Bio-inspired wearable soft upper-limb exoskeleton robot for stroke survivors

Abstract

Over the years, the exoskeleton robot has become an effective technical means in the field of limb action function recovery. In this paper, a bionic wearable upper limb exoskeleton robot is proposed for stroke survivors. The robot is designed on the basis of anatomy and biomechanics. Based on the skeletal structure of the human body, the bones and muscles of the human body movement system are modeled. The skeletal muscle and the muscle tendon are simulated by the tension line and the flexible band respectively. The robot is tested on a humanoid platform. Test results show that the joint motion range and trajectory curve are highly similar to the human body. The effectiveness of the bionic design is proved. The whole device motion chain has a similar motion configuration of the human body, and the drive mode conforms to the principle of human driving, so that the wearer's movement conforms to the normal mode of the human body. The robot is wearable and light in structure. This work will assist the upper-limbs in both activities of daily livings (ADLs) and physical therapy, and improve the life confidence and self-care ability of patients with movement ability disorders.