Neurologic injuries, such as stroke, spinal cord and weaknesses of skeletal muscles with elderly people, may considerably limit the ability this population to achieve main daily living activities. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in development wearable devices, so-called exoskeletons, assist well patients limb pathologies, for movement assistance rehabilitation. In paper, we review discuss state art lower exoskeletons that are mainly used physical An overview commonly...

Gait modes, such as level walking, stair ascent/descent, and ramp show different lower-limb kinematic kinetic characteristics. Therefore, an accurate detection of these modes is critical for a wearable robot to provide appropriate power assistance. In this paper, fast gait-mode-detection method based on body sensor system proposed. A fuzzy logic algorithm used estimate the likelihoods gait in real time. Since proposed mode makes it possible select models each mode, assistive torques required...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative affecting millions worldwide. Bespoke subject-specific treatment (medication or deep brain stimulation (DBS)) critical for management, yet depends on precise assessment cardinal PD symptoms - bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. Clinician diagnosis basis of treatment, it allows only a cross-sectional which can vary an hourly liable to inter- intra-rater subjectivity across human examiners. Automated symptomatic has attracted...

As an important movement of the daily living activities, sit-to-stand (STS) is usually a difficult task facing elderly and dependent people. To provide appropriate power assistance for movement, novel intention-based Active Impedance Control (AIC) strategy applied on lower limb exoskeleton proposed in this paper. The AIC able to adapt mechanical impedance human-exoskeleton system towards desired one using exoskeleton's assistance. In structure, human joint torque observer designed estimate...

Reducing human lower limb effort during walking is still a challenge for wearable exoskeletons. From the wearer's viewpoint, joint impedance increases while wearing exoskeleton due to fact that exoskeleton's mass, friction, and gravity are added those of limbs. Active required from compensate not only mechanical but also limb. This paper presents nonlinear reduction control (IRC) approach applied knee flexion/extension movements. The IRC ensures adaptation human-exoskeleton system toward...

In this article, a proxy-based force control method is proposed for three important human-robot interaction modes: zero-impedance mode, assistive and large mode. A two-mass dynamic-model-based nonlinear disturbance observer used to meet the output accurate tracking requirements with respect disturbances from wearer environment. Additionally, significant compliance can be achieved guarantee wearer's safety when torque large. The evaluated via experiments by comparison conventional...

Human-robot cooperation is vital for optimising powered assist of lower limb exoskeletons (LLEs). Robotic capacity to intelligently adapt human force, however, demands a fusion data from exoskeleton and user state smooth human-robot synergy. Muscle activity, mapped through electromyography (EMG) or mechanomyography (MMG) widely acknowledged as usable sensor input that precedes the onset joint torque. However, competing complementary information between such physiological feedback yet be...

As an important movement of the daily living activities, sit-to-stand (STS) is usually a difficult task facing elderly and dependent people. In this article, novel impedance modulation strategy lower-limb exoskeleton proposed to provide appropriate power balance assistance during STS movements while preserving wearer's control priority. The ensures adaptation mechanical human–exoskeleton system toward desired one requiring less effect reinforcing ability movements. A human joint torque...

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a symptom of swallowing dysfunction that associated with aspiration, severe respiratory complications, and even death. OD highly prevalent condition in populations including the elderly patients neurological diseases (e.g., stroke Parkinson's disease (PD)). Assessment swallow function crucial for managing OD, yet depends on devices long-term monitoring during daily life relevant methods accurately assessing function. The videofluoroscopic study (VFSS) usually...

Loss of mobility and/or balance resulting from neural trauma is a critical public health issue. Robotic exoskeletons hold great potential for rehabilitation and assisted movement. However, the synergy robot operation with human effort remains problem. In particular, optimal assist-as-needed (AAN) control unresolved given pathological variance among patients. We introduce model predictive (MPC) architecture lower limb that achieves on-the-fly transitions between modes assistance. The...

Gait impairments are among the most common hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD), usually appearing in early stage and becoming a major cause disability with progression. Accurate assessment gait features is critical to personalized rehabilitation for patients PD, yet difficult be routinely carried out as clinical diagnosis using rating scales relies heavily on experience. Moreover, popular cannot ensure fine quantification mild symptoms. Developing quantitative methods that can used natural...

