Read Books Online and Download eBooks, EPub, PDF, Mobi, Kindle, Text Full Free.
Lower Body Exoskeleton For Walking Gait Assistance And Performance Augmentation Using Compliance Controlled Actuators
Download Lower Body Exoskeleton For Walking Gait Assistance And Performance Augmentation Using Compliance Controlled Actuators full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Lower Body Exoskeleton For Walking Gait Assistance And Performance Augmentation Using Compliance Controlled Actuators ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!
Book Synopsis Lower Body Exoskeleton for Walking Gait Assistance and Performance Augmentation Using Compliance Controlled Actuators by : Nelson Rafael Simoes Costa
Download or read book Lower Body Exoskeleton for Walking Gait Assistance and Performance Augmentation Using Compliance Controlled Actuators written by Nelson Rafael Simoes Costa and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Development and Testing of an Unpowered Ankle Exoskeleton for Walking Assist by : Justin Leclair
Download or read book Development and Testing of an Unpowered Ankle Exoskeleton for Walking Assist written by Justin Leclair and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wearable Robotics written by Jacob Rosen and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2019-11-16 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wearable Robotics: Systems and Applications provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field of wearable robotics, including active orthotics (exoskeleton) and active prosthetics for the upper and lower limb and full body. In its two major sections, wearable robotics systems are described from both engineering perspectives and their application in medicine and industry. Systems and applications at various levels of the development cycle are presented, including those that are still under active research and development, systems that are under preliminary or full clinical trials, and those in commercialized products. This book is a great resource for anyone working in this field, including researchers, industry professionals and those who want to use it as a teaching mechanism. Provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field, with both engineering and medical perspectives Helps readers quickly and efficiently design and develop wearable robotics for healthcare applications
Book Synopsis Lower Extremity Exoskeletons for Gait Rehabilitation of Motor-impaired Patients by : Sai Kumar Banala
Download or read book Lower Extremity Exoskeletons for Gait Rehabilitation of Motor-impaired Patients written by Sai Kumar Banala and published by ProQuest. This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robotic rehabilitation for physical therapy has several advantages over conventional manual rehabilitation, especially in the aspects of accuracy and repeatability. Initial attempts at robotic rehabilitation focused on training muscles by moving limbs in a fixed repetitive pattern. Later it was realized that such an approach could be suboptimal. Better approach would be the use of 'assist-as-needed' paradigm, where an orthotic device provides just enough assistance to enable the patient to move his leg under his own control. However, at this time, lower extremity devices which can apply appropriate forces to implement this paradigm are still in research and not commercially available. The goal of this work is to develop lower extremity orthotic devices using assist-as-needed paradigm for robotic rehabilitation. To achieve this goal two orthotic devices were developed. They are Gravity Balancing leg Orthosis (GBO) and Active Leg EXoskeleton (ALEX). GBO assists persons with hemiparesis to walk by reducing or eliminating the effects of gravity on the affected limb. The amount of assistance provided can be tuned by the therapist from 0% to 100% gravity balancing. For a quantitative evaluation of the performance of the device several experiments were conducted. These experiments were performed on five healthy subjects and three stroke patients. The results showed that with the GBO set to 100% balancing the EMG activity from the rectus femoris and hamstring muscles was reduced by 75%, during static hip and knee flexion, respectively. For leg-raising tasks the average torque for static positioning reduced by 66.8% at hip joint and 47.3% at knee joint, however if transient portion of the leg raising task is included, the average torque at hip reduced by 61.3% and at knee increased by 2.7% at knee joints. In the walking experiment there was a positive impact on the range of movement at the hip and knee joints, especially for stroke patients, the range