Wearable Robotics
Recent advances in exoskeletons have demonstrated how wearable robotic enable disabled to walk again. A few commercial exoskeletons have been introduced, such as the Ekso (Ekso bionics, Richmond CA), Rex (Rex Bioncs, Auckland, New Zealand) and ReWalk (Argo Medical Technologies,Israel). The advances in robotics and exoskeletons have enabled early stroke rehabilitation and support treadmill or free walking training. However, most systems are designed mainly for supervised physiotherapy with limited sensing capabilities. In addition, most exoskeleton systems are mainly targeted either for military or enabling mobility applications. There is currently very limited exoskeleton systems aim for providing assistance to carry out daily activities. For instance, elderly with frailty or patient with Parkinson disease could benefit from such wearable systems. Another potential application could be for preventing self-injury. We investigates novel approaches for assistive and rehabilitative robot, for example: