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Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals have been extensively studied in the area of intention detection, force estimation and control of rehabilitation devices. Studies regarding sEMG based jaw muscle force estimation are necessary towards building intuitive neural-controlled soft oral rehabilitation robot (SORR). This paper presents a force estimation algorithm based on masseter muscle sEMG signals...
Much attention has been focused on the detection of volitionary motor commands from the efferent Peripheral Nervous System as a control signal for an advanced prosthetic limb, or the delivery of artificial sensory data to the Peripheral Nervous System as feedback. Less explored has been the potential for natural sensory signals to act as sensor input to neuroprosthetic systems. Many conditions with...
When exposed to visual perturbations, the motor system rapidly learns to reduce errors through adaptation of future motor commands. However, in cerebellar and stroke patients with proprioceptive impairments, motor adaptation rates are significantly slower. A recent study suggests that adaptation rates may be modulated by the stability of perturbations and the history of errors. We hypothesize that...
Modern mechatronic systems present exponential evolution due to available high-end technology progress. More intelligent and more reliable systems are built, capable of sensing working environments, processing data and of autonomous decision making. Proposed Cognitive Robotic System Architecture CORBYS focuses on systems where a human is present in the robot working space and close human-robot interaction...
This paper proposes a novel driving assistance system for a manual wheelchair. On an inclined road, there is a high risk of a wheelchair moving in a direction that the user does not intend. Using only servo brakes on each wheel, our proposed system negates the wheel traction that is generated by the road's inclination. Our system measures the road's inclination and estimates the wheel traction generated...
Haptic guidance in robot-assisted therapy does not only relieve the therapist from physical work load and increase the possible training intensity. Haptic guidance can also be used to adapt the task difficulty level to the patient's abilities, which is assumed to maximize the learning rate. Hereby, task difficulty can address either the patient's physical ability (strength) or his/her coordination...
This paper presents the results of a preliminary assessment study to investigate baseline performance measures and differences between control and stroke participants during reaching tasks in three directions. H-Man, planar robot is, used for this purpose. Thirteen healthy and two chronic stroke patients with upper limb motor impairment participated in the study. Assessment of performance was made...
Falls are acknowledged as one of the most serious problems in the elderly. In order to develop effective interventions to reduce the fall risk, perturbation-based training programs are being adopted. The exposure to repeated unexpected perturbations can modify proactive strategies to control dynamical gait stability and decrease the risk of falling during unpreventable events encountered in everyday...
Designing the underlying mechanical structure of lower limb exoskeletons for assistance and rehabilitation is a demanding task that requires a good understanding of the interaction that takes place between the exoskeleton and the human user wearing it. Often the effects of a given mechanical design on the user are not straightforward or intuitive. One obstacle for research is that existing rehabilitation...
This paper presents an assist-as-needed method for ankle rehabilitation based on adaptive impedance control strategies. First, the dynamic contribution of the patient during the motion is estimated from robot's torque and kinematic information. Then, two robot assistance control strategies (complementary and optimal) are proposed to calculate the stiffness parameter of the impedance controller. In...
We present a study with an autonomous Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) coach that investigates the effect of comparative feedback given by a SAR on the self-efficacy of individuals post-stroke in a seated reaching task. We compare two types of feedback, self-comparative and other-comparative, against a control of no comparative feedback, with 23 participants post-stroke. We find that participants receiving...
Robotic mobility assistance devices provide a purposeful and adaptive support for elderly humans. To achieve assistance which is specifically adapted to the individual needs and capabilities of the user, the device should be capable of estimating the overall gait performance as well as the current state of the subject on-line. Information gathered by on-board sensors could be exploited to obtain,...
A novel powered end-effector arm rehabilitation robot with a game based virtual environment is introduced. The built rehabilitation robot provides both gravitational support and assistive drive force in horizontal planar motion to the user's arm. The proposed configuration completely decouples the motor's torque and can senses force in two opposite directions within task space. The paper investigated...
The loss of motor function at the elbow joint can result as a consequence of stroke. Stroke is a clinical illness resulting in long lasting neurological deficits often affecting somatosensory and motor cortices. More than half of those that recover from a stroke survive with disability in their upper arm and need rehabilitation therapy to help in regaining functions of daily living. In this paper,...
Balance and gait rehabilitation are the lesser progressed fields in robot aided rehabilitation, mostly due to the complexity of the involved tasks. One of the main problems is the impossibility for most patients to autonomously practice balance and gait rehabilitation safely, especially in the early fundamental stage of recovery. A solution to this limitation of the therapies is to realize a robotic...
We aimed to determine whether an anti-spasticity medication (tizanidine) can facilitate the effects of robotic locomotor treadmill training (LTT) to improve gait function. Individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) were recruited and carried out a 4-week intervention of either locomotor treadmill training (LTT) alone (n = 26) or LTT combined with tizanidine (TizLTT) (n = 22). Gait function...
This paper introduces a passive shoulder joint tracking device for upper limb rehabilitation robots and performance evaluation of the device. The Gleno-humeral (GH) joint of the shoulder translates in three-dimensional space as the arm moves. However, commercial rehabilitation robots for the upper limb lack in accommodating for the translation of the GH joint. The few robots which can support the...
This paper presents LIGHTarm, a passive gravity compensated exoskeleton for upper-limb rehabilitation suitable for the use both in the clinical environment and at home. Despite the low-cost and not actuated design, LIGHTarm aims at providing remarkable back-drivability in wide portions of the upper-limb workspace. The weight-support and back-drivability features are experimentally investigated on...
A close-to-body arm support is needed to meet the need of patients for an inconspicuous arm support that is not stigmatizing. At the moment, these arm supports do not exist. All commercially available arm support use springs with a parallelogram structure that needs auxiliary links to balance the arm. Recent literature presents a 2-spring configuration without auxiliary links with multi-articular...
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