Abstract
Wheelchair mounted upper limb exoskeletons offer an alternative way to support disabled individuals in their activities of daily living (ADL). Key challenges in exoskeleton technology include innovative mechanical design and implementation of a control method that can assure a safe and comfortable interaction between the human upper limb and exoskeleton. In this article, we present a mechanical design of a four degrees of freedom (DOF) wheelchair mounted upper limb exoskeleton. The design takes advantage of non-backdrivable mechanism that can hold the output position without energy consumption and provide assistance to the completely paralyzed users. Moreover, a PD-based trajectory tracking control is implemented to enhance the performance of human exoskeleton system for two different tasks. Preliminary results are provided to show the effectiveness and reliability of using the proposed design for physically disabled people.
Highlights
Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) may result in incomplete or complete tetraplegia and lead to paralysis of all four extremities
We present a PD control in the joint space to control the four degrees of freedom (DOF) upper limb exoskeleton robot [2] and investigate its effect as an assistive device to support individuals with physical impairments of the upper limbs in a set of
We present the mechanical design, control, and performance evaluation of the wheelchair exoskeleton for physical assistance
Summary
Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) may result in incomplete or complete tetraplegia and lead to paralysis of all four extremities. While advanced medical and surgical techniques, such as stem cell therapy, nerve transfer surgery, etc., have been used to restore the upper limb functionality, in some severe cases, it is hard to achieve desired results Emerging technologies, such as assistive robots, can provide an alternative way to facilitate individuals with physical impairments in activities of daily living (ADL) [1,2] or therapeutic exercises [3,4]. We present a PD control in the joint space to control the four degrees of freedom (DOF) upper limb exoskeleton robot [2] and investigate its effect as an assistive device to support individuals with physical impairments of the upper limbs in a set of ADLs. The contribution of the article can be summarized as follows.
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