Download or read book Design and Control of a Hand Exoskeleton for Use in Extravehicular Activities written by Bobby Lynn Shields and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Innovative Hand Exoskeleton Design for Extravehicular Activities in Space written by Pierluigi Freni and published by . This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Innovative Hand Exoskeleton Design for Extravehicular Activities in Space written by Pierluigi Freni and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-06-23 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental conditions and pressurized spacesuits expose astronauts to problems of fatigue during lengthy extravehicular activities, with adverse impacts especially on the dexterity, force and endurance of the hands and arms. A state-of-the-art exploration in the field of hand exoskeletons revealed that available products are unsuitable for space applications because of their bulkiness and mass. This book proposes a novel approach to the development of hand exoskeletons, based on an innovative soft robotics concept that relies on the exploitation of electroactive polymers operating as sensors and actuators, on a combination of electromyography and mechanomyography for detection of the user’s will and on neural networks for control. The result is a design that should enhance astronauts’ performance during extravehicular activities. In summary, the advantages of the described approach are a low-weight, high-flexibility exoskeleton that allows for dexterity and compliance with the user’s will.
Download or read book Design and Realization of a Finger Exoskeleton for Astronauts Extravehicular Activity EVA Glove written by Mohamad Mehdi Seyed Mousavi and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book sEMG based Control Strategy for a Hand Exoskeleton System written by Nicola Secciani and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reports on the design and testing of an sEMG-based control strategy for a fully-wearable low-cost hand exoskeleton. It describes in detail the modifications carried out to the electronics of a previous prototype, covering in turn the implementation of an innovative sEMG classifier for predicting the wearer's motor intention and driving the exoskeleton accordingly. While similar classifier have been widely used for motor intention prediction, their application to wearable device control has been neglected so far. Thus, this book fills a gap in the literature providing readers with extensive information and a source of inspiration for the future design and control of medical and assistive devices.
Download or read book A Hand Exoskeleton with Series Elastic Actuation for Rehabilitation written by Priyanshu Agarwal and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rehabilitation of the hands is critical for restoring independence in activities of daily living for individuals with upper extremity disabilities. Conventional therapies for hand rehabilitation have not shown significant improvement in hand function. Robotic exoskeletons have been developed to assist in therapy and there is initial evidence that such devices with force-control based strategies can help in effective rehabilitation of human limbs. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the existing hand exoskeletons allow for accurate force or torque control. In this dissertation, we design and prototype a novel hand exoskeleton that has the following unique features: (i) Bowden-cable-based series elastic actuation allowing for bidirectional torque control of each joint individually, (ii) an underlying kinematic mechanism that is optimized to achieve large range of motion and (iii) a thumb module that allows for independent actuation of the four thumb joints. To control the developed hand exoskeleton for efficacious rehabilitation after a neuromuscular impairment such as stroke, we present two types of subject-specific assist-as-needed controllers. Learned force-field control is a novel control technique in which a neural-network-based model of the required torques given the joint angles for a specific subject is learned and then used to build a force-field to assist the joint motion of the subject to follow a trajectory designed in the joint-angle space. Adaptive assist-as-needed control, on the other hand, estimates the coupled digit-exoskeleton system torque requirement of a subject using radial basis function (RBF) and on-the-y adapts the RBF magnitudes to provide a feed-forward assistance for improved trajectory tracking. Experiments with healthy human subjects showed that each controller has its own trade-offs and is suitable for a specific type of impairment. Finally, to promote and optimize motor (re)-learning, we present a framework for robot-assisted motor (re)-learning that provides subject-specific training by allowing for simultaneous adaptation of task, assistance and feedback based on the performance of the subject on the task. To train the subjects for dexterous manipulation, we present a torque-based task that requires subjects to dynamically regulate their joint torques. A pilot study carried out with healthy human subjects using the developed hand exoskeleton suggests that training under simultaneous adaptation of task, assistance and feedback can module challenge and affect their motor learning.
