Development of a wearable assistive soft robotic device for elbow rehabilitation

Abstract

The loss of motor function at the elbow joint can result as a consequence of stroke. Stroke is a clinical illness resulting in long lasting neurological deficits often affecting somatosensory and motor cortices. More than half of those that recover from a stroke survive with disability in their upper arm and need rehabilitation therapy to help in regaining functions of daily living. In this paper, we demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost, ultra-light and wearable soft robotic assistive device that could aid administration of elbow motion therapies to stroke patients. In order to assist the rotation of the elbow joint, the soft modules which consist of soft wedge-like cellular units was inflated by air to produce torque at the elbow joint. Highly compliant rotation can be naturally realised by the elastic property of soft silicone and pneumatic control of air. Based on the direct visual-actuation control, a higher control loop utilised visual processing to apply positional control, the lower control loop was implemented by an electronic circuit to achieve the desired pressure of the soft modules by Pulse Width Modulation. To examine the functionality of the proposed soft modular system, we used an anatomical model of the upper limb and performed the experiments with healthy participants.

A review of recent advancements in soft and flexible robots for medical applications

“…People care about both the functionality and appearance of an assistive wearable robot . Wearable robots should be lightweight and compact.…”

Investigating Interactions between Students with Mild Mental Retardation and Humanoid Robot in Terms of Feedback Types

“…Jackson (1993), robotların günlük yaşamda, beslenmede ve ulaşımda insanlara yardımcı olacaklarını ve farklı medikal alanlarda fiziksel engeli olan bireylere yardımcı olabileceklerini belirtmiştir. Son yıllarda giyilebilir robotik teknolojiler sayesinde fiziksel engellilere yönelik robot kollar, eller ve hareket etmelerini sağlayan robotik bacaklar üzerine çalışmalar yapılmaktadır (Huo, Mohammed, Moreno, ve Amirat, 2016;Oguntosin, Harwin, Kawamura, Nasuto ve Hayashi, 2015;Park, Santos, Galloway, Goldfield ve Wood, 2014;Rahman vd., 2015).…”

Soft Poly-Limbs: Toward a New Paradigm of Mobile Manipulation for Daily Living Tasks

“…[26][27][28][29] Their compliant nature allows conformity to the user's body without causing tissue damage, making them suitable for wearable applications. [30][31][32][33][34][35][36] This versatility could promote psychological acceptance of such devices by eliminating some of the constraints of rigidity. This wave of soft robotics has led to the introduction of soft actuators [37][38][39][40] and the possibilities of combining them to create soft continuum manipulators in various categories such as cable-driven actuators, 41,42 pneumatic artificial muscles, [43][44][45][46] inflatable structures, [47][48][49][50] and fluidic elastomeric actuators.…”