Exoskeleton robotics has ushered in a new era of modern neuromuscular rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology research. The technology promises to improve the upper-limb functionalities required for performing activities of daily living. The exoskeleton technology is evolving quickly but still needs interdisciplinary research to solve technical challenges, e.g., kinematic compatibility and development of effective human–robot interaction. In this paper, the recent development in upper-limb exoskeletons is reviewed. The key challenges involved in the development of assistive exoskeletons are highlighted by comparing available solutions. This paper provides a general classification, comparisons, and overview of the mechatronic designs of upper-limb exoskeletons. In addition, a brief overview of the control modalities for upper-limb exoskeletons is also presented in this paper. A discussion on the future directions of research is included.

The design of an innovative spherical mechanism with three degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) for a shoulder joint exoskeleton is presented in this paper. The spherical mechanism is designed with a double parallelogram linkage (DPL), which connects two revolute joints to implement the motion as a spherical joint, while maintaining the remote center (RC) of rotation. The design has several new features compared to the current state-of-the-art: (1) a relative large range of motion (RoM) free of singularity, (2) high overall stiffness, (3) lightweight, and (4) compact, which make it suitable for assistive exoskeletons. In this paper, the kinematics and singularities are analyzed for the spherical mechanism and DPL. Dimensional analysis is carried out to find the design with maximum RoM. The new shoulder joint is finally designed, constructed, and integrated in a four degree-of-freedom wearable upper-body exoskeleton. A finite element analysis (FEA) study is used to assess the structural stiffness of the proposed design in comparison to the conventional 3R mechanism.

Wheelchair upper-limb exoskeletons can offer a new paradigm to assist people with neuromuscular dysfunction in their activities of daily living (ADLs) such as eating and drinking. A key challenge in their control is to ensure safe and comfortable interaction between the human upper limb and exoskeleton. Compared with industrial manipulators, exoskeletons suffer severe kinematic and dynamic uncertainties and external disturbances. Therefore, the selection of optimal control methods that can address the aforementioned challenge is required. In this paper, a method combining PD control, sliding mode control, and fuzzy logic control, i.e., PD based fuzzy sliding mode control, is developed to deal with unmodeled dynamics and external disturbances in the human-exoskeleton system. The sliding mode control can be generally divided by the equivalent control law and the switching control law. For the basic equivalent control part, it adopts the PD controller due to its simplicity in controller design and parameter tuning. For the switching control part, it is replaced by fuzzy logic control to eliminate the chattering of control input such that the smooth motion of the system is achieved. Simulation and experiment results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

This paper describes a new approach to the design of a lightweight robotic arm for service applications. A major design objective is to achieve a lightweight robot with desired kinematic performance and compliance. This is accomplished by an integrated design optimization approach, where robot kinematics, dynamics, drive-train design and strength analysis by means of finite element analysis (FEA) are generally considered. In this approach, kinematic dimensions, structural dimensions, and the motors and the gearboxes are parameterized as design variables. Constraints are formulated on the basis of kinematic performance, dynamic requirements and structural strength limitations, whereas the main objective is to minimize the weight. The design optimization of a five degree-of-freedom (dof) lightweight arm is demonstrated and the robot development for service application is also presented.

Wheelchair mounted upper limb exoskeletons offer an alternative way to support disabled individuals in their activities of daily living (ADL). Key challenges in exoskeleton technology include innovative mechanical design and implementation of a control method that can assure a safe and comfortable interaction between the human upper limb and exoskeleton. In this article, we present a mechanical design of a four degrees of freedom (DOF) wheelchair mounted upper limb exoskeleton. The design takes advantage of non-backdrivable mechanism that can hold the output position without energy consumption and provide assistance to the completely paralyzed users. Moreover, a PD-based trajectory tracking control is implemented to enhance the performance of human exoskeleton system for two different tasks. Preliminary results are provided to show the effectiveness and reliability of using the proposed design for physically disabled people.