Download or read book Development and Testing of Hand Exoskeletons written by Matteo Bianchi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-05 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the development of portable, wearable, and highly customizable hand exoskeletons to aid patients suffering from hand disabilities. It presents an original approach for the design of human hand motion assistance devices that relies on (i) an optimization-based kinematic scaling procedure, which guarantees a significant adaptability to the user’s hands motion, and (ii) a topology optimization-based design methodology, which allowed the design of a lightweight, comfortable device with a high level of performance. The book covers the whole process of hand exoskeleton development, from establishing a new design strategy, to the construction and testing of hand exoskeleton prototypes, using additive manufacturing techniques. As such, it offers timely information to both researchers and engineers developing human motion assistance systems, especially wearable ones.
Download or read book Design and Control of an Assistive Myoelectric Hand Exoskeleton written by Mohammad Ghassemi and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dual Reconfigurable Exoskeleton Hand System with Opposable Thumbs written by Peter Walker Ferguson and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between a global pandemic, aging population, and labor shortages, there is an ongoing spike in the demand for healthcare that cannot be satisfied with traditional methods and the human workforce. Robotic technology offers a solution to this dilemma; applying robotics to healthcare is an active area of research that has begun to be widely commercialized. Whilethere are many potential avenues for robots to improve health and well-being, my research has focused on two areas in particular: the development of robotic hand exoskeletons for rehabilitation and the enhancement of robotic surgery via automation and sensor development. Exoskeletons have been shown to be effective for use in physical rehabilitation of numerous conditions including spinal cord injury and stroke. However, at present, the huge majority of exoskeleton systems are constructed for only the arm (from shoulder to wrist), back, lower limbs, or hands. Few systems have been developed that combine both full arm and hand systems, and those that do generally have limited actuation of the hand. This is partly because the mechanical complexity of the hand requires rigid hand exoskeletons to be complex and bulky if they are able to control many of the important degrees of freedom. This bulk and complexity makes the hand systems challenging to successfully integrate onto the distal end of an arm exoskeleton. However, there is significant demand for combined arm and hand rehabilitation exoskeletons because many activities of daily living, that physical therapy focuses on retraining, require reaching and grasping together. The overarching goals of this research are to develop a novel hand exoskeleton, experimentally evaluate its capabilities in preparation for application to stroke rehabilitation, and integrate it on the existing EXO-UL8 and concurrently developed BLUE SABINO upper limb exoskeleton systems. Chapter 1 provides an introduction on hand exoskeleton systems, with a focus on those designed for rehabilitation. My work on hand exoskeletons started by inheriting a hand exoskeleton mechanical design from Brando Dimapasoc, a graduating Master's Degree student, that was developed as part of NSF Award #1532239. The system was intended to be attached to the EXO-UL8 and BLUE SABINO arm exoskeletons, had six active and six passive degrees of freedom, had three reconfigurable linkages to control the thumb and two groupings of fingers, used a bowden cable transmission system to enable remote placement of actuators, and was optimized to fit 90% of the general population. However, the design had only been tested as a 3D-printed prototype in a modified and simplified form. Further, the necessary electronic hardware (other than motor and sensor selection) and control software had not been started. Thus, the first stage of my research was to bring this first-generation hand exoskeleton to a functional state. This involved the mechanical assembly, the electrical design and assembly, and the software and control development of the system. Through testing, it was determined that a significant number of improvements must be made to the system in order for it to be suitable for use. Details of this work are contained in Chapter 2. With the lessons learned from development and testing of the first-generation hand exoskeleton, the next stage of my research involved the nearly complete redesign of the system in order to create the second-generation hand exoskeleton named the "Opposable-Thumb Hand Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation" or "OTHER Hand". As the name implies, the system is designed to control opposition/reposition of the thumb in addition to the flexion/extension of each digit. This is a notable feature, not only because of the importance of opposition/reposition in many grasping tasks, but also because only a handful of exoskeletons in the literature control