Exoskeleton for human upper-limb motion support

Abstract

We have been developing exoskeletons (exoskeletal robots) for assisting the motion of physically weak persons such as elderly persons or slightly disabled persons in daily life. In this paper, we propose a 3 DOF exoskeleton and its control system to assist the human upper-limb motion (shoulder joint motion and elbow joint motion) of physically weak persons. The proposed robot automatically assists the human motion mainly based on the skin surface electromyogram (EMG) signals. Fuzzy control has been applied to realize the sophisticated real-time control of the exoskeleton. Experiment has been performed to evaluate the proposed exoskeleton.