of movement increased by more than 57% at hip joint and by more than 73% at the knee joint. These results show that the GBO provides assistance which can be used for rehabilitation. An intensive training of a stroke patient was performed to study the long term effects of GBO, the training lasting for six weeks. The training started out with maximum assistance of 100% gravity balancing and gradually reduced to 0% by the end of training. Patient is also shown visual display of his gait pattern in real time and summary performance after individual sessions. Some of the effects of the training were, increase in patients preferred speed of treadmill walking from 2.72 km/h to 3.04 km/h, patient's preferred overground speed increased from 3.38 km/h to 3.86 km/h by the last evaluation. An improvement of gait pattern was seen where the patients gait pattern became more like a healthy subject's pattern. The patient was able to increase weight bearing on the hemiparetic leg and was more symmetric in his walk. ALEX, on the other hand, is a motorized orthotic device. To achieve the goal of 'assist-as-needed' paradigm for ALEX, Force-Field controller was developed. This controller generates "virtual walls'' in the plane containing human thigh and shank segments. These virtual walls guide and assist the subject's foot along the prescribed trajectory. Linear actuators were used at hip and knee joints of the device. To make the actuators back-drivable, friction compensation was used. Gait training studies with healthy subjects were conducted to measure the effectiveness of ALEX in retraining modified gait pattern. The results show that a healthy human leg muscles can be trained in about 45 to 60 minutes to a modified pattern of foot trajectory. A 15-day long gait training was conducted with a stroke patient using ALEX, the results indicate that using ALEX and force-field controller, the patient's gait pattern improved significantly in many aspects. His gait speed improved both on treadmill from 1.45 km/h to 2.57 km/h and overground from 1.82 km/h to 2.50 km/h. His foot trajectory increased and got about 85% closer to a healthy subject's foot trajectory. Knee flexion increased from 27.2 deg to 47.5 deg and ankle dorsi-flexion increased from 1.9 deg to 5.9 deg by the end of the training. All these results indicate that by using these devices suitably and implementing a long term gait training can help patients with walking disability in a speedy recovery.
Book Synopsis Control Strategies for Robotic Exoskeletons to Assist Post-Stroke Hemiparetic Gait by : Julio Salvador Lora Millán
Download or read book Control Strategies for Robotic Exoskeletons to Assist Post-Stroke Hemiparetic Gait written by Julio Salvador Lora Millán and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Energy Recycling and Management for Lower Limb Exoskeleton by : Hao Lee
Download or read book Energy Recycling and Management for Lower Limb Exoskeleton written by Hao Lee and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lower Limb Exoskeleton, a wearable robot that is designed to provide lower limb assistance to users, has been rapidly developed in the previous decade. The goal of these robots is to replace human labor with robots while still having humans involved. However, while these robot suits provide sufficient assistance to the users, the efficiency of the robot is often overseen. Thus, restrict the exoskeleton's operating time or required it to connect to an external power supply. However, there is plenty of energy wasted in human motions. In this study, we target "loaded bipedal walking" as the primary motion to assist. In chapter 2, we applied trajectory optimization on different mechanical designs for lower-limb exoskeletons. It is commonly known that humans tend to use more energy to walk compared to other limb-based locomotion animals. This higher energy usage is due to "heel strikes" and "negative work" during human gait. Passive walkers elevate this phenomenon by utilizing elastic joints that absorb/reuse some of the negative work. The objective of this study is to absorb energy at one phase of the gait cycle, store it, and then release it at a later phase through the use of a lower limb exoskeleton. Knee geometry is one important factor in energy efficiency during gait. Animals with reversed knees compared to humans (backward knee), such as ostriches, exhibit improved energy efficiency. As part of this study, new energy optimization strategies were developed utilizing collision-based ground reaction forces and a discrete lagrangian. The minimal cost of transport (CoT) gait patterns were calculated with both forward-knee and backward-knee