The development of an exoskeleton robot for co-manipulation of human upper limb movement

Abstract

In this paper, an exoskeleton robotic device worn by human operator is developed mainly for support and rehabilitation, as well as improvement of human capabilities. In order to enhance the device ability to finely interact with a human limb, it is necessary to develop a control interface for exoskeletons, which would guarantee comfort and safety, as well as efficiency and robustness. The developed exoskeleton robot utilizes electromyographic (EMG) signals from muscles of the upper limb to estimate human arm motion, and robust motion control is proposed to deal with the dynamics of robot and human upper limb and fulfill the co-manipulation of human-robot. Extensive experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of system.