Exoskeleton for human upper-limb motion support

Author

Kiguchi, Kazuo ; Tanaka, Takakazu ; Watanabe, Keigo ; Fukuda, Toshio

Author_Institution

Dept. of Adv. Syst. Control Eng., Saga Univ., Japan

Volume

2

fYear

2003

fDate

14-19 Sept. 2003

Firstpage

2206

Abstract

We have been developing exoskeletons (exoskeletal robots) for assisting the motion of physically weak persons such as elderly persons or slightly disabled persons in daily life. In this paper, we propose a 3 DOF exoskeleton and its control system to assist the human upper-limb motion (shoulder joint motion and elbow joint motion) of physically weak persons. The proposed robot automatically assists the human motion mainly based on the skin surface electromyogram (EMG) signals. Fuzzy control has been applied to realize the sophisticated real-time control of the exoskeleton. Experiment has been performed to evaluate the proposed exoskeleton.

Keywords

electromyography; fuzzy control; medical robotics; motion control; patient rehabilitation; 3-DOF; 3-degrees of freedom; EMG signals; control system; elbow joint motion; electromyogram; exoskeletal robots; exoskeleton; fuzzy control; human motion; human upper limb motion support; physically weak persons assistance; real time control; shoulder joint motion; skin surface; Automatic control; Control systems; Elbow; Exoskeletons; Humans; Motion control; Robotics and automation; Robots; Senior citizens; Shoulder;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Automation, 2003. Proceedings. ICRA '03. IEEE International Conference on

ISSN

1050-4729

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7736-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROBOT.2003.1241921

Filename

1241921