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The public healthcare system in South Africa is in need of urgent attention in no small part because there has been an escalation in the number of stroke victims which could be due to the increase in hypertension in this urbanizing society. There is a growing need for physiotherapists and occupational therapists in the country, which is further hindered by the division between urban and rural areas. A possible solution is a portable passive physiotherapeutic exoskeleton device. The exoskeleton device has been formulated to encapsulate methodologies that enable the anthropomorphic integration between a biological and mechatronic limb.A physiotherapeutic mechanism was designed to be portable and adjustable, without limiting the spherical motion and workspace of the human arm. The exoskeleton was designed to be portable in the sense that it could be transported geographically. It is a complete device allowing for motion in the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand joints. The inverse kinematics was solved iteratively via the Damped Least Squares (DLS) method. The electronic and computer system allowed for professional personnel to either change an individual joint or a combination of joints angles via the kinematic models. A ramp PI controller was established to provide a smooth response to simulate the passive therapy motion.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Quality control and part inspection add no monetary value to a product, yet are essential processes for manufacturers who want to maintain product quality. Mass-produced custom parts require processes that are able to perform high frequency of inspection, whilst providing rapid response to unanticipated changes in parameters such as throughputs, dimensions and tolerances. Frequent inspection of these parts significantly impacts inspection times involved. A method of reducing the impact of high-frequency inspection on production rates is needed. This paper addresses these issues. Design/methodology/approach -This paper involves the research, design, construction, assembly and implementation of an automated apparatus, used for the visual inspection of moving custom parts. Inspection occurred at user-defined regions of interest (ROIs). Mechatronic Engineering principles are used to integrate sensor articulation, image acquisition and image-processing systems. The apparatus is tested in a computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) cell for quantifying results.Findings -Specified production rates are maintained whilst performing high frequencies of inspection, without stoppage of parts along the production line.Research limitations/implications -The limitations of these results lie in the fact that they are suited only to the speed of the CIM cell. Higher inspection rates may be achieved, and changes in the design may be required in order to make the apparatus more suitable to industrial applications. Practical implications -The paper shows that it is possible to maintain high standards of quality control without significantly affecting production rates. Originality/value -Current research does not focus on maintaining production rates whilst inspecting custom parts. The use of ROI inspection for moving custom parts is a relatively new concept.

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