• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회A
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• pp.1600-1602
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• 2008

Various applications of exoskeleton system are reported in the area of military, healthcare, and industries. More the user gets help from exoskeleton system, more power is consumed. To resolve this design conflict, we suggest an energy efficient exoskeleton system which compensates muscle fatigue in isotonic and isometric contraction conditions. Fatigue compensated exoskeleton significantly reduced muscle fatigue while consumed less operation power. In addition, the level of fatigue compensation can be managed by motor control using various input profile. It can make user customized exoskeleton system.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제26권7호
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• pp.134-141
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• 2009

Recently, many researchers have tried to develop wearable robots for various fields such as medical and military purposes. We have been studying robotic exoskeletons to assist the motion of persons who have problems with their muscle function in daily activities and rehabilitation. The upper-limb motions (shoulder, elbow and wrist motion) are especially important for such persons to perform daily activities. Generally for shoulder motion 300F is needed to describe its motion(extension/flexion, abduction/adduction, internal/external rotation) but we have used a redundant actuator thus making a 4 DOF system. In this paper, we proposed the mechanism design of the exoskeleton which consists of 4-DOF for shoulder and 1-DOF for elbow robotic exoskeleton to assist upper-limb motion. Then we compared the new mechanism design and prototype mechanism design. Here we also analyze the proposed system kinematically to find out and to avoid the singular point. This research will ensure that the proposed wearable robot system make human's motion more powerfully and more easily.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2009년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.653-654
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• 2009

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제21권5호
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• pp.421-426
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• 2015

Need to develop human body's posture supervised robots, gave the push to researchers to think over dexterous design of exoskeleton robots. It requires to develop quantitative techniques to assess human motor function and generate the command to assist in compliance with complex human motion. Upper limb rehabilitation robots, are one of those robots. These robots are used for the rehabilitation of patients having movement disorder due to spinal or brain injuries. One aspect that must be fulfilled by these robots, is to cope with uncertainties due to different patients, without significantly degrading the performance. In this paper, we propose chattering free sliding mode control technique for this purpose. This control technique is not only able to handle matched uncertainties due to different patients but also for unmatched as well. Using this technique, patients feel active assistance as they deviate from the desired trajectory. Proposed methodology is implemented on seven degrees of freedom (DOF) upper limb rehabilitation robot. In this robot, shoulder and elbow joints are powered by electric motors while rest of the joints are kept passive. Due to these active joints, robot is able to move in sagittal plane only while abduction and adduction motion in shoulder joint is kept passive. Exoskeleton performance is evaluated experimentally by a neurologically intact subjects while varying the mass properties. Results show effectiveness of proposed control methodology for the given scenario even having 20 % uncertain parameters in system modeling.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2010년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.959-960
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• 2010

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2008년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.35-36
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• 2008

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2009년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.979-980
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• 2009

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제20권8호
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• pp.875-881
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• 2014

The redundancy resolution of the seven DOF (Degree of Freedom) upper limb exoskeleton is key to the synchronous motion between a robot and a human user. According to the seven DOF human arm model, positioning and orientating the wrist can be completed by multiple arm configurations that results in the non-unique solution to the inverse kinematics. This paper presents analysis on the kinematic and dynamic aspect of the human arm movement and its effect on the redundancy resolution of the seven DOF human arm model. The redundancy of the arm is expressed mathematically by defining the swivel angle. The final form of swivel angle can be represented as a linear combination of two different swivel angles achieved by optimizing two cost functions based on kinematic and dynamic criteria. The kinematic criterion is to maximize the projection of the longest principal axis of the manipulability ellipsoid of the human arm on the vector connecting the wrist and the virtual target on the head region. The dynamic criterion is to minimize the mechanical work done in the joint space for each of two consecutive points along the task space trajectory. The contribution of each criterion on the redundancy was verified by the post processing of experimental data collected with a motion capture system. Results indicate that the bimodal redundancy resolution approach improved the accuracy of the predicted swivel angle. Statistical testing of the dynamic constraint contribution shows that under moderate speeds and no load, the dynamic component of the human arm is not dominant, and it is enough to resolve the redundancy without dynamic constraint for the realtime application.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

An active training system has been developed to assist the upper extremity function in patients with spasticity. We also evaluated the performance of the developed assistive system in five normal subjects and one hemiplegic patient. The maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) tests for biceps brachii and triceps brachii were performed and the relationship between linear enveloped EMG signal and the elbow joint torque was found. In order to implement an active training, our system was designed to allow isokinetic movement only when the subject generates elbow joint motion larger than the pre-fixed threshold level. The proposed EMG-feedback control method could provide active exercises, resulting in better rehabilitation protocol for spastic patients.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제18권12호
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• pp.1106-1114
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• 2012

To achieve synchronized motion between a wearable robot and a human user, the redundancy must be resolved in the same manner by both systems. According to the seven DOF (Degrees of Freedom) human arm model composed of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, positioning and orientating the wrist in space is a task requiring only six DOFs. Due to this redundancy, a given task can be completed by multiple arm configurations, and thus there exists no unique mathematical solution to the inverse kinematics. This paper presents analysis on the kinematic and dynamic aspect of the human arm movement and their effect on the redundancy resolution of the human arm based on a seven DOF manipulator model. The redundancy of the arm is expressed mathematically by defining the swivel angle. The final form of swivel angle can be represented as a linear combination of two different swivel angles achieved by optimizing different cost functions based on kinematic and dynamic criteria. The kinematic criterion is to maximize the projection of the longest principal axis of the manipulability ellipsoid for the human arm on the vector connecting the wrist and the virtual target on the head region. The dynamic criterion is to minimize the mechanical work done in the joint space for each two consecutive points along the task space trajectory. As a first step, the redundancy based on the kinematic criterion will be thoroughly studied based on the motion capture data analysis. Experimental results indicate that by using the proposed redundancy resolution criterion in the kinematic level, error between the predicted and the actual swivel angle acquired from the motor control system is less than five degrees.