Abstract
Most of the currently available exoskeletons for upper limbs are constrained by limited portability, ergonomics, weight and, energy-wise, autonomy. Moreover, their high cost makes them available only for the most affluent users, ruling out the majority of the population in need. By replacing rigid aluminum links and transmissions with fabrics and bowden cables, we can both cut down the cost of the assistive device and design it to be portable, comfortable and lightweight. We present the design and a preliminary testing of a soft exosuit for assisting elbow flexion/extension and hand open/close. Our system comprises two proximally located tendon-driving actuators, and two textile-based frames that route the tendons and transmit forces to the human joints, namely an elbow sleeve and a glove. A preliminary test on a healthy subject is presented with an adaptive controller that achieves good tracking accuracy despite of the system’s non-linear and time-varying dynamics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
V.L. Feigin et al., Global and regional burden of stroke during 1990–2010: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 383(9913), 245–255 (2014)
M.E. Walsh, R. Galvin, C. Loughnane, C. Macey, N.F. Horgan, Community re-integration and long-term need in the first five years after stroke: results from a national survey. Disabil. Rehabil. 37(20), 1834–1838 (5 pp.) (2015)
A.T. Asbeck, S.M.M. De Rossi, K.G. Holt, C.J. Walsh, A biologically inspired soft exosuit for walking assistance. Int. J. Rob. Res. 1–19 (2015)
H. In, B. Kang, M. Sin, K. Cho, Exo-glove: a wearable robot for the hand with a soft tendon routing system. J. Robot. Autom. (2015)
H. In, H. Lee, U. Jeong, B. Kang, K. Cho, Feasibility study of a slack enabling actuator for actuating tendon-driven soft wearable robot without pretension, in 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (2015)
G. Huang, Q. Zhu, C. Siew, Extreme learning machine: theory and applications. Neurocomputing (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Xiloyannis, M., Cappello, L., Khanh Dinh, B., Antuvan, C.W., Masia, L. (2017). Design and Preliminary Testing of a Soft Exosuit for Assisting Elbow Movements and Hand Grasping. In: Ibáñez, J., González-Vargas, J., AzorÃn, J., Akay, M., Pons, J. (eds) Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation II. Biosystems & Biorobotics, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46669-9_92
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46669-9_92
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46668-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46669-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)