required to support the patient. In case of poststroke patients only the affected leg has to be supported while the movement of the unaffected leg should not be hindered. N...

Learning by Demonstration for Motion Planning of Upper-Limb Exoskeletons

The reference joint position of upper-limb exoskeletons is typically obtained by means of Cartesian motion planners and inverse kinematics algorithms with the inverse Jacobian; this approach allows exploiting the available Degrees of Freedom (i.e. DoFs) of the robot kinematic chain to achieve the desired end-effector pose; however, if used to operate non-redundant exoskeletons, it does not ensu...

Passive exoskeletons for assisting limb movement.

This article presents the state of the art in passive devices for enhancing limb movement in people with neuromuscular disabilities. Both upper- and lower-limb projects and devices are described. Special emphasis is placed on a passive functional upper-limb orthosis called the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX). The development and testing of the WREX with children with limited arm strength ...

Gait parameter adaptation for lower-limb exoskeletons

The field of exoskeletons and assistive orthotic devices is a multidisciplinary issue in the halfway between medicine and robotics. Within the robotic discipline, bipedal robot gaits are generated as a function of parameters such as stride length, foot clearance and body height. These features allow to adapt the gait to different surface characteristics. However, biped robot gaits do not look a...