Sharif Digital Repository

The present research has dealt with developing theoretic basis for technology of a modern and beneficial robot. There has been an old aspiration to attain some machine which can enclose body and move exactly in concert with it so as to maximize human might and endurance via powerful actuators. Exoskeleton robot is a recent successful invention regarding this aspiration, the lower-limbs type of which being sufficient for enhancing gait and load carrying capabilities.
Modeling the dynamics of this robot is very fundamental and was done thoroughly for the first time in this research. In the available articles, at most, simplified models are investigated. Mechanical structure was selected... 

Worldwide, stroke is the third leading cause of death, after cancer and cardiac diseases. Not only Stroke may lead to death, but its complications are critical, such as: Paralysis, Dysarthria, Cognition Disorders, etc. Improvement from these complications and also preventing from new ones, define the rehabilitation field; in other words, rehabilitation process tries to recover the movement ability of these patients. Today rehabilitation robots are helping these process to be faster and more comfortable, for both patients and physiotherapists. Purpose of this research, is design of a robot for performing rehabilitation process, to lower physiotherapy duration and lower the exhaustion of... 

Nowadays nearly 1% of the world population depends on wheelchairs for walking and movement. Due to harmful changes in human lifestyle, different diseases like stroke and problems in musculoskeletal system are increasing noticeably. Despite the fact that wheelchairs have recently been improved they have faced big problems like forcing people not to move and just sit for a long period of time. Wearable robots not only help these patients to rehabilitate their disabled organ and walk, but also have a significant mental effect on them.
The analysis of an exoskeletal orthosis designed for patients who have pain in one of their knees is presented. A mechanism for knee exoskeleton is analyzed... 

Due to the increasing average age of societies, daily monitoring of the elderly activities is. Even activities such as sitting, getting up and lifting may be beyond the normal ability of an older person. In this context, the need to provide appropriate assistive devices for welfare and normal activities of this age group is raised. In addition, self managed rehabilitation activities which may be performed at home or work without direct involvement of a physician or physiotherapist is yet another reason where such devices may be of importance. For this purpose, specially devised robots may be utilized to accompany and couple with the upper or lower extremities as an assistive or... 

With technological advances in fabrication and control of prosthesis and assistive devices the importance of such systems has increased drastically. On the other hand the appropriate coupling of these devices, especially the exoskeletal systems with the upper or lower extremities is of immense importance as it is an integral part of the control system. In particular, the control strategy and its ability to adapt the exoskeletal system with the existing and physiological functionality of the user, is an integral part of the system requirement. In the controller implementation, a number of methods are proposed including using the excitation signal, similar to the existing neuromuscular system.... 

Most elderly and physically disabled people suffer from lack of functionality and dexterity in their elbow or wrist. These disabilities are due to the damages mostly caused by sport surgery, spinal surgery, or stroke. Therefore, design of an assistive exoskeleton robot for upper limb movements seems necessary. The purpose of this study is to design, fabricate and deliver a control algorithm for an assistive wearable robot. The robot has three degrees of freedom in order to help the flexion/extension of elbow and wrist. Dynamic and kinematic model of elbow, forearm, and wrist is developed to determine the amounts of torques which are required in the joint actuators mounted on the robot.... 

Today, people living in all over the world are faced with the arrival of Biomechanics and Human need of rehabilitation equipment is growing. Wearable robots have created a new field in service robots’ world. Unlike industrial robots, these robots are strongly interacting with humans. Physical interaction between humans and robots considered one of the exciting and challenging research topics. With attention to this issue, research projects have been started in the department of mechanical engineering of Sharif University of technology to design, manufacture and control a wearable robot with few degrees of freedom used in the lower joints. In this thesis, initially focused on the conceptual... 

Exoskeleton is a wearable active device used to augment human power in upper or lower extremities. The integration of robotic devices and conventional physiotherapy is becoming more and more acceptable worldwide. The main scope of this thesis is to design and develop a prototype of a light, low-cost and wearable robotic exoskeleton to rehabilitate the upper extremity in stroke patients at home. For this purpose mechanism of a wearable exoskeleton will be proposed compatible with upper extremity degrees of freedoms with minimum number of actuators which is constructed inexpensively to eliminate the demand of expensive and professional therapists. The conceptual design of such a system should... 

The main goal of this thesis is the design and development of a rehabilitation device for helping patients “to improve blood circulation” & retain and recover their abilities if possible that were lost during the stroke or a accident like that (my research in karaj/iran shows that it is possible by just movement of the specific body part). The focus is on hand in this thesis because Injuries to the hand are common and can be very debilitating since our hands are our primary means for interacting with our world. For rehabilitation in case of human hand there are several practices that should be done for patients either in home or in a rehabilitation center, time and money that is supposed to... 

Nowadays exoskeltons are developed because of improvements carried out in mechatronic technologies, to use in applications such as human rehabilitation and power augmentation. By reason of interaction between exoskeleton robot and human, an appropriate control strategy should be considered to implement regulated interaction force between them. As an example there are situations that a person wants to carry heavy load with this robot without suffering from weight of the load, so control of robot movements is of great importance. The aim of this thesis is dedicated to develop and implement a control strategy achieving minimum ineraction force in a 2 degree of freedom lower limb exoskeleton.... 

