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Go to Editorial ManagerRegaining the activities of daily living after stroke and spinal cord injury requires repetitive and intensive tasks, meaning that rehabilitation therapy should be treated with a long duration. Thus, the need for rehabilitation devices based home is of most importance to increase the rehabilitation process and provide more comfortability for patients. This paper focuses on implementing and construction of a three degree of freedom (DOF) (flexion/extension, adduction/abduction, and pronation/supination), low cost, lightweight, and portable robotic exoskeleton for wrist-forearm rehabilitation. SolidWorks software program and 3D printer technology are used to model and construct the proposed robotic exoskeleton structure. In addition, the anthropometric parameters of the normal human lower arm are considered for this exoskeleton to provide a range of motion (ROM) and velocity for the links, joints, which matches with the anatomical structure of human and also to avoid the excesses motions over the normal range. The exoskeleton is constructed by a 3D printer utilizing polylactic acid (PLA) plastic material. The proposed implementing structure of the robotic exoskeleton shows comfortable, lightweight, simple and economic as well.
Mobility limitations in stroke survivors yield negative impacts on the quality of life for such individuals. Rehabilitation is needed to help them recover and regain mobility. Accordingly, this study aims to design and validate a “Robotic Exoskeleton” intended for stroke rehabilitation. The basic principles of this robotic exoskeleton device are its dependence on electromyography signal and electronic microcontroller to provide an efficient physiotherapy exercises system.The robotic exoskeleton is a one degree of freedom which performs the flexion and extension of the elbow joint. After the design was completed, 19 subjects participated in this study: 4 healthy subjects, and 15 post-stroke patients.The results showed the benefit of robotic exoskeleton in increasing the elbow range of motion, where angle of elbow flexion was raised from the first physiotherapy session to maximum elbow flexion in the last session.
With the occurrence of pathological disorders in some people or aging, metabolic energy consumption begins significantly due to the weakness of the peripheral muscles and the increase in body fat with time, which aggravates the issues for this type of people, causing the rest hours extremely lengthy and consequently may produce heart or arterial diseases and elevate the mortality rate. Regarding the significance of the matter, this study examines a number of previous researches that featured several approaches to energy calculation and strategies for lowering energy consumption through the use of various external assistance devices, such as exosuits or exoskeletons, to assist people in carrying out their everyday tasks. And additionally discussed musculoskeletal simulation employs a variety of programs, especially OpenSim, which enables users to build models of musculoskeletal structures and produce dynamic movement simulations. According to the research findings, exoskeletons and other assistive technology can successfully lower the cost of metabolic energy to varying extents, depending on the device's weight, placement within the body, and whether it is active, semi-active, or inactive. In the future, the work to design and simulate a semi-active torsional ankle-foot exoskeleton with a specialized mechanism aimed to minimize metabolic energy.
Nowadays, robotic exoskeletons demonstrated great abilities to replace traditional rehabilitation processes for activating neural abilities performed by physiotherapists. The main aim of this review study is to determine a state-of-the-art robotic exoskeleton that can be used for the rehabilitation of the lower limb of people who have mobile disabilities as a result of stroke and musculoskeletal conditions. The study presented the anatomy of the lower limb and the biomechanics of human gait to explain the mechanism of the limb, which helps in constructing a robotic exoskeleton. A state-of-the-art review of more than 100 articles related to robotic exoskeletons and their constructions, functionality, and rehabilitation capabilities are accurately implemented. Moreover, the study included a review of upper limb rehabilitation that has been studied locally and successfully applied to patients who exhibited significant improvements. Results of recent studies herald an abundant future for robotic exoskeletons used in the rehabilitation of the lower extremity. Significant improvement in the mechanism and design, as well as the quality, were observed. Also, impressive results were obtained from the performance when used by patients. This study concludes that working and improving the robotic devices continuously in accordance with the cases are necessary to be treated with the best results and the lowest cost.