TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrated wearable and self-carrying active upper limb orthosis
AU - Merchant, Roberto
AU - Cruz-Ortiz, David
AU - Ballesteros-Escamilla, Mariana
AU - Chairez, Isaac
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © IMechE 2018.
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - The aim of this study was to develop a prototype of an orthotic system that can be used as a support tool in the rehabilitation of the upper limb. The construction of this device was motivated by the increasing number of subjects suffering from full or partial loss of the upper limb function as a consequence of spinal cord injuries, strokes, occupational syndromes and sports injuries. The majority of procedures used in upper limb rehabilitation consist of repetitive movements enforced by physiotherapists; a robotic device executing the same tasks seems to be a plausible solution if the orthosis can be programmed and controlled automatically. This study reports the mechanical design, electronic instrumentation and automatic control of an upper limb orthosis made of plastic polymer that makes the orthosis a wearable and self-carrying device. The orthosis consisted of a mechatronic device with five joints. The pieces made by a three-dimensional plastic printer were used to construct the device leading to a total weight of 2.6 kg. The application of a robust automatic controller based on the sliding-mode theory forces the movement of the arm, while taking into account the constraints in each angular displacement of the orthosis. A set of reference trajectories designed to represent the usual movements of a healthy upper limb served for evaluating the controller execution. The orthosis was tested on 15 volunteers with a maximum experimental steady-state error of 2% in the angular deviation of all articulations with respect to their reference trajectories.
AB - The aim of this study was to develop a prototype of an orthotic system that can be used as a support tool in the rehabilitation of the upper limb. The construction of this device was motivated by the increasing number of subjects suffering from full or partial loss of the upper limb function as a consequence of spinal cord injuries, strokes, occupational syndromes and sports injuries. The majority of procedures used in upper limb rehabilitation consist of repetitive movements enforced by physiotherapists; a robotic device executing the same tasks seems to be a plausible solution if the orthosis can be programmed and controlled automatically. This study reports the mechanical design, electronic instrumentation and automatic control of an upper limb orthosis made of plastic polymer that makes the orthosis a wearable and self-carrying device. The orthosis consisted of a mechatronic device with five joints. The pieces made by a three-dimensional plastic printer were used to construct the device leading to a total weight of 2.6 kg. The application of a robust automatic controller based on the sliding-mode theory forces the movement of the arm, while taking into account the constraints in each angular displacement of the orthosis. A set of reference trajectories designed to represent the usual movements of a healthy upper limb served for evaluating the controller execution. The orthosis was tested on 15 volunteers with a maximum experimental steady-state error of 2% in the angular deviation of all articulations with respect to their reference trajectories.
KW - Orthosis
KW - sliding-mode control
KW - terminal sliding mode
KW - upper limb pathologies
KW - wearable technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041827967&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0954411917751001
DO - 10.1177/0954411917751001
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 29316848
SN - 0954-4119
VL - 232
SP - 172
EP - 184
JO - Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine
JF - Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine
IS - 2
ER -