this motion. The OTHER Hand shares a number of features with the first generation system, though the execution of each is different. It attaches to both the EXO-UL8 and BLUE SABINO arm exoskeletons, is actuated using a Bowden Cable transmission such that the motor pack can be located remotely, has three reconfigurable linkages to control the thumb and two groupings of fingers in order to enable nearly all grasps, and is optimized to fit 90% of the population. The system has six active and eight passive degrees of freedom per hand. Chapter 3 documents the design of the OTHER Hand. Due to the numerous novel design choices made for the OTHER Hand, combined with the mechanical complexity of the hand in general, and thumb in particular, it is not feasible to know with certainty the types of grasps that can be actuated in the exoskeleton for the wide range of hand shapes and sizes. As such, it is necessary to validate the design of the OTHER Hand through testing with a group of subjects. This was accomplished through adaptation of the Anthropomorphic Hand Assessment Protocol for use with an exoskeleton to test the ability of thirteen subjects to grasp and manipulate 25 objects of the Yale-Carnegie Mellon-Berkeley Object Set using eight prehensile grasps and two non-prehensile hand postures. Additionally, the OTHER Hand was mounted on the EXO-UL8, and both systems were manually controlled to verify compatibility, workspace, and ability to bi-manually grasp a sample object. Chapter 4 presents the testing protocol and results. While exoskeletons for rehabilitation is an increasingly popular research area, robotic surgical platforms already have widespread commercial use and profound effects on clinical outcomes. Classically, these systems are controlled directly by a surgeon at a console in the same or adjacent room. They can augment the senses and movement precision of the surgeon during open or laparoscopic surgery in order to enhance the surgeon's skills. However, surgeons commonly work exceptionally long hours in an environment where a single mistake can be fatal. Additionally, certain surgical subtasks are time-consuming, repetitive, and common to many different operations. Automating these subtasks has the potential to reduce the burden on surgeons while standardizing outcomes. Automation of one such subtask, soft tissue manipulation, is described in Chapter 5. Cataract surgery ranks among the most common operating room procedures worldwide. The aim of the surgery is to replace the clouded biological lens with a clear synthetic lens. Despite the prevalence, this operation is currently performed manually by a surgeon, and generally is fast, standardized, and safe. However, the human body is notably non-optimal for performing cataract surgery due to the transparency and fragility of the tissues of the eye. In order to remove the lens, it is standard to break it apart with phacoemulsification, use an irrigation/aspiration handpiece to aspirate the lens material, and then polish any remaining lens material from the capsular bag. Unfortunately, the back of this bag, the posterior capsule, is transparent, mere microns thin, and easily ruptured from contact, ultrasound energy, or pressure. Rupturing the posterior capsule causes the vitreous of the inner eye to spill out, resulting in critical failure of the surgery. Additional information about the location of the tool tip within the eye could be used to reduce the risk of such a failure. To this end, a proof-of-concept modification of a tool to add bioelectrical impedance sensing and tissue classification was developed and tested on porcine eyes. This research is summarized in Chapter 6
Download or read book Glove Exoskeleton for Extra vehicular Activities written by Alain Favetto and published by . This book was released on 2014* with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Control and Dynamic Manipulability of a Dual Arm Hand Robotic Exoskeleton System EXO UL8 for Rehabilitation Training in Virtual Reality written by Yang Shen and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every year there are about 800,000 new stroke patients in the US, and many of them suffer from upper limb neuromuscular disabilities including but not limited to: weakness, spasticity and abnormal synergy. Patients usually have the potential to rehabilitate (to some extent) based on neuroplasticity, and physical therapy intervention helps accelerate the recovery. However, many patients could not afford the expensive physical therapy after the onset of stroke, and miss the opportunity to get recovered. Robot-assisted rehabilitation thus might be the solution, with the following unparalleled advantages: (1) 24/7 capability of human arm gravity compensation; (2) multi-joint movement coordination/correction, which could not be easily done by human physical therapists; (3) dual-arm training, either coupled in joint space or task space; (4) quantitative platform for giving instructions, providing assistance, exerting resistance, and collecting real-time data in kinematics, dynamics and biomechanics; (5) potential training protocol personalization; etc. However, in the rehabilitation robotics field, there are still many open problems. I am especially interested in: (1) compliant control, in high-dimensional multi-joint coordination condition; (2) assist-as-needed (AAN) control, in quantitative model-based approach and model-free approach; (3) dual-arm training, in both symmetric and asymmetric modes; (4) system integration, e.g., virtual reality (VR) serious games and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) design and development. Our dual-arm/hand robotic exoskeleton system, EXO-UL8, is in its 4th generation, with seven (7) arm degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) and one (1) DOF hand gripper enabling hand opening and closing on each side. While developing features on this research platform, I contributed to the robotics research field in the following aspects: (1) I designed and developed a series of eighteen (18) serious VR games and GUIs that could be used for interactive post-stroke rehabilitation training. The VR environment, together with the exoskeleton robot, provides patients and physical therapists a quantitative rehabilitation training platform with capability in real-time human performance data collection and analysis. (2) To provide better compliant control, my colleagues and I proposed and implemented two new admittance controllers, based on the work done by previous research group alumni. Both the hyper parameter-based and Kalman Filter-based admittance controllers have satisfactory heuristic performance, and the latter is more promising in future adaptation. Unlike many other upper-limb exoskeletons, our current system utilizes force and torque (F/T) sensors and position encoders only, no surface electromyography (sEMG) signals are used. It brings convenience to practical use, as well as technical challenges. (3) To provide better AAN control, which is still not well understood in the academia, I worked out a redundant version of modified dynamic manipulability ellipsoid (DME) model to propose an Arm Postural Stability Index (APSI) to quantify the difficulty heterogeneity of the 3D Cartesian workspace. The theoretical framework could be used to teach the exoskeleton where and when to provide assistance, and to guide the virtual reality where to add new minimal challenges to stroke patients. To the best of my knowledge, it is also for the first time that human arm redundancy resolution was investigated when arm gravity is considered. (4) For the first time, my colleagues and I have done a pilot study on asymmetric dual-arm training using the exoskeleton system on one (1) post-stroke patient. The exoskeleton on the healthy side could trigger assistance for that on the affected side, and validates that the current mechanism/control is eligible for asymmetric dual-arm training. (5) Other works of mine include: activities of daily living (ADLs) data visualization for VR game difficulty design; human arm synergy modeling; dual-arm manipulation taxonomy classification (on-going work).
Download or read book Engineering a Robotic Exoskeleton for Space Suit Simulation written by Forrest Edward Meyen and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Novel methods for assessing space suit designs and human performance capabilities are needed as NASA prepares for manned missions beyond low Earth orbit. Current human performance tests and training are conducted in space suits that are heavy and expensive, characteristics that constrain possible testing environments and reduce suit availability to researchers. Space suit mock-ups used in planetary exploration simulations are light and relatively inexpensive but do not accurately simulate the joint stiffness inherent to space suits, a key factor impacting extravehicular activity performance. The MIT Man-Vehicle Laboratory and Aurora Flight Sciences designed and built an actively controlled exoskeleton for space suit simulation called the Extravehicular Activity Space Suit Simulator (EVA S3), which can be programmed to simulate the joint torques recorded from various space suits. The goal of this research is to create a simulator that is lighter and cheaper than a traditional space suit so that it can be used in a variety of testing and training environments. The EVA S3 employs pneumatic actuators to vary joint stiffness and a pre-programmed controller to allow the experimenter to apply torque profiles to mimic various space suit designs in the field. The focus of this thesis is the design, construction, integration, and testing of the hip joint and backpack for the EVA S3. The final designs of the other joints are also described. Results from robotic testing to validate the mechanical design and control system are discussed along with the planned improvements for the next iteration of the EVA S3. The fianl EVA S3 consists of a metal and composite exoskeleton frame with pneumatic actuators that control the resistance of motion in the ankle, knee, and hip joints, and an upper body brace that resists shoulder and elbow motions with passive spring elements. The EVA S3 is lighter (26 kg excluding the tethered components) and less expensive (under $600,000 including research, design, and personnel) than a modem space suit. Design adjustments and control system improvements are still needed to achieve a desired space suit torque simulation fidelity within 10% root-mean-square error.
