Abstract
Compared with conventional exoskeletons with rigid links, cable-driven upper-limb exoskeletons are light weight and have simple structures. However, cable-driven exoskeletons rely heavily on the human skeletal system for support. Kinematic modeling and control thus becomes very challenging due to inaccurate anthropomorphic parameters and flexible attachments. In this paper, the mechanical design of a cable-driven arm rehabilitation exoskeleton is proposed to accommodate human limbs of different sizes and shapes. A novel arm cuff able to adapt to the contours of human upper limbs is designed. This has given rise to an exoskeleton which reduces the uncertainties caused by instabilities between the exoskeleton and the human arm. A kinematic model of the exoskeleton is further developed by considering the inaccuracies of human-arm skeleton kinematics and attachment errors of the exoskeleton. A parameter identification method is used to improve the accuracy of the kinematic model. The developed kinematic model is finally tested with a primary experiment with an exoskeleton prototype.
Highlights
Robot-assisted motion training for stroke patients is being widely applied in physical therapies; the approach has several advantages over the traditional motion training which is conducted by therapists
An exoskeleton for upper-limb rehabilitation can be worn on the human arm and can provide the required torque on human arm joints for motion training
The results indicate that thefor kinematic model canSubject be improved effectively captured results the3.identified/unidentified results both Subject
Summary
Robot-assisted motion training for stroke patients is being widely applied in physical therapies; the approach has several advantages over the traditional motion training which is conducted by therapists. A rehabilitation robot can offer intensive and repetitive, long-duration motion training. An exoskeleton for upper-limb rehabilitation can be worn on the human arm and can provide the required torque on human arm joints for motion training. For these reasons, this approach has received a great amount of attention in recent years. This approach has received a great amount of attention in recent years Based on their configurations, exoskeletons can be divided into two categories: serial [1,2,3] and parallel [4,5,6]. The actuators are mounted onto the joints of serial linkages
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