Lightweight Bioinspired Exoskeleton for Wrist Rehabilitation Powered by Twisted and Coiled Artificial Muscles

Carlo Greco; Thilina Weerakkody; Venanzio Cichella; Leonardo Pagnotta; Caterina Lamuta

doi:10.3390/robotics12010027

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Lightweight Bioinspired Exoskeleton for Wrist Rehabilitation Powered by Twisted and Coiled Artificial Muscles

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Lightweight Bioinspired Exoskeleton for Wrist Rehabilitation Powered by Twisted and Coiled Artificial Muscles

Carlo Greco, Thilina Weerakkody, Venanzio Cichella, Leonardo Pagnotta and Caterina Lamuta

Robotics (Basel), Vol.12(1), 27

02/01/2023

DOI: 10.3390/robotics12010027

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Abstract

Stroke, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injuries represent the most common leading causes of upper limb impairment. In recent years, rehabilitation robotics has progressed toward developing wearable technologies to promote the portability of assistive devices and to enable home rehabilitation of the upper extremities. However, current wearable technologies mainly rely on electric motors and rigid links or soft pneumatic actuators and are usually bulky and cumbersome. To overcome the limitations of existing technologies, in this paper, a first prototype of a lightweight, ungrounded, soft exoskeleton for wrist rehabilitation powered by soft and flexible carbon fibers-based twisted and coiled artificial muscles (TCAMs) is proposed. The device, which weighs only 0.135 kg, emulates the arrangement and working mechanism of skeletal muscles in the upper extremities and is able to perform wrist flexion/extension and ulnar/radial deviation. The range of motion and the force provided by the exoskeleton is designed through simple kinematic and dynamic theoretical models, while a thermal model is used to design a thermal insulation system for TCAMs during actuation. The device’s ability to perform passive and active-resisted wrist rehabilitation exercises and EMG-based actuation is also demonstrated.

Robotics

Stroke

Thermal Analysis

Actuation

Actuators

Artificial muscles

Cables

Carbon fibers

Design

Electric motors

Exoskeletons

Kinematics

Lightweight

Patients

Range of motion

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation robots

Robots

Spinal cord

Spinal injuries

Thermal insulation

Wearable technology

Wrist

Details

Title: Subtitle: Lightweight Bioinspired Exoskeleton for Wrist Rehabilitation Powered by Twisted and Coiled Artificial Muscles
Creators: Carlo Greco - University of Calabria
Thilina Weerakkody - University of Iowa
Venanzio Cichella - University of Iowa
Leonardo Pagnotta - University of Calabria
Caterina Lamuta - University of Iowa
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Robotics (Basel), Vol.12(1), 27
DOI: 10.3390/robotics12010027
eISSN: 2218-6581
Publisher: MDPI AG
Grant note: DOI: 10.13039/100000185, name: DARPA, award: W911NF2110344-0011679424; name: ONR, award: N00014-20-1-2224, N00014-22-1-2021; name: Office of Naval Research, award: N00014-23-1-2116
Language: English
Date published: 02/01/2023
Academic Unit: Mechanical Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984375457802771

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