Power-assist Exoskeleton Robot Research Articles

Generation of Virtual Tunnels for Meal Activity Perception Assist With an Upper Limb Power Assist Exoskeleton Robot

Generation of Virtual Tunnels for Meal Activity Perception Assist With an Upper Limb Power Assist Exoskeleton Robot

A study on control an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot based the motion estimation with integrated information of EMG and force information

A study on control an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot based the motion estimation with integrated information of EMG and force information

Investigation of the Parameters of Virtual Tunnel Considering Tasks during Perception-Assist with Upper-Limb Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot

Investigation of the Parameters of Virtual Tunnel Considering Tasks during Perception-Assist with Upper-Limb Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot

Design of a bionic-inspired exoskeleton robot for lower limb assist

The design of an intelligent exoskeleton robot with pneumatic artificial muscles for human lower limb motion assist using electromyography (EMG) is presented. There are four topics addressed in this paper. Decoding electromyography is the first topic. When muscles are active, they produce an electrical activity. EMG is a record of this electrical activity that reflects human’s movement. Through regression analysis a model is obtained to extract motion commands from EMG. It would be an advantage to employ EMG as a control signal for the exoskeleton control. Second, the pneumatic artificial muscle, air muscle for short, is a simple and powerful actuator. When actuated with compressed air, it contracts and provides a pulling force. As a result of its behavior in a similar way to a biological muscle, air muscle is adapted for a bionic actuator of the assist robot. The force models of air muscles are investigated by experiments in a workbench. Third, for the control of a bionic-inspired robot, the multimodal sensory feedback including EMG and inertial sensors is necessary. By using EMG as a force-proportional measurement between human and robot, a control system combined a sensor-fusion approach and a compliant mechanism enables exoskeleton to carry out human-robot collaboration. Finally, a prototype of power-assist exoskeleton robot for lower limb is completed and evaluated by experiments successfully.

装着者のタスクに応じた上肢外骨格型パワーアシストロボットによる認知アシストに関する研究

Many power-assist robots have been developed to assist the rehabilitation and daily motion of the physically weak persons. The environmental perception ability of the physically weak persons is sometimes deteriorated also, so the concept of perception-assist has been proposed to assist user to avoid dangerous motion if it is necessary. In this study, a virtual tunnel is defined in the perception-assist for the user's upper-limb motion and the modification force is applied to user's hand when a tool grasped by the hand is out of the virtual tunnel. The intended task of user is estimated by the motion and the tool grasped by the hand such as spoon, fork, and so on. In this paper, the perception-assist which defines a flexible shape of virtual tunnel in accordance with the intended task is proposed to assist the task of physically persons with an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated by experiments.

1A1-P07 外骨格型7自由度上肢パワーアシストロボットにおける肩の回転中心の変化に対応する機構の設計

Recently, many power-assist robots are studied in various fields. We try to use a power-assist exoskeleton robot to nurse elderly persons and physically handicapped persons. In this paper, we propose a new shoulder mechanism for a 7DOF upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot. It is known that human's shoulder rotation center changes according to the movement of upper-limb. This new mechanism corresponds to its change of it without additional actuators and large constructers. The power-assist robot with this mechanism supports daily life of physically weak persons who use a wheelchair.

An EMG-Based Control for an Upper-Limb Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot

Many kinds of power-assist robots have been developed in order to assist self-rehabilitation and/or daily life motions of physically weak persons. Several kinds of control methods have been proposed to control the power-assist robots according to user's motion intention. In this paper, an electromyogram (EMG)-based impedance control method for an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot is proposed to control the robot in accordance with the user's motion intention. The proposed method is simple, easy to design, humanlike, and adaptable to any user. A neurofuzzy matrix modifier is applied to make the controller adaptable to any users. Not only the characteristics of EMG signals but also the characteristics of human body are taken into account in the proposed method. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated by the experiments.

F-2-1 7自由度上肢外骨格型パワーアシストロボットにおける零空間を用いた最適化手法の検討(F-2 メカニカルシステムとその知能化-機械と人の視点を中心に,口頭発表:メカニカルシステムとその知能化)

In the upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot, one of the most important things for the robot is assisting the joint motion of the user. Specifically, the robot needs to move according to the user's motion intention so that the user can use the robot without the sense of discomfort. EMG signal based impedance control has been proposed for the 7DOF upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot to control the robot according to the user's motion intention. In the controller, the 6-dimensional hand force vector calculated from EMG signals is realized with the impedance control in real time. Although Jacobian matrix is used in the controller, it is a singular matrix because the robot has a redundancy, so the pseudo-inverse matrix is used in the controller. In this paper, the torque optimization method with the pseudo-inverse matrix for an upper-limb power-assist robot is discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated by the experiments.

J1601-1-1 7自由度上肢パワーアシストロボットの機構と制御(メカニカルシステムとその知能化)

Seven degrees of freedom (7DOF) upper-limb motion power-assist exoskeleton robot (SUEFUL-7) and its electromyography (EMG) signal based control method are proposed to assist the motions of upper-limb of physically weak people. In proposed control method, impedance control is applied to the muscle-model-oriented controller considering the end effecter force vector. The effectiveness of the proposed method was evaluated by performing the experiments.

2A1-B14 環境情報と筋電信号に基づいた下肢運動補助用外骨格型ロボットの研究(ウェアラブルロボティクス)

In order to help the activities of physically weak persons, this paper proposes a new concept of a lower-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot. The proposed power-assist exoskeleton robot assists not only the motion of the user using EMG signals but also the perception of the user using an ultra sonic sensor. Consequently, the power-assist exoskeleton robot can modify the assisting user's motion based on the environment information obtained by the ultra sonic sensor. The effectiveness of the proposed concept has been evaluated by performing experiment.

1603 Perception Assist with Active Camera for a Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot

1603 Perception Assist with Active Camera for a Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot

3727 パワーアシストロボットのための知的認知アシスト(J27 知能機械に人間の高次脳機能の知見を積極的に活用,融合した新分野を切り拓く研究・技術,ジョイントセッション,21世紀地球環境革命の機械工学:人・マイクロナノ・エネルギー・環境)

This paper presents an intelligent perception assist (IPA) to improve the intelligence of a power-assist exoskeleton robot. The intelligent perception assist system is equipped with a stereo vision camera to observe the environment; hence it can monitor how the user is interacting with the environment to assist the perception of the user. The stereo vision camera is controlled in 3 degrees of freedom. When the user is going to do something, it always tracks the user's hand (i.e., the end effecter of the exoskeleton) to make sure that the user's arm is always within the sight of the image. In addition, the camera is brought to a better position to monitor the interaction of the user with the environment by avoiding obstacles which can be restrained the vision of the camera. Based on the obtained environmental information, the assisted user's motion can be modified if problems are found in the user's motion when the user is going to interact with the environment.