Rehabilitation usually involves physical therapy, occupational therapy and counseling for the patient's morale to help to restore his power and performance. Considering the economic outlook and the costs of rehabilitation methods and due to the increasing prevalence of stroke and the need to recover the patients in a short period, only the use of robotic systems opens the door to the medical community. Since a large rehabilitation robots designed and built and each been used according to their advantages and shortcomings. In this project, the major shortcomings examined and exoskeleton designed on two major features including portability and covering shoulder workspace. Shoulder movement was... 

Walking is one of the most important physical activities in daily life and it plays an important role on body health. Despite the importance of this issue, today many people suffering from walking abnormalities. This thesis aims at designing an exoskeleton for the rehabilitation in order to help patient’s lower limb movement. The hip joint is crucial for walking and is problematic for a large number of aged people or the patients who suffered from paralysis. A number of hip and knee model checked, one model for knee and one for hip selected to combine in order to achieve a unique model for walking exoskeleton. A mechanism consisting of six link and seven joints with four degrees of freedom... 

Most elderly and physically disabled people suffer from lack of functionality and dexterity in their elbow or wrist. These disabilities are due to the damages mostly caused by sport surgery, spinal surgery, or stroke. Therefore, design of an assistive exoskeleton robot for upper limb movements seems necessary. The purpose of this study is to design, fabricate and deliver a control algorithm for an assistive wearable robot. The robot has two degrees of freedom in order to help the flexion/extension of elbow and wrist. Furthermore, various kinds of control systems incorporated in rehabilitation robots are investigated and their advantages and drawbacks are compared. Then, some conventional... 

The control approaches in Exoskeletons are different from Autonomous robot. Because the Exoskeletons are in connection and interaction with the user. On the other hand they can use the wearer’s abilities such as intelligence, sensory organs, self-control and etc. Therefore, one of the most important parts of exoskeletons control algorithms is its interaction with the user. This part should recognize the goal and purpose of the wearer such as stopping, walking start, change in stepping and direction and etc. properly. Utilizing these algorithms properly, one can reduce the muscle activities and energy consumption up to 20 percent [1]. This investigations demonstrate the importance of the... 

Most elderly and physically disabled people suffer from lack of functionality and dexterity in their elbow or wrist. These disabilities are due to the damages mostly caused by sport surgery, spinal surgery, or stroke. Therefore, design of an assistive exoskeleton robot for upper limb movements seems necessary. The purpose of this study is to design, fabricate and deliver a control algorithm for an assistive wearable robot. The robot has five degrees of freedom in order to help the flexion/extension and abduction/adduction shoulder. Dynamic and kinematic model of elbow, forearm, and wrist is developed to determine the amounts of torques which are required in the joint actuators mounted on the... 

Despite the advancement of technology in the world still some parts of the work are done by human hands. Gloves that increase fingers force can cause less fatigue, greater accuracy and efficiency in carrying out their duties in person.Also patients with muscle weakness due to M.S. or apoplexy, or elderly people are unable to do the simplest tasks. A wearable robotic glove that can restore hand function can increase the quality of life for people with mobility problems. The aim of this research is to design, build and control a conceptual prototype of a flexible wearable robot to increase fingers force by cable mechanism; and in this glove, force and position control concurrently is done by... 

According to epidemiological studies conducted in Iran, nowadays, about 200 to 300 people in Iran suffer from stroke. The hands, including fingers, are the most injured and cause one’s disability and creates many direct and indirect costs for the person and the government. In addition to stroke, injuries caused by the use of various apparatus are responsible for hands disruption. It is usually referred to a physiotherapist for the physical disabilities treatment, the treatment process is quite long and time-consuming (usually a one-year physiotherapy). After this treatment, the physiotherapist will prescribe exercise and radiation therapies for the patient. Therefore, in recent years the... 

The human body has more than 600 muscles that cause movement. Disability and motor disorders are some of the problems that people may face due to some factors such as accident, spinal cord injuries, disorders and brain damage, and the presence of a problem in neurological commands due to stroke. One of the proposed methods for solving the problems of people with motor disorder is the use of exoskeletons to generate stimulus. Exoskeletones are electromechanical devices designed to assist human movement, and patients are used to correct their movements using specific motor patterns. Exoskeletones can also be used as an auxiliary device for carrying heavy loads. Many studies have been conducted... 

Exoskeleton is a newborn technology for disabled people. Personal exoskeleton is a type that is suitable for replacement of wheelchair. Exoped, the first Iranian exoskeleton made by Pedasys company, was a rehabilitation one. The purpose of this research was enhancing the design of its actuators to accomplish lighter, smaller and cheaper one. At first we identified the different loads that are applied to actuators of exoskeleton and we tried to decrease the number of actuators needed, as more as possible. Then we modeled the exoskeleton-user system to measure the required parameters. Using this model, we conducted an algorithm to design appropriate gait cycle for walking with the help of... 

The goal of this project is to propose an algorithm to detect human motion intent during level walking. The primary aim of this algorithm should be to reduce human-robot interaction forces by combining EMG and force signals. Human gait is composed of 6 different stages. During each stage, each muscle is activated differently so it is possible to detect human intent by a pattern recognition technique. However, due to the fact that EMG signals are unrepeatable and noisy, we propose that combining EMG, motion and interaction force signals may lead to more concise and repeatable estimates of human motion intent. As a result, this control approach is expected to reduce human robot interaction...