A voice activated bi-articular exosuit for upper limb assistance during lifting tasks

Kim, Yongtae G.; Little, Kieran; Noronha, Bernardo; Xiloyannis, Michele; Masia, Lorenzo; Accoto, Dino

doi:10.1016/j.rcim.2020.101995

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Through the application of the proposed materials and methods, a prototype exoskeleton was built that is under the desired characteristics. From the physical perspective, and compared to other previously reviewed systems such as [ 32 , 39 , 42 , 47 ], this prototype is more lightweight. Although there are some lighter systems [ 38 , 56 , 59 ], they are not proposed as an active elbow joint support solution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Rehabilitation robotic exoskeletons that include AI-based control or information fusion techniques are proposed as the evolution of traditional exoskeletons. Noteworthy are implementations using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) [ 38 , 39 ] or adaptive algorithms [ 40 , 41 ], allowing the early pattern recognition that leads to an enhanced assessment of patients and their behavior with the devices [ 42 , 43 ]. The most remarkable developments in this field [ 44 , 45 ] are using machine learning to detect motion intentions during rehabilitation, making it possible to adjust the physical therapy session according to some of the particular needs of each patient.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design, Development, and Testing of an Intelligent Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton Prototype for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Vélez-Guerrero

Callejas-Cuervo

Mazzoleni

2021

Sensors

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Neuromotor rehabilitation and recovery of upper limb functions are essential to improve the life quality of patients who have suffered injuries or have pathological sequels, where it is desirable to enhance the development of activities of daily living (ADLs). Modern approaches such as robotic-assisted rehabilitation provide decisive factors for effective motor recovery, such as objective assessment of the progress of the patient and the potential for the implementation of personalized training plans. This paper focuses on the design, development, and preliminary testing of a wearable robotic exoskeleton prototype with autonomous Artificial Intelligence-based control, processing, and safety algorithms that are fully embedded in the device. The proposed exoskeleton is a 1-DoF system that allows flexion-extension at the elbow joint, where the chosen materials render it compact. Different operation modes are supported by a hierarchical control strategy, allowing operation in autonomous mode, remote control mode, or in a leader-follower mode. Laboratory tests validate the proper operation of the integrated technologies, highlighting a low latency and reasonable accuracy. The experimental result shows that the device can be suitable for use in providing support for diagnostic and rehabilitation processes of neuromotor functions, although optimizations and rigorous clinical validation are required beforehand.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design, Development, and Testing of an Intelligent Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton Prototype for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Vélez-Guerrero

Callejas-Cuervo

Mazzoleni

2021

Sensors

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“…However, we see multiple advantages for using actuation. Exoskeleton assistance can be switched on and off, for example, by voice-based control 59 . Both hands could be used to manipulate the object of interest and no time would be wasted to manually attach the strings 58 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft pneumatic elbow exoskeleton reduces the muscle activity, metabolic cost and fatigue during holding and carrying of loads

Nassour

Zhao

Grimmer

2021

Sci Rep

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To minimize fatigue, sustain workloads, and reduce the risk of injuries, the exoskeleton Carry was developed. Carry combines a soft human–machine interface and soft pneumatic actuation to assist the elbow in load holding and carrying. We hypothesize that the assistance of Carry would decrease, muscle activity, net metabolic rate, and fatigue. With Carry providing 7.2 Nm of assistance, we found reductions of up to 50% for the muscle activity, up to 61% for the net metabolic rate, and up to 99% for fatigue in a group study of 12 individuals. Analyses of operation dynamics and autonomous use demonstrate the applicability of Carry to a variety of use cases, presumably with increased benefits for increased assistance torque. The significant benefits of Carry indicate this device could prevent systemic, aerobic, and/or possibly local muscle fatigue that may increase the risk of joint degeneration and pain due to lifting, holding, or carrying.

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“…The use of textiles and elastomers, intrinsically complying with the complex human biomechanics, has allowed a substantial leap in the rendering of Human-Robot interaction (HRI): explicitly in contrast with rigid exoskeletons, exosuits do not have the disadvantage of kinematic incompatibility with the human joints and they are designed with negligible distal mass on human limbs. These characteristics have allowed researchers and developers to reduce the energy cost of human walking and running (Kim et al, 2020 ) and support the upper limbs against gravity in both unimpaired users (Thalman et al, 2018 ) and neurological patients (O'Neill et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship Between Muscular Activity and Assistance Magnitude for a Myoelectric Model Based Controlled Exosuit

et al. 2020

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The growing field of soft wearable exosuits, is gradually gaining terrain and proposing new complementary solutions in assistive technology, with several advantages in terms of portability, kinematic transparency, ergonomics, and metabolic efficiency. Those are palatable benefits that can be exploited in several applications, ranging from strength and resistance augmentation in industrial scenarios, to assistance or rehabilitation for people with motor impairments. To be effective, however, an exosuit needs to synergistically work with the human and matching specific requirements in terms of both movements kinematics and dynamics: an accurate and timely intention-detection strategy is the paramount aspect which assume a fundamental importance for acceptance and usability of such technology. We previously proposed to tackle this challenge by means of a model-based myoelectric controller, treating the exosuit as an external muscular layer in parallel to the human biomechanics and as such, controlled by the same efferent motor commands of biological muscles. However, previous studies that used classical control methods, demonstrated that the level of device's intervention and effectiveness of task completion are not linearly related: therefore, using a newly implemented EMG-driven controller, we isolated and characterized the relationship between assistance magnitude and muscular benefits, with the goal to find a range of assistance which could make the controller versatile for both dynamic and static tasks. Ten healthy participants performed the experiment resembling functional daily activities living in separate assistance conditions: without the device's active support and with different levels of intervention by the exosuit. Higher assistance levels resulted in larger reductions in the activity of the muscles augmented by the suit actuation and a good performance in motion accuracy, despite involving a decrease of the movement velocities, with respect to the no assistance condition. Moreover, increasing torque magnitude by the exosuit resulted in a significant reduction in the biological torque at the elbow joint and in a progressive effective delay in the onset of muscular fatigue. Thus, contrarily to classical force and proportional myoelectric schemes, the implementation of an opportunely tailored EMG-driven model based controller affords to naturally match user's intention detection and provide an assistance level working symbiotically with the human biomechanics.

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A voice activated bi-articular exosuit for upper limb assistance during lifting tasks

Cited by 32 publications

References 21 publications

Design, Development, and Testing of an Intelligent Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton Prototype for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Design, Development, and Testing of an Intelligent Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton Prototype for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Soft pneumatic elbow exoskeleton reduces the muscle activity, metabolic cost and fatigue during holding and carrying of loads

Relationship Between Muscular Activity and Assistance Magnitude for a Myoelectric Model Based Controlled Exosuit

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