Exoskeleton robots for upper-limb rehabilitation

In this paper, the design of a new upper limb rehabilitation system is presented. The developed system is an exoskeleton with two degrees of freedom that can be used for diagnosis, physical therapy, and outcome evaluation. The system is dedicated to the patients with paraplegia of their upper extremities due to stroke or any disorders of the central or peripheral nervous system. The designed robot-aided therapy actuates both movements: flexion/extension for the elbow and pronation/supination for the forearm. The robotic system used Kinects skeletal tracking for an upper limb rehabilitation. Position control is communicated via a wireless network. Indeed a ZigBee protocol using xbee communication modules has been installed to ensure remote control of rehabilitation exercise. A kinematic model has been developed based on Denavit-Hartenberg approach to make first tests. A sliding mode robust law control has been implemented. The Lyapunov-based approach has been used to establish the system asymptotic stability. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate performances of the developed robot of upper limb remote rehabilitation.