Nowadays, patients with mild and moderate upper limb paralysis caused by cerebral apoplexy are uncomfortable with autonomous rehabilitation. In this paper, according to the “rope + toothed belt” generalized rope drive design scheme, we design a utility model for a wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot with a tension mechanism. Owing to study of the human upper extremity anatomy, movement mechanisms, and the ranges of motion, it can determine the range of motion angles of the human arm joints, and design the shoulder joint, elbow joint, and wrist joint separately under the principle of ensuring the minimum driving torque. Then, the kinematics, workspace and dynamics analysis of each structure are performed. Finally, the control system of the rehabilitation robot is designed. The experimental results show that the structure is convenient to wear on the human body, and the robot’s freedom of movement matches well with the freedom of movement of the human body. It can effectively support and traction the front and rear arms of the affected limb, and accurately transmit the applied traction force to the upper limb of the joints. The rationality of the wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot design is verified, which can help patients achieve rehabilitation training and provide an effective rehabilitation equipment for patients with hemiplegia caused by stroke.

To help people with impairment of lower extremity movement regain the ability to stand and walk, and to enhance limb function, this study proposes an anthropomorphic design of an electrically driven, lower-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot. The angular range of the robot’s motion was determined according to the characteristics of the targeted lower-limb joints; the robot was given an active–passive anthropomorphic design with 12 degrees of freedom. The multi-degree-of-freedom hip exoskeleton, bionic artificial knee exoskeleton and passive rigid-flexible coupling ankle exoskeleton can assist patients in rehabilitation exercises with better wear comfort and exercise flexibility. A kinetic model of the seven-rod lower-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot was built, and data analysis of the dynamically captured motion trajectory was conducted. These provided a theoretical basis for gait planning and the control system of the lower-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot. The results show that the lower-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot system possesses sound wearing comfort and movement flexibility, and the degree of freedom of movement of the exoskeleton robot matches well with that of human movement. The robot can thus provide effective assistance to patients’ standing and walking rehabilitation training.

This research introduces the knee exoskeleton system that assists in knee joint rehabilitation, which is centered on human wearing comfort. According to the bionic principle, this paper proposes a bionic knee exoskeleton structure based on a cross four-bar linkage mechanism. The cross four-bar linkage mechanism is used to simulate the internal cruciate ligament of the human knee joint to realize the instantaneous rotation center movement of the knee joint. The motor drives the telescopic rod to simulate the movement of the exoskeleton of the knee joint by the thigh muscle of the human body. The auxiliary limit locking structure simulates the knee joint patella to prevent hyperextension of the exoskeleton of the knee joint. The particle swarm-based algorithm is used to optimize the size and position of the connecting rod of the cross four-bar linkage to follow the motion of the human knee joint better. The results show that the optimized and synthesized cross four-bar linkage mechanism has a small average error value, which can better reproduce the anthropomorphic motion characteristics of the human knee joint, achieve an ideal match between the motion form of the human knee joint and the exoskeleton, and improve coordination and adaptability with human joint movement. Through the wearer test, it is found that the structure has a variable instantaneous center of rotation trajectory. Under the condition of satisfying the flexion angle and torque of the human body, the knee joint movement could be simulated with the optimal trajectory to achieve the consistency with the human knee joint movement, so as to alleviate the discomfort of the wear movement of the patients in the auxiliary rehabilitation process, and it provides an advantage for the wear comfort of the human rehabilitation movement.

This paper presents a humanoid robotic arm massage system with an aim toward satisfying the clinical requirements of pain relief on the waist and legs of older patients during Chinese medicinal massage. On the basis of an in-depth analysis regarding the characteristics of arm joints of the human body and Chinese medicinal massage theory, a humanoid robotic arm massage system was designed by adapting a bottom to top modular method. The combined finite element and kinematic analysis led to an improved performance according to repeated positioning accuracy, massage strength accuracy, and massage effect. The developed humanoid robotic arm was characterized by a compact structure, high precision, light quality, and good stiffness, achieving a good bearing capacity. Due to the PID controller, the numerical simulations and experimental results provided valuable insight into the development of Chinese medicinal massage robots and massage treatments for patients who suffer from lumbar muscle strain.

To achieve ideal force control in robots interacting with humans, an accurate and stable actuating system is essential. In this article, a novel series elastic actuator (NSEA) with torsion spring and linear spring is designed to provide pliability and safety for physical human–robot interaction in the upper limb exoskeleton robot (ULER). The Hill-based muscle model predicted human joint torques are utilized to determine the linear spring stiffness of the NSEA that facilitates the ULER to provide the reasonable assistive torque. In addition, a human–robot interaction force control (HRIFC) scheme based on an actuator dynamics model is designed, which enables the NSEA-driven ULER to achieve stability of interactive torque in human-in-charge mode and accurate force tracking in robot-in-charge mode. Theoretical proofs demonstrate the stability of the closed-loop system under the proposed HRIFC scheme. The stability and accuracy of force trajectory tracking for the NSEA-driven ULER are verified through simulations and experiments. The muscle activation of the subjects is obtained, which infers the capability of the NSEA-driven ULER to provide effective assistive forces and maintain normal movement modes. Finally, the torsion spring performance test experiments verify that the NSEA-driven ULER can achieve real-time protection and avoid secondary injuries to the subjects.