human-exoskeleton models. Simulation results show that wearing a backward-knee exoskeleton can reduce the CoT by 15% of while carrying external loads ranging from 20 to 60 kg. In addition, when the exoskeleton utilized energy recycling, the CoT was shown to be further reduced to 35%. These simulation results suggested that the optimal design for an exoskeleton aimed at utilizing energy recycling principles should incorporate backward-knee configurations much like those found in energy-efficient biped/quadruped animals. In fact, since the potential energy sources (heel strikes, negative work) and the main energy consumer (ankle push-off) occurs in the opposite legs, the ideal actuators for the exoskeleton need to be able to recycle, store, and transfer energy between different legs. To satisfy the actuator's requirements from chapter 2, in chapter 3 we choose pneumatic actuators as the actuator for our exoskeleton. Pneumatic actuators are a popular choice for wearable robotics due to their high force-to-weight ratio and natural compliance, which allows them to absorb and reuse wasted energy during movement. However, traditional pneumatic control is energy inefficient and difficult to precisely control due to nonlinear dynamics, latency, and the challenge of quantifying mechanical properties. To address these issues, In chapter 3, we developed a wearable pneumatic actuator with energy recycling capabilities and applied the sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) algorithm to generate a nonlinear delayed differential model from simple pressure measurements. Using only basic knowledge of thermal dynamics, SINDy was able to train models of solenoid valve-based pneumatic systems with a training accuracy of 90.58% and a test accuracy of 86.44%. The generated model, when integrated with model predictive control (MPC), resulted in a 5% error in pressure control. By using MPC for human assistive impedance control, the actuator was able to output the desired force profile and recycle around 88% of the energy used in negative work. These results demonstrate an energy-efficient and easily calibrated actuation scheme for designing assistive devices such as exoskeletons and orthoses. In chapter 4, we presented Pneumatic Exoskeleton with Reversible Knee (PERK). It utilizes the pneumatic actuators we developed in chapter 3 and the control strategies we concluded in chapter 2. Three clinical trials were done on three different test subjects. The results showed despite different walking patterns across different test subjects, there is less potential energy change during the swing phase of walking, potentially reducing the energy loss during the heel strike. In addition, during the double support phase, there is less energy consumption in the pneumatic system while configuring it as backward-knee, indicating it is easier or more intuitive for the user to have the exoskeleton recycling the dissipated energy with the backward-knee mechanism.
Book Synopsis Interfacing Humans and Robots for Gait Assistance and Rehabilitation by : Carlos A. Cifuentes
Download or read book Interfacing Humans and Robots for Gait Assistance and Rehabilitation written by Carlos A. Cifuentes and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concepts represented in this textbook are explored for the first time in assistive and rehabilitation robotics, which is the combination of physical, cognitive, and social human-robot interaction to empower gait rehabilitation and assist human mobility. The aim is to consolidate the methodologies, modules, and technologies implemented in lower-limb exoskeletons, smart walkers, and social robots when human gait assistance and rehabilitation are the primary targets. This book presents the combination of emergent technologies in healthcare applications and robotics science, such as soft robotics, force control, novel sensing methods, brain-computer interfaces, serious games, automatic learning, and motion planning. From the clinical perspective, case studies are presented for testing and evaluating how those robots interact with humans, analyzing acceptance, perception, biomechanics factors, and physiological mechanisms of recovery during the robotic assistance or therapy. Interfacing Humans and Robots for Gait Assistance and Rehabilitation will enable undergraduate and graduate students of biomedical engineering, rehabilitation engineering, robotics, and health sciences to understand the clinical needs, technology, and science of human-robot interaction behind robotic devices for rehabilitation, and the evidence and implications related to the implementation of those devices in actual therapy and daily life applications.