Download or read book Service Robots and Robotics Design and Application written by Ceccarelli, Marco and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2012-03-31 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book offers the latest research within the field of service robotics, using a mixture of case studies, research, and future direction in this burgeoning field of technology"--
Download or read book 44th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation written by and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Unpowered Exoskeleton to Reduce Astronaut Hand Fatigue During Microgravity EVA written by Alan John Carey and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astronaut hand fatigue during Extravehicular Activity (EVA) and EVA training is a critical risk in human space exploration. Improved glove designs over the past forty years have reduced hand fatigue, but limitations of the technology prevent major improvements to reduce hand fatigue. Therefore, a mechanism to assist astronauts by reducing hand fatigue was explored. Many organizations have already developed exoskeletons to assist astronauts, but all mechanisms developed required electrically powered actuators and control systems to enhance grip strength. However, astronauts already possess the strength required to actuate the glove; what is needed is a method to reduce fatigue without introducing electromechanical complexity. A passive mechanical system was developed as a proof-of-concept to test the feasibility of an unpowered exoskeleton to maintain static grip around an object. The semi- rigid nature of an inflated pressure glove provided an ideal substrate to mount a mechanism and associated components to allow an astronaut to release his/her grip inside the glove while maintaining attitude, as the mechanism will keep the glove closed around an object.Three prototypes were fabricated and tested to evaluate the architecture. The final two prototypes were tested on a real pressure suit glove at Final Frontier Design (FFD), and the third mechanism demonstrated attachment and basic operating principles. At University of California (UC) Davis, pressure glove analogs were fabricated from a baseball batting glove and polystyrene to simulate a real pressure glove without the risk of testing in a reduced pressure environment (i.e. a glove box). Testing of the third prototype showed a reduction in fatigue as measured by Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) grip force over a 30 second period when the mechanism assisted gripping an object.
Download or read book Design of a Hand Exoskeleton System Actuated Via Linear and Adaptive Control for Rehabilitation written by Anderson S. Camp and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A hand exoskeleton is designed and constructed to achieve five hand positions: (1) fully extended, (2) hook fist, (3) right angle to the palm, (4) straight fist, and (5) fully flexed. These hand orientations comprise the five positions defining a rehabilitation exercise known as tendon glide. The device is significant in its ability to move the two joints distal to the palm independently of the joint adjoining the palm, without requiring bulky, rigid hardware located on the finger. Movement of the finger is achieved through hydraulically activated fluidic artificial muscles (FAMs). FAMs are soft, biomimetic actuators consisting of an expandable bladder encased in a braided sheath. FAMs show improved force-to-weight ratios, cost, and alignment strategies over traditional, rigid hydraulic cylinders and allow forces to be applied across a flexed joint of the finger as it straightens. A direct model of the relationship between the volume transferred to the FAM by the hydraulic cylinder and the strain of the FAM is developed and validated through experiment. The strain- volume relationship remains constant regardless of load, enabling streamlined models and control algorithms. Position-based control of the FAMs is achieved, in both simulation and experiment, with a Proportional Integral (PI) controller and a Model Reference Adaptive Controller (MRAC). The PI controller is a linear algorithm characterized by constant controller gains. Alternatively, MRAC is an adaptive control algorithm characterized by time- varying controller gains, which can guarantee convergence of the actual system to a defined reference system. The resultant device is a wearable exoskeleton actuated by FAMs and governed by novel control architecture. The exoskeleton is capable of guiding a finger through all five positions of tendon glide. The exoskeleton aims to assist patients with at-home rehabilitation, particularly targeting patients who are typically unable to conduct their exercises without assistance from an occupational therapist."--from abstract.
Download or read book Wearable Robotics written by Jacob Rosen and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2019-11-16 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wearable Robotics: Systems and Applications provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field of wearable robotics, including active orthotics (exoskeleton) and active prosthetics for the upper and lower limb and full body. In its two major sections, wearable robotics systems are described from both engineering perspectives and their application in medicine and industry. Systems and applications at various levels of the development cycle are presented, including those that are still under active research and development, systems that are under preliminary or full clinical trials, and those in commercialized products. This book is a great resource for anyone working in this field, including researchers, industry professionals and those who want to use it as a teaching mechanism. Provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field, with both engineering and medical perspectives Helps readers quickly and efficiently design and develop wearable robotics for healthcare applications
