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Introduction The aim of this research is to develop a robot-assistive training approach for the disabled individuals with impaired upper limb functions. People with impaired upper limb function can regain their motor functionality undergoing intense rehabilitation exercises. With increasing number of disabled individuals, we face deficiency in the number of expert therapists. One promising remedy could be the use of robotic assistive devices. Method To instruct and demonstrate rehabilitation exercise, this research used NAO robot. A library of recommended rehabilitation exercises involving shoulder (i.e., abduction/adduction, vertical flexion/extension, and internal/external rotation), and elbow (i.e., flexion/extension) joint movements was formed in Choregraphe (graphical programming interface). For this purpose, a kinematic model of human upper-extremity was developed based on modified Denavit-Hartenberg notations. Result In experiments, NAO robot gave voice instruction and was maneuvered to cooperate and demonstrate the exercises from the library. NAO also plays some complex game with the subject that represents a multi-joint movement's exercise, which was also included in the library. Conclusions Experimental results with healthy participants reveal that the NAO robot can successfully instruct and demonstrate upper-extremity rehabilitation exercises for single and multi-joint movements. It implies a technical development of cooperative rehabilitation system for which target group will be individuals with upper limb impairment.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; layout-grid-mode: char;" align="left"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: ";Arial";,";sans-serif";; font-size: 9pt;">Skilled navigation in mobile robotics usually requires solving two problems pertaining to the knowledge of the position of the robot, and to a motion control strategy. When no prior knowledge of the environment is available, the problem becomes even more challenging, since the robot has to build a map of its surroundings as it moves. These three tasks ought to be solved in conjunction due to their interdependency. The present manuscript proposes a novel mobile robot navigation technique using a customized RFID reader with two receiving antennas mounted on the robot and a number of standard RFID tags attached in the robot’s environment to define its path. In here, we show that using the RF signal from the RFID tags as an analog feedback signals can be a promising strategy to navigate a mobile robot within an unknown or uncertain indoor environment. This method is computationally simpler and more cost-effective than many of its counterparts in the state of the art. It is also modular and easy to implement since it is independent of the robot’s architecture and its workspace. A set of numerical computer simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.</span></span><span style="font-family: ";Arial";,";sans-serif";; font-size: 9pt;"></span></p>

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