Book Synopsis An Intelligent Pneumatic Muscle Actuated Exoskeleton for Robotic Gait Rehabilitation by : Jinghui Brian Cao
Download or read book An Intelligent Pneumatic Muscle Actuated Exoskeleton for Robotic Gait Rehabilitation written by Jinghui Brian Cao and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gait disorder is a commonly lasting side-effect for stroke and spinal cord injury survivors. Conventional gait rehabilitation trainings provided by therapists are largely dependent on their experience. Such trainings are often challenging for the therapists due to their physically intensive nature. Hence, consistent optimal results cannot always be achieved. Robotic technologies were thus introduced to automate the gait rehabilitation trainings, in order to emancipate therapists from physically intensive work as well as making rehabilitation training more accessible to patients Research have shown that task specific repetitive training and patients' active participation can lead to more effective gait rehabilitation. However, conventional trajectory tracking controlled robotic gait rehabilitation could change the dynamics of the walking task, reduce inputs from patients' motor systems, lower their physical effort and thus result less effective outcomes. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the robotic gait rehabilitation training is more analogous to actual human walking and maximize the training subject's active participation. The goal of this thesis is the development of a new robotic GAit Rehabilitation EXoskeleton (GAREX) that is compliant with the current neurorehabilitation theories in order to achieve optimised robotic gait rehabilitation. Such goal is tackled systematically in terms of both robotic design and control algorithm research. GAREX was designed to provide safe, task specific gait rehabilitation to stroke patients. Pneumatic muscles (PM) actuators were used to drive GAREX, due to their high power/force to weight ratio and intrinsic compliance. Specially, the intrinsic compliance can create a wide range of dynamic environment for control strategy development. However, the negative correlation between PM's force output and contracting length means a trade-off between torque and range of motion specifications of the actuation system. The design of GAREX comprehensively addressed torque and joint range of motion requirements imposed by task-specific gait rehabilitation training. Control strategies are the key to implement the training theories into robotic operations. In order to encourage patients' active participation, the robot should be controlled to supply just enough guidance/assistance a patient needs to complete treadmill based gait training. To implement assist-as-needed (AAN) concept, the robot should also be able to assess the extent of active participation and change the assistance provided accordingly. The intrinsic compliance of GAREX's PM actuation system could be utilized to change the level of guidance. A new multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) sliding model (SM) controller was developed to adjust assistance while guiding training subjects to walk in predefined gait trajectories. Technical experimental validation indicated that controller was able to track reference gait trajectories and the desired joint space average antagonistic PM pressures. A study with 12 healthy subjects revealed strong statistical evidence that the proposed MIMO SM controller is able to vary the compliance of the exoskeleton To online assess the training patient's active participation, a fuzzy logic compliance adaptation (FLCA) controller is proposed. The FLCA algorithm utilizes the robotic kinematics and human- exoskeleton interaction torque of the knee joint, to estimate the extent of the patient's active participation. Based on the estimation, the desired compliance level can be automatically adjusted with higher compliance for more active participation and vice versa. Nevertheless, the FLCA algorithm does not require models of the exoskeleton and biomechanics of the training subject, which means less preparation work and easier implementation. Performance of the FLCA control system was validated with three healthy subjects who simulated different extents of participation. The FLCA control system could successfully adapt the joint actuation compliance accordingly in all the scenarios.
Book Synopsis Coordinated energy-efficient walking assistance for paraplegic patients by using the exoskeleton-walker system by : Chen Yang
Download or read book Coordinated energy-efficient walking assistance for paraplegic patients by using the exoskeleton-walker system written by Chen Yang and published by OAE Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Overground walking can be achieved for patients with gait impairments by using the lower limb exoskeleton robots. Since it is a challenge to keep balance for patients with insufficient upper body strength, a robotic walker is necessary to assist with the walking balance. However, since the walking pattern varies over time, controlling the robotic walker to follow the walking of the human-exoskeleton system in coordination is a critical issue. Inappropriate control strategy leads to the unnecessary energy cost of the human-exoskeleton-walker (HEW) system and also results in the bad coordination between the human-exoskeleton system and the robotic walker. In this paper, we proposed a Coordinated Energy-Efficient Control (CEEC) approach for the HEW system, which is based on the extremum seeking control algorithm and the coordinated motion planning strategy. First, the extremum seeking control algorithm is used to find the optimal supporting force of the support joint in real time to maximize the energy efficiency of the human-exoskeleton system. Second, the appropriate reference joint angles for wheels of the robotic walker can be generated by the coordinated motion planning strategy, causing the good coordination between the human-exoskeleton system and the robotic walker. The proposed approach has been tested on the HEW simulation model, and the experimental results indicate that the coordinated energy-efficient walking can be achieved with the proposed approach, which is increased by 60.16% compared to the conventional passive robotic walker.
