DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF A BILATERAL END-EFFECTER UPPER LIMB REHABILITATION ROBOT

Studies have shown that rehabilitation training with the unaffected side guiding affected side is more consistent with the natural movement pattern of human upper limb compared with unilateral rehabilitation training, which is conducive to improve rehabilitation effect of the affected limb motor function. In this paper, a bilateral end-effector upper limb rehabilitation robot (BEULRR) based on two modern commercial manipulators is developed first, then the kinematics, reachability, and dexterity analysis of BEULRR are performed, respectively. Finally, a bilateral symmetric training protocol with the unaffected side guiding the affected side is proposed and evaluated through healthy human subject experiment testing based on BEULRR. The simulation results show that the developed BEULRR could perform spatial rehabilitation training and its rehabilitation training workspace can fully cover the physiological workspace of human upper limb. The preliminary experiment results from the healthy human subject show that the BEULRR system could provide reliable bilateral symmetric training protocol. These simulation and experiment results demonstrated that the developed BEULRR system could be used in bilateral rehabilitation training application, and also show that the BEULRR system has the potential to be applied to clinical rehabilitation training in the further step. In the close future, the proposed BEULRR and bilateral symmetric training protocol are planned to be applied in elderly volunteers and patients with upper limb motor dysfunction for further evaluating.

Experimental Validation of an Exoskeleton for Motion Assistance

In this paper experimental investigations concerning the prototype validation of an exoskeleton for human gait rehabilitation are presented. The proposed exoskeleton is intended for human legs motion assistance, being a low cost solution. The exoskeleton provides motion assistance for human hip and knee joint. The experimental gait analysis of the exoskeleton and assisted human subject is performed with goniometers sensors. These sensors are attached to the exoskeleton hip and knee joints and measure the angle variation. The results obtained for the exoskeleton motion are compared with those obtained in case of a healthy human subject. Angular variation corresponding to a step, as a comparison for human and exoskeleton joints is performed. The conclusion is that the designed exoskeleton is proper for human gait motion assistance, because the joints motion is comparable with the human subject.

Secondary Flow in the Human Common Carotid Artery Imaged by MR Angiography

The blood flow in arteries affects both the biology of the vessels and the development of atherosclerosis. The flow is three dimensional, unsteady, and difficult to measure or to model computationally. We have used phase-shift-based magnetic resonance angiography to image and measure the flow in the common carotid arteries of a healthy human subject. There was curvature of the vessels and thin-slice dynamic flow imaging showed evidence of the presence of secondary motions. Flexing the cervical spine straightened the vessels and reduced the asymmetry of the flow.