Development of a Soft Actuated Upper Extremity Exoskeleton Employing Series Elastic Actuator for Post Stroke Rehabilitation

This is unlikely to get anywhere because we have no one to give this to to followup and create a stroke protocol out of it.
http://www.aeuso.org/includes/files/articles/Vol5_Iss16_2305-2312_Development_of_a_Soft_Actuated_Uppe.pdf

Omid Kalantari

1*

and Ali. Selk Ghafari

2

1,2

Sharif University of Technology, International Campus, Iran

*Corresponding Author's E

-

mail:a_selkghafari@sharif.edu

Abstract

The integration of robotic devices and conventional physiotherapy is becoming more and more acceptable worldwide. When an exoskeleton is in the conceptual design phase, the actuator selection is one of the most crucial sections. In this paper a rotary Seies Elastic Actuator(SEA)

is introduced, designed and developed for upper limb application used in the rehabilitation exoskeleton. Albeit the SEA had been used in the lower extremity,it is not utilized for the upper limb rehabilitation yet. This paper will design,implement and analyze the advantages of using SEA in the upper limb instead of conventional electric motors and shows the stability of this system when implemented on the proposed exoskeleton. Actually the designed exoskeleton is performing simultaneous tasks of elbow and shoulder flexion/extension by means of just one electric motor and a SEA mounted on the elbow joint.

1

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Introduction

Since stroke turns into a serious cause of adult disability worldwide [1], various efforts have been made by researchers from all over the world to find the more systematic treatment procedure for the post-stroke patients. The reason why the new-tech field is investigating in the robot-therapy is attributed to the fact that this method needs much less physiotherapist effort and less human errors

occurred. Moreover the effectiveness of robot-therapy is reported by some researchers like Hermano Igo Krebs et al. [2] and Volpe, B. T [3]. It is not supposed to give a literature about the constructed exoskeletons, since it is available in numerous papers. Instead, the actuation type of each exoskeleton is studied as a literature review in this field. The first actuation method is the

electric motors,the most commons. Some exoskeletons used this type of actuation are FreFlex that used electric motor in 1998 [4], after that Arm guide in 2000 used electric motors[5]. MULOS in 2001[6],

Gentle with three DOF in 2003 used DC brushed motors too [7], REHAROB in 2005 with dual six DOF [8], MIT-Manus exoskeleton in 2004 with five DOF [9

], MGA exoskeleton in 2005 with five DOF[10], L-EXOS with five DOF in 2005 [11] , CADEN-7 in 2006 [12], and Liszka work with five active degrees of freedom(DOF)[13] ARMin used six DC motors in 2007 [14].

On the other hand Pnuematic and Hydraulic actuators are also utilized for exoskeletons. PMA in 1999 used pneumatic actuator[15]. Rupert in 2005 was equiped with four penuematic muscles [16], in the same year PNEU-WREX

also used pneumatic actuator[17]. Hydraulic actuators also used in DEX exoskeleton in 1991 [18] and Sarcos in 2005 [19].

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