In recent years, exoskeletons are increasingly spreading into the industrial manufacturing sector to improve productivity and to reduce the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal diseases. The aim of this paper is to present a 2 degrees of freedom (DoF) passive upper-limb exoskeleton, consisting of two McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), and used for assisting workers during activities that require them to keep their hands in a sustained position over the head for a long time. Simulations are performed to test two different commercial PAMs and two different designs of the transmission system used to convey the traction force exerted by the pneumatic muscles to the limb; then the results are discussed. A preliminary assembly of the exoskeleton is also presented. The study confirms that PAMs can be used to realize a passive upper-limb exoskeleton for industrial application and that appropriate working space can be obtained with an accurate design of the transmission system.

Interest in soft actuators has increased enormously in the last 10 years. Thanks to their compliance and flexibility, they are suitable to be employed to actuate devices that must safely interact with humans or delicate objects or to actuate bio-inspired robots able to move in hostile environments. This paper reviews the research on soft pneumatic actuators conducted in Italy, focusing on mechanical design, analytical modeling, and possible application. A classification based on the geometry is proposed, since a wide set of architectures and manufacturing solutions are available. This aspect is confirmed by the extent of scenarios in which researchers take advantage of such systems’ improved flexibility and functionality. Several applications regarding bio-robotics, bioengineering, wearable devices, and more are presented and discussed.

One of the most relevant issues in the development of a haptic interface is the choice of the actuators that are devoted to generating the reflection forces. This work has been particularly focused on the employment of the McKibben muscle to this aim. A prototype of one finger has been realized that is intended to be part of a haptic glove, and is based on an articulated mechanism driven by a McKibben muscle. A dynamic model of the finger has been created and validated; then, it has been used to define the control algorithm of the device. Experimental tests highlighted the static and dynamic effectiveness of the device and proved that a McKibben muscle can be appropriately used in such an application.