We developed an upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton actuated by pneumatic muscles. The exoskeleton included two metal links: a nylon joint, four size-adjustable carbon fiber bracers, a potentiometer and two pneumatic muscles. The proportional myoelectric control method was proposed to control the exoskeleton according to the user’s motion intention in real time. With the feature extraction procedure and the classification (back-propagation neural network), an electromyogram (EMG)-angle model was constructed to be used for pattern recognition. Six healthy subjects performed elbow flexion-extension movements under four experimental conditions: (1) holding a 1-kg load, wearing the exoskeleton, but with no actuation and for different periods (2-s, 4-s and 8-s periods); (2) holding a 1-kg load, without wearing the exoskeleton, for a fixed period; (3) holding a 1-kg load, wearing the exoskeleton, but with no actuation, for a fixed period; (4) holding a 1-kg load, wearing the exoskeleton under proportional myoelectric control, for a fixed period. The EMG signals of the biceps brachii, the brachioradialis, the triceps brachii and the anconeus and the angle of the elbow were collected. The control scheme’s reliability and power-assist effectiveness were evaluated in the experiments. The results indicated that the exoskeleton could be controlled by the user’s motion intention in real time and that it was useful for augmenting arm performance with neurological signal control, which could be applied to assist in elbow rehabilitation after neurological injury.

Traditional rigid exoskeletons can be challenging to the comfort of wearers and can have large pressure, which can even alter natural hand motion patterns. In this paper, we propose a low-cost soft exoskeleton glove (SExoG) system driven by surface electromyography (sEMG) signals from non-paretic hand for bilateral training. A customization method of geometrical parameters of soft actuators was presented, and their structure was redesigned. Then, the corresponding pressure values of air-pump to generate different angles of actuators were determined to support four hand motions (extension, rest, spherical grip, and fist). A two-step hybrid model combining the neural network and the state exclusion algorithm was proposed to recognize four hand motions via sEMG signals from the healthy limb. Four subjects were recruited to participate in the experiments. The experimental results show that the pressure values for the four hand motions were about −2, 0, 40, and 70 KPa, and the hybrid model can yield a mean accuracy of 98.7% across four hand motions. It can be concluded that the novel SExoG system can mirror the hand motions of non-paretic hand with good performance.

Dunhuang murals are an important part of human cultural heritage with extraordinary literary and historical value. However, with the influences of time and the environment, many murals have suffered large defects and require complete reconstructions of their historical information, which is difficult. Moreover, the manual restoration of murals is complicated and slow. We attempted to use deep learning techniques to restore two types of damaged murals, including central regular defects and random irregular defects. First, we created a dataset of 26,240 Dunhuang murals for model training. Second, we built an image restoration model based on U-net to automatically restore murals. We show that mapping global information to defective areas can effectively restore murals with random irregular defects. Compared to manual restoration, the proposed model significantly reduces the time and cost of restoration work. In addition, we propose a method for constructing and preserving the contour maps of mural images and present the model’s training process. Using the deep learning model, professional restorers can provide visual feedback on the restoration process to directly compare the restoration patterns of different rounds. This method implements observations of the filling-in process in the defective areas. Finally, we built a Dunhuang mural restoration system for professional restorers to restore, select, and share murals on an online platform.