State of the Art Lower Limb Robotic Exoskeletons for Elderly Assistance

Abstract

The number of elderly populations is rapidly increasing. Majority of elderly people face difficulties while walking because the muscular activity or other gait-related parameters start to deteriorate with aging. Therefore, the quality of life among them can be suffered. To make their life more comfortable, service providing robotic solutions in terms of wearable powered exoskeletons should be realized. Assistive powered exoskeletons are capable of providing additional torque to support various activities, such as walking, sit to stand, and stand to sit motions to subjects with mobility impairments. Specifically, the powered exoskeletons try to maintain and keep subjects' limbs on the specified motion trajectory. The state of the art of currently available lower limb assistive exoskeletons for weak and elderly people is presented in this paper. The technology employed in the assistive devices, such as actuation and power supply types, control strategies, their functional abilities, and the mechanism design, is thoroughly described. The outcome of studied literature reveals that there is still much work to be done in the improvement of assistive exoskeletons in terms of their technological aspects, such as choosing proper and effective control methods, developing user friendly interfaces, and decreasing the costs of device to make it more affordable, meanwhile ensuring safe interaction for the end-users.

A Systematic Review of Robotics Research in Support of In-Home Care for Older Adults

“…One of the major concerns for older adults is the additional weight and size of robotics supporting tools comparing to regular tools. Even exoskeletons, a relative mature robotic solution with several available products on the market, are reported to be heavy and bulky, which makes it inconvenient to be used in daily life [41]. Older adults' unfamiliarity with technology also contributes to the low acceptance of robotic supporting tools [42].…”

Feedback Control Design for Robust Comfortable Sit-to-Stand Motions of 3D Lower-Limb Exoskeletons

“…In this section, we compare the SU controller of Section VI to related work in the literature. We seek to highlight the utility of the design philosophy in Section IV-C, where control objectives were selected to have minimal conflict with the contact constraints of the exo-system, while ensuring that the actuators of the exoskeleton are effectively 6 used to implement the constraints. The comparison will be done with respect to perturbations in the chair height and the user mass-inertia parameters.…”

“…Assist-as-needed exoskeletons require the user to have some mobility in their lower limbs. Most if not all of the lower-limb exoskeletons on the market require the user to have good control over their upper body [6]- [9].…”

State-of-the-Art Assistive Powered Upper Limb Exoskeletons for Elderly

“…The mechanism structure of wearable exoskeletons works in parallel with the human limbs. Such devices are able to enhance the power of upper limbs and direct them in a specified trajectory by providing additional torques for muscles and joints [32][33][34].…”