Book Synopsis Wearable Exoskeleton Systems by : Shaoping Bai
Download or read book Wearable Exoskeleton Systems written by Shaoping Bai and published by Control, Robotics and Sensors. This book was released on 2018 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wearable exoskeletons are electro-mechanical systems designed to assist, augment, or enhance motion and mobility in a variety of human motion applications and scenarios. The applications, ranging from providing power supplementation to assist the wearers to situations where human motion is resisted for exercising applications, cover a wide range of domains such as medical devices for patient rehabilitation training recovering from trauma, movement aids for disabled persons, personal care robots for providing daily living assistance, and reduction of physical burden in industrial and military applications. The development of effective and affordable wearable exoskeletons poses several design, control and modelling challenges to researchers and manufacturers. Novel technologies are therefore being developed in adaptive motion controllers, human-robot interaction control, biological sensors and actuators, materials and structures, etc. In this book, the editors and authors report recent advances and technology breakthroughs in exoskeleton developments. It will be of interest to engineers and researchers in academia and industry as well as manufacturing companies interested in developing new markets in wearable exoskeleton robotics.
Download or read book Wearable Robots written by José L. Pons and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wearable robot is a mechatronic system that is designed around the shape and function of the human body, with segments and joints corresponding to those of the person it is externally coupled with. Teleoperation and power amplification were the first applications, but after recent technological advances the range of application fields has widened. Increasing recognition from the scientific community means that this technology is now employed in telemanipulation, man-amplification, neuromotor control research and rehabilitation, and to assist with impaired human motor control. Logical in structure and original in its global orientation, this volume gives a full overview of wearable robotics, providing the reader with a complete understanding of the key applications and technologies suitable for its development. The main topics are demonstrated through two detailed case studies; one on a lower limb active orthosis for a human leg, and one on a wearable robot that suppresses upper limb tremor. These examples highlight the difficulties and potentialities in this area of technology, illustrating how design decisions should be made based on these. As well as discussing the cognitive interaction between human and robot, this comprehensive text also covers: the mechanics of the wearable robot and it’s biomechanical interaction with the user, including state-of-the-art technologies that enable sensory and motor interaction between human (biological) and wearable artificial (mechatronic) systems; the basis for bioinspiration and biomimetism, general rules for the development of biologically-inspired designs, and how these could serve recursively as biological models to explain biological systems; the study on the development of networks for wearable robotics. Wearable Robotics: Biomechatronic Exoskeletons will appeal to lecturers, senior undergraduate students, postgraduates and other researchers of medical, electrical and bio engineering who are interested in the area of assistive robotics. Active system developers in this sector of the engineering industry will also find it an informative and welcome resource.
Book Synopsis Soft Robotics in Rehabilitation by : Amir Jafari
Download or read book Soft Robotics in Rehabilitation written by Amir Jafari and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2021-02-20 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soft Robotics in Rehabilitation explores the specific branch of robotics dealing with developing robots from compliant and flexible materials. Unlike robots built from rigid materials, soft robots behave the way in which living organs move and adapt to their surroundings and allow for increased flexibility and adaptability for the user. This book is a comprehensive reference discussing the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs. The book examines various techniques applied in soft robotics, including the development of soft actuators, rigid actuators with soft behavior, intrinsically soft actuators, and soft sensors. This book is perfect for graduate students, researchers, and professional engineers in robotics, control, mechanical, and electrical engineering who are interested in soft robotics, artificial intelligence, rehabilitation therapy, and medical and rehabilitation device design and manufacturing. - Outlines the application of soft robotic techniques to design platforms that provide rehabilitation therapy for disabled persons to help improve their motor functions - Discusses the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs - Offers readers the ability to find soft robotics devices, methods, and results for any limb, and then compare the results with other options provided in the book
Book Synopsis Design and Assist-as-needed Control of an Intrinsically Compliant Robotic Orthosis for Gait Rehabilitation by : Shahid Hussain
