Design, Development, and Testing of an Intelligent Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton Prototype for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Vélez-Guerrero, Manuel Andrés; Callejas-Cuervo, Mauro; Mazzoleni, Stefano

doi:10.3390/s21165411

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Several control strategies have been proven to provide safe and accurate control with proper sensors. Both end-effector and exoskeleton devices can employ several control strategies using varying combinations of sensors [ 132 ].…”

Section: Control Methods Of the Hand Rehabilitation Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hand Rehabilitation Devices: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

et al. 2022

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A cerebrovascular accident, or a stroke, can cause significant neurological damage, inflicting the patient with loss of motor function in their hands. Standard rehabilitation therapy for the hand increases demands on clinics, creating an avenue for powered hand rehabilitation devices. Hand rehabilitation devices (HRDs) are devices designed to provide the hand with passive, active, and active-assisted rehabilitation therapy; however, HRDs do not have any standards in terms of development or design. Although the categorization of an injury’s severity can guide a patient into seeking proper assistance, rehabilitation devices do not have a set standard to provide a solution from the beginning to the end stages of recovery. In this paper, HRDs are defined and compared by their mechanical designs, actuation mechanisms, control systems, and therapeutic strategies. Furthermore, devices with conducted clinical trials are used to determine the future development of HRDs. After evaluating the abilities of 35 devices, it is inferred that standard characteristics for HRDs should include an exoskeleton design, the incorporation of challenge-based and coaching therapeutic strategies, and the implementation of surface electromyogram signals (sEMG) based control.

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Section: Control Methods Of the Hand Rehabilitation Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…sEMG sensors can accurately predict movement and pain if the EMG signals are calibrated to read low-level signals [135]. An example of an EMG's control algorithm is provided in Figure 14 ploy several control strategies using varying combinations of sensors [132].…”

Section: Surface Electromyography Based Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hand Rehabilitation Devices: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

et al. 2022

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“…Neuromotor rehabilitation and recovery of upper extremity functions are necessary to improve the life quality of individuals who have suffered injuries, disabilities or have pathological outcomes, where it is favorable to raise the development of activities of daily living [ 6 ]. However, the conventional rehabilitations done by one manual-assisted movement training created by physiotherapists suffers from a lot of inherent restrictions, such as heavy labor severity, long-time consumption, lack of repeatability, low patients participation, and their low motivation to perform rehabilitation exercises [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of the role of robots in upper limb disabilities rehabilitation: a scoping review

Moulaei,

Bahaadinbeigy,

Haghdoostd

et al. 2023

Arch Public Health

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Background Neuromotor rehabilitation and improvement of upper limb functions are necessary to improve the life quality of patients who have experienced injuries or have pathological outcomes. Modern approaches, such as robotic-assisted rehabilitation can help to improve rehabilitation processes and thus improve upper limb functions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of robots in upper limb disability improvement and rehabilitation. Methods This scoping review was conducted by search in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and IEEE (January 2012– February 2022). Articles related to upper limb rehabilitation robots were selected. The methodological quality of all the included studies will be appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). We used an 18-field data extraction form to extract data from articles and extracted the information such as study year, country, type of study, purpose, illness or accident leading to disability, level of disability, assistive technologies, number of participants in the study, sex, age, rehabilitated part of the upper limb using a robot, duration and frequency of treatment, methods of performing rehabilitation exercises, type of evaluation, number of participants in the evaluation process, duration of intervention, study outcomes, and study conclusions. The selection of articles and data extraction was made by three authors based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Disagreements were resolved through consultation with the fifth author. Inclusion criteria were articles involving upper limb rehabilitation robots, articles about upper limb disability caused by any illness or injury, and articles published in English. Also, articles involving other than upper limb rehabilitation robots, robots related to rehabilitation of diseases other than upper limb, systematic reviews, reviews, and meta-analyses, books, book chapters, letters to the editor, and conference papers were also excluded. Descriptive statistics methods (frequency and percentage) were used to analyses the data. Results We finally included 55 relevant articles. Most of the studies were done in Italy (33.82%). Most robots were used to rehabilitate stroke patients (80%). About 60.52% of the studies used games and virtual reality rehabilitate the upper limb disabilities using robots. Among the 14 types of applied evaluation methods, “evaluation and measurement of upper limb function and dexterity” was the most applied evaluation method. “Improvement in musculoskeletal functions”, “no adverse effect on patients”, and “Safe and reliable treatment” were the most cited outcomes, respectively. Conclusions Our findings show that robots can improve musculoskeletal functions (musculoskeletal strength, sensation, perception, vibration, muscle coordination, less spasticity, flexibility, and range of motion) and empower people by providing a variety of rehabilitation capabilities.

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“…The nowadays fast developing robotics technology promises to improve human upperlimb functionalities required for performing ADL [1][2][3][4][5]. The following technical challenges urgently need to be studied:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-Inspired Conceptual Mechanical Design and Control of a New Human Upper Limb Exoskeleton

2021

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Safe operation, energy efficiency, versatility and kinematic compatibility are the most important aspects in the design of rehabilitation exoskeletons. This paper focuses on the conceptual bio-inspired mechanical design and equilibrium point control (EP) of a new human upper limb exoskeleton. Considering the upper limb as a multi-muscle redundant system, a similar over-actuated but cable-driven mechatronic system is developed to imitate upper limb motor functions. Additional torque adjusting systems at the joints allow users to lift light weights necessary for activities of daily living (ADL) without increasing electric motor powers of the device. A theoretical model of the “ideal” artificial muscle exoskeleton is also developed using Hill’s natural muscle model. Optimal design parameters of the exoskeleton are defined using the differential evolution (DE) method as a technique of a multi-objective optimization. The proposed cable-driven exoskeleton was then fabricated and tested on a healthy subject. Results showed that the proposed system fulfils the desired aim properly, so that it can be utilized in the design of rehabilitation robots. Further studies may include a spatial mechanism design, which is especially important for the shoulder rehabilitation, and development of reinforcement learning control algorithms to provide more efficient rehabilitation treatment.

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Design, Development, and Testing of an Intelligent Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton Prototype for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Cited by 20 publications

References 76 publications

Hand Rehabilitation Devices: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

Hand Rehabilitation Devices: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

Overview of the role of robots in upper limb disabilities rehabilitation: a scoping review

Bio-Inspired Conceptual Mechanical Design and Control of a New Human Upper Limb Exoskeleton

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