Publication
Exoskeleton Technology in Rehabilitation: Towards an EMG-Based Orthosis System for Upper Limb Neuromotor Rehabilitation
Luis Manuel Vaca Benitez; Marc Tabie; Niels Will; Steffen Schmidt; Mathias Jordan; Elsa Andrea Kirchner
In: Journal of Robotics, Vol. 2013, Page 13, Hindawi Publishing Corporation, 11/2013.
Abstract
The rehabilitation of patients should not only be limited to the first phases during intense hospital care but also support and therapy should be guaranteed in later stages, and especially during daily life activities, if the patient’s state requires this. However, aid should only be given to the patient if needed and as much as it is required. To allow this, automatic self-initiated movement support and patient-cooperative control strategies have to be developed and integrated into assistive systems. In this work, we first give an overview of different kinds of neuromuscular deseases, review different forms of therapy and explain possible fields of rehabilitation and benefits of robotic aided rehabilitation. Next, the mechanical design and control scheme of an upper limb orthosis for rehabilitation are presented. Two control models for the orthosis are explained which compute the triggering function and the level of assistance provided by the device. As input to the model fused sensor data from the orthosis and physiology data in terms of electromyograph (EMG) signals are used.