Browsing by Author "Kiguchi, K"

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    item: Conference-Abstract
    A Brief review on upper extremity robotic exoskeleton systems
    (2016-09-23) Gopura, RARC; Kiguchi, K; Bandara, DSV
    Robotic exoskeleton systems are one of the highly active areas in recent robotic research. These systems have been developed significantly to be used for the human power augmentation, robotic rehabilitation, human power assist, and haptic interaction in virtual reality. Unlike the robots used in industry, the robotic exoskeleton systems should be designed with special consideration since they directly interact with human user. In the mechanical design of these systems, movable ranges, safety, comfort wearing, low inertia, and adaptability should be especially considered. Controllability, responsiveness, flexible and smooth motion generation, and safety should especially be considered in the controllers of exoskeleton systems. Furthermore, the controller should generate the motions in accordance with the human motion intention. This paper briefly reviews the upper extremity robotic exoskeleton systems. In the short review, it is focused to identify the brief history, basic concept, challenges, and future development of the robotic exoskeleton systems. Furthermore, key technologies of upper extremity exoskeleton systems are reviewed by taking state-of-the-art robot as examples.
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    item: Article-Full-text
    Developments in hardware systems of active upper-limb exoskeleton robots: A review
    (Elsevier, 2016) Gopura, RARC; Bandara, DSV; Kiguchi, K; Man, GKI
    The very first application of active exoskeleton robot was to provide external power to a soldier so that he can carry extra weight. Since then this technology has focused on developing systems for assisting and augmenting human power. Later this technology has been used in other applications such as limb rehabilitation and tele-operations. Exoskeleton research is still a growing area and demands multi-disciplinary approaches in solving complex technical issues. In this paper, the developments of active upper-limb exoskeleton robots are reviewed. This paper presents the major developments occurred in the history, the key milestones during the evolution and major research challenges in the present day context of hardware systems of upper-limb exoskeleton robots. Moreover, the paper provides a classification, a comparison and a design overview of mechanisms, actuation and power transmission of most of the upper-limb exoskeleton robots that have been found in the literature. A brief review on the control methods of upper-limb exoskeleton robots is also presented. At the end, a discussion on the future directions of the upper-limb exoskeleton robots was included.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    The Effect of impedance parameters in 7DOF upper-limb power-assist exoskeleton robot
    (2016-09-23) Kiguchi, K; Gopura, RARC; Hayashi, Y; Li, Y
    To assist daily life upper-limb motions of elderly or physically weak persons, many kinds of upper-limb power-assist robots have been developed. We have developed a 7DOF power-assist exoskeleton robot in which EMG-based impedance control is applied and the impedance parameters are adjusted in real time according to the upper-limb posture and EMG activity levels. The impedance parameters of human upper limb are changed by the muscle activation level and the posture of the upper-limb. Therefore, the impedance parameters in the controller should be adjusted according to the EMG activity level and the upperlimb posture in real time. In this paper, to evaluate the validity of the adjusting of the impedance parameters, the experimental studies have been performed.
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    item: Conference-Full-text
    EMG based controller for a wheelchair with robotic manipulator
    (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 2021-09) Abayasiri, RAM; Jayasekara, AGBP; Gopura, RARC; Kiguchi, K; Abeykoon, AMHS; Velmanickam, L
    There is an increasing demand for the wheel chairs which could make decisions by a cquiring information from the surrounding,for the wheel chair users all around the globe. Such type of wheel chairs is called intelligent wheel chairs and are using different types of high level controlling algorithms to control it self. Using EMG based controller for high level decision making has become are liable and efficient method due to the high signal to noise ratio of EMG signals and the ability of them to bring out the users’ intentions successfully. Usually, those EMG based controllers are in corporated with another modality to achieve the desired tasks through the intelligent wheel chairs. An EMG-based high-level controller which can be stand-alone with out the aid of other modalities is rarely foundin the literature. Even the available such type of controllers is mostly designed for the users with full/partial upper limb functions. However, such types of controllers can not beused by the wheel chair users with trans-humeral amputation/trans-radial amputationdue to the absence of the required muscles.This paper proposes an EMG based high level controlling algorithm for then a vigation input generation and to detect the intention forusing a robot manipulator for reach to grasptask,for an intelligentwheel chair with a robotic manipulator.The proposed controller has been designed for wheel chair users with trans-humeral amputation/ trans- radial amputation.But it can beused by any type of wheelchair user with neck functions and full/partial functions of both upper limb suptothehumerus.Experiments have been done with the healthy human subjects to validate the efficacy of the proposed highl evelcontroller.
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    item: Conference-Extended-Abstract
    Experimental study of the relationship between upper-limb motions and EMG levels of related muscles
    (2010) Gopura, RC; Kiguchi, K; Horikawa, E; Agalawatta, NT
    Human upper-limb muscle activities during daily upper-limb motions have been studied to identify the relationship between upper-limb motions and electromyography (EMG) activity levels oj related muscles Sixteen muscles have been identified to enable power-assist exoskeleton robot to estimate the upper-limb motions based on EMG signals.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    A multi-DoF anthropomorphic transradial prosthetic arm
    Bandara, DSV; Gopura, RARC; Hemapala, KTMU; Kiguchi, K
    An anthropomorphic transradial prosthetic arm is proposed in this paper. In order to generate the wrist flexion/extension and ulna/radial deviation, a novel wrist mechanism is proposed based on the parallel prismatic manipulators. It is expected to realize high speed operation, higher positional accuracy and anthropomorphic features using the proposed mechanism. The prosthetic arm consists of an under-actuated hand as the terminal device. The hand mechanism is capable of providing the grasping adaptation. With the intention of verifying the effectiveness of the mechanisms in motion generation, motion simulation and kinematic analysis are carried out.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Upper extremity prosthetics: Current status, challenges and future directions
    Bandara, DSV; Gopura, RARC; Hemapala, KTMU; Kiguchi, K
    There is a drastic increment of the demand for prosthetic devices over the last few decades. This is caused by the increased amputees because of casualties due to civil wars, injuries due to accidents, etc. Therefore, the robotic prostheses are one of the highly interested research areas in recent robotic research. The target is to make sure the amputee gets a better chance to interact with the real world, in spite of the amputation he has. The paper presents the results of a comprehensive literature analysis towards a development of an upper-limb prosthetic arm. This study identifies the methods of prosthetic classification as the segment of application, number of degrees of freedom (DoF), types of applied actuators, types of power transmission methods and control methods. In this study, the upper extremity prosthetic devices are classified based on the segment of application. Thus, they can be mainly classified into shoulder prosthetics, transhumeral and elbow prosthetics, transradial and hand prosthetics. This study considers all the above categories of recent upper extremity prosthetics, and reviews their key technologies by taking state-of-the-art robots as examples