Download or read book Design and Assist-as-needed Control of an Intrinsically Compliant Robotic Orthosis for Gait Rehabilitation written by Shahid Hussain and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neurologic injuries, such as stroke and spinal cord injuries (SCI), cause damage to neural systems and motor function, which results in lower limb impairment and gait disorders. Subjects with gait disorders require specific training to regain functional mobility. Traditionally, manual physical therapy is used for the gait training of neurologically impaired subjects which has limitations, such as the excessive workload and fatigue of physical therapists. The rehabilitation engineering community is working towards the development of robotic devices and control schemes that can assist during the gait training. The initial prototypes of these robotic gait training orthoses use conventional, industrial actuators that are either extremely heavy or have high endpoint impedance (stiffness). Neurologically impaired subjects often suffer from severe spasms. These stiff actuators may produce forces in response to the undesirable motions, often causing pain or discomfort to patients. The control schemes used by the initial prototypes of robotic gait training orthoses also have a limited ability to provide seamless, adaptive, and customized robotic assistance. This requires new design and control methods to be developed to increase the compliance and adaptability of these automated gait training devices. This research introduces the development of a new robotic gait training orthosis that is intrinsically compliant. Novel, assist-as-needed (AAN) control strategies are proposed to provide adaptive and customized robotic assistance to subjects with different levels of neurologic impairments. The new robotic gait training orthosis has six degrees of freedom (DOFs), which is powered by pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA). The device provides naturalistic gait pattern and safe interaction with subjects during gait training. New robust feedback control schemes are proposed to improve the trajectory tracking performance of PMAs. A dynamic model of the device and a human lower limb musculoskeletal model are established to study the dynamic interaction between the device and subjects. In order to provide adaptive, customized robot assisted gait training and to enhance the subject's voluntary participation in the gait training process, two new control schemes are proposed in this research. The first control scheme is based on the impedance control law. The impedance control law modifies the robotic assistance based on the human subject's active joint torque contributions. The levels of robot compliance can be selected by the physical therapist during the impedance control scheme according to the disability level and stage of rehabilitation of neurologically impaired subjects. The second control scheme is proposed to overcome the shortcomings of impedance control scheme and to provide seamless adaptive, AAN gait training. The adaptive, AAN gait training scheme is based on the estimation of the disability level of neurologically impaired subjects based on the kinematic error and adapts the robotic assistance accordingly. All the control schemes have been evaluated on neurologically intact subjects and the results show that these control schemes can deliver their intended effects. Rigorous clinical trials with neurologically impaired subjects are required to prove the therapeutic efficacy of the proposed robotic orthosis and the adaptive gait training schemes. The concept of intrinsically compliant robotic gait training orthosis, together with the trajectory tracking and impedance control of robotic gait training orthosis are the important contributions of this research. The algorithms and models developed in this research are applicable to the development of other robotic devices for rehabilitation and assistive purposes. The major contribution of the research lies in the development of a seamless, adaptive AAN gait training strategy. The research will help in evolving the field of compliant actuation of rehabilitation robots along with the development of new control schemes for providing seamless, adaptive AAN gait training.
Book Synopsis Mechanism Design for Robotics by : Marco Ceccarelli
Download or read book Mechanism Design for Robotics written by Marco Ceccarelli and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-06-21 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MEDER 2018, the IFToMM International Symposium on Mechanism Design for Robotics, was the fourth event in a series that was started in 2010 as a specific conference activity on mechanisms for robots. The aim of the MEDER Symposium is to bring researchers, industry professionals, and students together from a broad range of disciplines dealing with mechanisms for robots, in an intimate, collegial, and stimulating environment. In the 2018 MEDER event, we received significant attention regarding this initiative, as can be seen by the fact that the Proceedings contain contributions by authors from all around the world. The Proceedings of the MEDER 2018 Symposium have been published within the Springer book series on MMS, and the book contains 52 papers that have been selected after review for oral presentation. These papers cover several aspects of the wide field of robotics dealing with mechanism aspects in theory, design, numerical evaluations, and applications. This Special Issue of Robotics (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/MDR) has been obtained as a result of a second review process and selection, but all the papers that have been accepted for MEDER 2018 are of very good quality with interesting contents that are suitable for journal publication, and the selection process has been difficult.
