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Our goal is to try to enhance the QoL of persons with hemiplegia by the mean of an active motion support system based on the HAL's technology. The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) in its standard version is an exoskeleton-based robot suit to support and enhance the human motor functions. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is the development of a new version of the HAL to be used as an...
This paper presents the design and development of a novel biomimetic quadruped robot for behavior studies of rats and mice. Many studies have been performed using these animals for the purpose of understanding human mind in psychology, pharmacology and brain science. In these fields, several experiments on social interactions have been performed using rats as basic studies of mental disorders or social...
Recent experimental evidence suggests that a fundamental property of the human motor system is that it ldquoslacksrdquo; that is, that it continuously attempts to decrease levels of muscle activation when movement error is small during repetitive motions. This paper reviews several computational models of slacking, and discusses implications of slacking for the design of robotic orthoses. For therapeutic...
Robotic lower limb exoskeletons have been built for augmenting human performance, assisting with disabilities, studying human physiology, and re-training motor deficiencies. At the University of Michigan Human Neuromechanics Laboratory, we have built pneumatically-powered lower limb exoskeletons for the last two purposes. Most of our prior research has focused on ankle joint exoskeletons because of...
Walking power-assisted robot is a wearable exoskeleton leg for augmentation of the human walking ability. It is anthropomorphic, parallels to the human lower limbs and interfaces to the human via shoulder straps, waist belt, thigh cuffs, and a shoe connection such that the geometry of the human and the machine approximately match one another. It is important and necessary for analyzing the human walking...
In our previous work, a random sampling-based footstep planner has been proposed for global biped navigation in environments with local minima or narrow passages. Goal-Probability Threshold (GPT) is a key parameter which controls the convergence rate of the goal-biased non-uniform sampling in this planner. In this paper, a GPT optimization approach is explained. We construct a benchmarking model,...
Intelligent bionic leg controlled by a micro processing unit is an advanced intelligent prosthesis. In order to provide an ideal test-bed for the development of intelligent bionic leg, a new pattern humanoid robot-biped robot with heterogeneous legs (BRHL) is proposed. The conception and research purpose of BRHL are expatiated. Based on human bioscience, bionic design of artificial knee joint is analyzed...
In this paper we investigate the control of compass gait biped based on its impact dynamics. We use the receding horizon control (RHC) strategy to develop an active control law so as to mimic the passive gait. Our result shows that this control strategy not only mimics the passive gait but can also stabilize it for those initial conditions, which make the passive gait unstable.
Walking assist systems should cope with both the external perturbation caused by slips, uneven terrain, slopes, and obstacles, and local function impairment caused by internal factors, like spastic paralysis. It is known that humans are able to cope with these difficulties by different strategies. One is that in the case when external perturbation occurs, especially when the occurrence cannot be predicted...
We studied the effect of body weight support on self-selected overground walking speed in both healthy elderly subjects and subjects post-stroke using the KineAssist, a novel robotic gait and balance device. Body weight support is provided by the robot via a closed-loop system that provides support about the subject's estimated center of mass. Body weight support was tested at 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%...
Wireless resonant magnetic micro-actuators have been previously described as highly effective propulsion mechanisms for untethered mobile microrobots. The discussion thus far has been primarily relegated to a characterization of stationary devices and the de facto observation of their mobility. Before applications of microrobots can be more fully explored, devices are required that can operate reliably...
Biologically inspired legged robots have great potential both as research tools and as products designed for use in dangerous situations or in places inaccessible to humans. Localization and navigation technology plays a key role in the biologically inspired legged robot research. In this paper, a localization and navigation system of biologically inspired hexapod robot based on the TMS320VC 5509A...
This paper describes a hardware and a method for motion programming robots having six or more legs. The hardware consists of 3 low-cost capacitive accelerometers placed on the human body. Each accelerometer can measure 3 perpendicular axis. Each sensor has a microcontroller connected to it, this way the generated signal can be post-processed, avoiding a few noise sources. The controlled robot has...
Climbing robots are especially susceptible to thermal overload during normal operation, due to the need to oppose gravity and to frequently apply internal forces for clinging. As an alternative to setting conservative limits on the motor peak and average current, we investigate methods for measuring motor temperatures, predicting motor thermal conditions and generating thermally constrained behavior...
The trajectory is one of major issues for a humanoid robot because not every trajectory can provide a stable robot motion. In this paper, a real human motion is used to generate a robot trajectory. Image processing and transformation are used to extract the trajectory from a human motion to a robot trajectory. The dynamic stability of a robot is considered by using the zero moment point (ZMP) because...
This paper presents a haptic sensor foot system for humanoid robot and an active tactile sensing technique to balance the humanoid robot with two legs for human and robot interaction task. The proposed sensors are implemented on two robotic foots. The sensor unit contains three thin sheets of force sensitive resistors. Those elements are arranged triangularly on the back of each foot. The research...
In recent years, parallel robots find many applications in human-systems interaction, medical robots, rehabilitation, exoskeletons, to name a few. These applications are characterized by many imperatives, with robust precision and dynamic workspace computation as the two ultimate ones. Practical methods of kinematic's calibration make use of the linear differential error of the kinematics' model....
The goal of this paper is to answer (i) how the stabilization performance of a biped controller can be evaluated on a certain invariant supporting region, (ii) how the standing stabilizer which performs the best on a given supporting region can be designed, (iii) how the system can be judged if it is stabilizable by the best standing stabilizer without deforming the current supporting region, and...
We consider the task of planning smooth trajectories for robot motion. In this paper we make two contributions. First we present a method for cubic spline optimization; this technique lets us simultaneously plan optimal task-space trajectories and fit cubic splines to the trajectories, while obeying many of the same constraints imposed by a typical motion planning algorithm. The method uses convex...
Realizing an ideal impedance control system in lower extremity rehabilitation systems is challenged by mechanical impedance of robot hardware. Although some studies in the field of control systems have been helpful in reducing the mechanical impedance of actuators, they have not been able to remove the inertia of robot hardware. This paper introduces an alternative design in which mechanical links...
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