Lower back pain and musculoskeletal injuries are serious concerns for workers subjected to physical workload and manual material handling tasks. Spine assistive exoskeletons are being developed to support the spine and distribute the spine load. This article presents a detailed up-to-date review on the back support exoskeletons by discussing their type (Active/Passive), structure (Rigid/Soft), power transmission methods, weight, maximum assistive force, battery technologies, tasks (lifting, bending, stooping work), kinematic compatibility and other important features. This article also assesses the back support exoskeletons in terms of their ability to reduce the physical load on the spine. By reviewing functional and structural characteristics, the goal is to increase communication and realization among ergonomics practitioners, developers, customers, and factory workers. The search resulted in reviewing 34 exoskeletons of which 16 were passive and 18 were active. In conclusion, back support exoskeletons have immense potential to significantly reduce the factors regarding work-related musculoskeletal injuries. However, various technical challenges and a lack of established safety standards limit the wide adaptation of exoskeletons in industry.

This paper proposes a nature inspired, meta-heuristic optimization technique to tune a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for a robotic arm exoskeleton RAX-1. The RAX-1 is a two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOFs) upper limb rehabilitation robotic system comprising two joints to facilitate shoulder joint movements. The conventional tuning of PID controllers using Ziegler-Nichols produces large overshoots which is not desirable for rehabilitation applications. To address this issue, nature inspired algorithms have recently been proposed to improve the performance of PID controllers. In this study, a 2-DOF PID control system is optimized offline using particle swarm optimization (PSO) and artificial bee colony (ABC). To validate the effectiveness of the proposed ABC-PID method, several simulations were carried out comparing the ABC-PID controller with the PSO-PID and a classical PID controller tuned using the Zeigler-Nichols method. Various investigations, such as determining system performance with respect to maximum overshoot, rise and settling time and using maximum sensitivity function under disturbance, were carried out. The results of the investigations show that the ABC-PID is more robust and outperforms other tuning techniques, and demonstrate the effective response of the proposed technique for a robotic manipulator. Furthermore, the ABC-PID controller is implemented on the hardware setup of RAX-1 and the response during exercise showed minute overshoot with lower rise and settling times compared to PSO and Zeigler-Nichols-based controllers.

Spinal deformity is an abnormality in the spinal curves and can seriously affect the activities of daily life. The conventional way to treat spinal deformities, such as scoliosis, kyphosis, and spondylolisthesis, is to use spinal orthoses (braces). Braces have been used for centuries to apply corrective forces to the spine to treat spinal deformities or to stabilize the spine during postoperative rehabilitation. Braces have not modernized with advancements in technology, and very few braces are equipped with smart sensory design and active actuation. There is a need to enable the orthotists, ergonomics practitioners, and developers to incorporate new technologies into the passive field of bracing. This article presents a review of the conventional passive braces and highlights the advancements in spinal orthoses in terms of improved sensory designs, active actuation mechanisms, and new construction methods (CAD/CAM, three-dimensional (3D) printing). This review includes 26 spinal orthoses, comprised of passive rigid/soft braces, active dynamics braces, and torso training devices for the rehabilitation of the spine.

Mobility Assistance Robot (MAR) is a stand stool or an electronic walker. This robot can make a wheelchair bound person to experience the sensation of standing and navigating while standing up. This is not just a wheelchair substitute but indeed an absolutely new and advanced platform of mobility which makes the life of a disabled person easier. It can be controlled by an android mobile phone and users bind or tie themselves into a standing position without any difficulty. This robot can also be controlled through Electromyography (i.e. muscle movement). Electromyography is basically a method of monitoring the motion of neutrons, which are then converted into analog electrical signals and further working is then carried out through these signals. MAR has the potential to carry (lift) the disabled person automatically. It provides a platform for disabled person to ride on it and move with a maximum speed of 10 km/h. The robotic vehicle can be moved in any desired direction using both android mobile application and muscle movement. The person on ride can get the feeling of roaming around like a normal human with legs. This robot is specifically designed to provide a platform for disabled person to live like normal humans. This Robot has many social benefits and caters the need of real world.

Increase in the number of stroke patients upsurges the need of rehabilitation robots. It's the ability of human muscles to recover from stroke if it performs certain movements repetitively and robots are the best way to perform repetitive tasks. In this study, a 3 degree of freedom (3DOF) upper limb rehabilitation robot has been developed to recover the patient who have impaired limb, physical trauma or hit by a stroke. In therapeutic exercise robots, the position accuracy and stability are two major concerns, how effectively exercise is being performed and how much stable robot is from external disturbances. To ensure that, an analysis has been performed on a comparison of PID (Proportional integral and derivative) and MPC (Model Predictive Control) control algorithms to find out which control algorithm is most suitable for upper limb rehabilitation robots.

The aim of this study is to design a reliable and stable control for upper limb rehabilitation robot for post stroke patents. Position control is a key to perform an effective rehabilitation robotic exercise. Rehabilitation robots are coupled with humans which offer ascent to human-robot interaction dynamics and other parametric uncertainties such as environmental contacts and sensory noise. Model based controllers are not easy to implement and are unable to provide precise control in human-exoskeleton interaction because above mentioned factors don't permit to account exact dynamic model. The efficient control system is required to attain the optimal control performances which takes care the system stability and accuracy. Fuzzy Logic (FL) control has ability and it can provide accurate position/force control with the presence of model uncertainties. This paper presents a comparison between a conventional PID controller and online tuning of PID controller based on fuzzy inference system for extension/flexion movements of shoulder joint.