To control wearable robotic systems, it is critical to obtain a prediction of the user's motion intent with high accuracy. Surface electromyography (sEMG) recordings have often been used as inputs for these devices, however bipolar sEMG electrodes are highly sensitive their location. Positional shifts after training gait models can therefore result in severe performance degradation. This study uses high-density (HD-sEMG) simulate various electrode signals from four leg muscles during...

In this paper, an active impedance control strategy for a knee-joint orthosis is proposed to assist individuals suffering from lower-limb muscular weaknesses during the swing phase of walking activities. The goal decrease human effort required ensuring successful knee joint movement without sacrificing wearer's priority. study, gait-phase based desired admittance model designed by analyzing kinematic and kinetic characteristics shank-foot segment walking. Moreover, mechanical human/orthosis...

Summary This paper deals with the control of an active ankle foot orthosis (AAFO) for paretic patients. State art methods using AAFO try to track a predefined trajectory joint while guaranteeing wearer’s safety in presence large tracking error. Combining and accuracy is generally difficult achieve at same time, hence trade-off should be found. Proxy-based sliding mode (PSMC) offers great performances both position guarantee. However, its performance subject influences parameter uncertainties...

Subjective clinical rating scales represent the gold-standard for diagnosis of motor function following stroke. In practice however, they suffer from well-recognized limitations including assessor variance, low inter-rater reliability and resolution. Automated systems have been proposed empirical quantification but not significantly impacted practice. We address translational challenges in this arena through: (1) implementation a novel sensor suite combining inertial measurement...

Recognizing the user motion intention plays an important role in study of power-assist robots. An intention-guided control strategy is proposed for upper-limb exoskeleton. A force sensor system comprised sensing resistors (FSRs) designed to online estimate upper limb. new concept called "intentional reaching direction (IRD)" quantitatively describe this intention. Both state model and observation IRD are obtained by enumerating limb behavior modes analyzing relationship between measured...

An upper limb robotic exoskeleton of three degrees freedom (DOF) is designed for the patients who survived stroke and elderly have not enough strength to move their limbs freely. Particular attention paid realization a intention-driven control approach, by which can assist user moving his/her arm freely where he/she intends go. A force sensing system made multiple resisters (FSRs) embedded in exoskeleton. static model relaxed state obtained when wears hybrid proposed describe behavior modes...

Accurate human motion estimation is crucial for effective and safe human-robot interaction when using robotic devices rehabilitation or performance enhancement. Although surface electromyography (sEMG) signals have been widely used to estimate movements, conventional sEMG-based methods, which need sEMG measured from multiple relevant muscles, are usually subject some limitations, including interference between sensors wearable robots/environment, complicated calibration, as well discomfort...

This paper presents an adaptive knee-joint based Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)method to correct the foot drop of paretic patients during swing phase. The rationale behind FES is amplify dorsiflexor stimulation in late when it most needed order face increased plantar flexor co-contraction as gastrocnemius muscles are stretched by knee re-extension. To accurately detect phase (i.e., toes off (TO)and initial contact (IC)), a novel algorithm proposed using foot-mounted inertial...

This paper presents a practical method to identify body segments inertial parameters of human-exoskeleton system using affordable and easy-to-use sensors. First, the joints base kinematics are estimated based on use an extended Kalman filter QR visual markers. Then, used in dynamic identification pipeline together with ground reaction force moments collected Wii Balance Board. The process is done augmented regressor matrix at once each segment mass, center mass 3D position inertia tensor...

Estimating human motion intention, such as intent joint torque and movement, plays a crucial role in assistive robotics for ensuring efficient safe human-robot interaction. For coupled systems, surface electromyography (sEMG) signal has been proven an effective means estimating human's intended movements. Usually, movement estimation uses sEMG signals measured from multiple muscles needs many sensors placed on the body, which may cause discomfort or result mechanical/signal interference...

This paper concerns the control of a knee joint orthosis for rehabilitation and assistive purpose. The dynamics shank-orthosis system can be represented as second order nonlinear model which takes viscous, inertial gravitational properties into consideration human effort is considered an external torque. In this paper, adaptive proxy-based sliding mode (APSMC) proposed to guarantee accurate robust tracking performance system. main advantages law are 1) online parameters regulation ensures...