Book Synopsis Development of Effective Hip-knee-ankle Exoskeleton Assistance for Different Walking Conditions by : Gwendolyn Bryan
Download or read book Development of Effective Hip-knee-ankle Exoskeleton Assistance for Different Walking Conditions written by Gwendolyn Bryan and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lower-limb exoskeletons could assist people in a variety of locomotor activities such as walking, running, jumping, and carrying loads. These devices could be beneficial to first responders, military personnel, laborers, and in the future, may be able to assist patient populations and older adults. Recent successful strategies for able-bodied individuals have reduced the metabolic cost of walking by up to 24% when assisting the hips, ankles or both joints. However, there has been limited exploration into simultaneous assistance at the hips, knees, and ankles which may lead to the greatest metabolic reductions of any joint configuration. It is currently unclear how to effectively assist the whole leg as well as how that effective assistance should vary with gait condition. In my doctoral research, I developed a bilateral lower-limb exoskeleton emulator and used it to optimize hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton assistance in a variety of gait conditions. This device is a flexible research testbed that can quickly apply a wide variety of assistance strategies by simply updating the device controller. We used the bilateral lower-limb exoskeleton emulator to optimize hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton assistance through human-in-the-loop optimization, a strategy that adjusts exoskeleton assistance in real time using online user performance measurements. In the first optimization study, we optimized exoskeleton assistance to minimize metabolic cost at slow (1.0 m/s), medium (1.25 m/s) and fast (1.5 m/s) walking speeds. Exoskeleton assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking relative to walking in the device without assistance by 26% for slow walking, 47% for medium-speed walking, and 50% for fast walking. In the second study, we optimized exoskeleton assistance to minimize the metabolic cost of walking with no load, a light load (15% of user body weight), and a heavy load (30% of user body weight). The weight was applied through a weight vest. Exoskeleton assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 48% with no load, 36% with the light load, and 43% with the heavy load. The results of these studies show that hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton assistance can substantially decrease the metabolic cost of walking at a variety of speeds and with different worn loads. The results from these studies could inform the design of future exoskeleton products and influence future exoskeleton experiments. Exoskeleton products could use the optimized torque profiles found here to dictate needed device capabilities, and the metabolic reductions from these studies provide a benchmark for expected performance. Future exoskeleton experiments could use the optimized torque profiles as a starting point to investigate useful exoskeleton assistance in novel gait conditions, during non-steady state walking, and with patient populations or older adults. While optimizing exoskeleton assistance to reduce metabolic cost was effective for able-bodied adults, it may be beneficial to investigate alternative performance metrics for patient populations like increasing self-selected walking speed or enhancing balance. The results of these studies could inform effective exoskeleton assistance for future products and studies for years to come.
Book Synopsis Multi-objective User Tunable Interface for Assistance Control of a Lower Limb Exoskeleton by : Kurt Stewart
Download or read book Multi-objective User Tunable Interface for Assistance Control of a Lower Limb Exoskeleton written by Kurt Stewart and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of assistive lower limb exoskeletons lacks controllers that allow user adjustment according to their needs and desires. This thesis develops and shows simulation evidence for allowing user-intuitive control by providing adjustment of gait based on gait performance measures the user cares about while walking. Using the NSGA-II multiobjective optimization algorithm to generate trajectories for a virtual constraint-based exoskeleton system a lookup table was generated which provides user adjustment of speed, comfort, effort proxy, and natural walking measures. The findings in this thesis demonstrate a variety of gait across these performance measures which can be used to formulate a user-adjustable controller.
Book Synopsis A Powered Lower Limb Exoskeleton Supplemented with FES for Gait Assistance in Paraplegic Patients by : Hugo Alberto Quintero
Download or read book A Powered Lower Limb Exoskeleton Supplemented with FES for Gait Assistance in Paraplegic Patients written by Hugo Alberto Quintero and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
