System Characterization of MAHI Exo-II: A Robotic Exoskeleton for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation

Abstract

This paper presents the performance characterization of the MAHI Exo-II, an upper extremity exoskeleton for stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation, as a means to validate its clinical implementation and to provide depth to the literature on the performance characteristics of upper extremity exoskeletons. Individuals with disabilities arising from stroke and SCI need rehabilitation of the elbow, forearm, and wrist to restore the ability to independently perform activities of daily living (ADL). Robotic rehabilitation has been proposed to address the need for high intensity, long duration therapy and has shown promising results for upper limb proximal joints. However, upper limb distal joints have historically not benefitted from the same focus. The MAHI Exo-II, designed to address this shortcoming, has undergone a static and dynamic performance characterization, which shows that it exhibits the requisite qualities for a rehabilitation robot and is comparable to other state-of-the-art designs.

Design and characterization of the OpenWrist: A robotic wrist exoskeleton for coordinated hand-wrist rehabilitation

“…The remaining two joints were locked with a high proportional gain PD controller, and the passive DOF on the grip was secured. For consistency, the specific characterization experiments conducted match those used for our group's other devices [7], [8] with the exception of the bandwidth test which previously utilized a chirp signal input.…”

“…CAPABILITIES COMPARED WITH REQUIREMENTS FOR ADL AND OTHER WRIST DEVICES (MIT-MANUS[9], IIT WRIST ROBOT[11], WRIST GIMBAL[10], MAHI EXO-II[8], AND RICEWRIST-S[7])…”

Tecnología De Asistencia: Exoesqueletos Robóticos en Rehabilitación

“…Adicionalmente, poseen sistemas para el trabajo en miembros superiores (Lim & Takanishi, 2007). El exoesqueleto H2 cuenta con seis articulaciones y está diseñado para incrementar funcionalidad de pacientes con lesiones neurológicas; es utilizado en pacientes con accidente cerebrovascular a quienes se les realizó un tratamiento de 12 sesiones durante 4 semanas logrando un aumento de la movilidad y realización de tareas de la vida diaria (Bortole et al, 2015;French et al, 2014;Pehlivan et al, 2013;Reinkensmeyer et al, 2009).…”

Characterization of a hand-wrist exoskeleton, READAPT, via kinematic analysis of redundant pointing tasks

“…Traditionally, quantitative measurement capabilities and backdrivability, also termed as device transparency, have been inferred from characterization metrics such as inertia, static friction, and viscous friction. While these traditional metrics are useful for comparisons of established devices [14], they are insufficient for validating them as measurement tools in synergistic multiarticular movements. Specifically, these metrics do not quantify the effect the devices have on the kinematic and kinetic movements properties.…”