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Wang Q, Chen C, Mu X, Wang H, Wang Z, Xu S, Guo W, Wu X, Li W. A Wearable Upper Limb Exoskeleton System and Intelligent Control Strategy. Biomimetics (Basel) 2024; 9:129. [PMID: 38534814 DOI: 10.3390/biomimetics9030129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Heavy lifting operations frequently lead to upper limb muscle fatigue and injury. In order to reduce muscle fatigue, auxiliary force for upper limbs can be provided. This paper presents the development and evaluation of a wearable upper limb exoskeleton (ULE) robot system. A flexible cable transmits auxiliary torque and is connected to the upper limb by bypassing the shoulder. Based on the K-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm and integrated fuzzy PID control strategy, the ULE identifies the handling posture and provides accurate active auxiliary force automatically. Overall, it has the quality of being light and easy to wear. In unassisted mode, the wearer's upper limbs minimally affect the range of movement. The KNN algorithm uses multi-dimensional motion information collected by the sensor, and the test accuracy is 94.59%. Brachioradialis muscle (BM), triceps brachii (TB), and biceps brachii (BB) electromyogram (EMG) signals were evaluated by 5 kg, 10 kg, and 15 kg weight conditions for five subjects, respectively, during lifting, holding, and squatting. Compared with the ULE without assistance and with assistance, the average peak values of EMG signals of BM, TB, and BB were reduced by 19-30% during the whole handling process, which verified that the developed ULE could provide practical assistance under different load conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiang Wang
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
| | - Chunjie Chen
- Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Robotics and Intelligent System, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Xinxing Mu
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
| | - Haibin Wang
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Robotics and Intelligent System, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Zhuo Wang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Robotics and Intelligent System, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Sheng Xu
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Robotics and Intelligent System, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Weilun Guo
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
| | - Xinyu Wu
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Robotics and Intelligent System, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Weimin Li
- Shandong Zhongke Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., Jinan 250100, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Robotics and Intelligent System, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
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Brambilla C, Lavit Nicora M, Storm F, Reni G, Malosio M, Scano A. Biomechanical Assessments of the Upper Limb for Determining Fatigue, Strain and Effort from the Laboratory to the Industrial Working Place: A Systematic Review. Bioengineering (Basel) 2023; 10:bioengineering10040445. [PMID: 37106632 PMCID: PMC10135542 DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering10040445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent human-centered developments in the industrial field (Industry 5.0) lead companies and stakeholders to ensure the wellbeing of their workers with assessments of upper limb performance in the workplace, with the aim of reducing work-related diseases and improving awareness of the physical status of workers, by assessing motor performance, fatigue, strain and effort. Such approaches are usually developed in laboratories and only at times they are translated to on-field applications; few studies summarized common practices for the assessments. Therefore, our aim is to review the current state-of-the-art approaches used for the assessment of fatigue, strain and effort in working scenarios and to analyze in detail the differences between studies that take place in the laboratory and in the workplace, in order to give insights on future trends and directions. A systematic review of the studies aimed at evaluating the motor performance, fatigue, strain and effort of the upper limb targeting working scenarios is presented. A total of 1375 articles were found in scientific databases and 288 were analyzed. About half of the scientific articles are focused on laboratory pilot studies investigating effort and fatigue in laboratories, while the other half are set in working places. Our results showed that assessing upper limb biomechanics is quite common in the field, but it is mostly performed with instrumental assessments in laboratory studies, while questionnaires and scales are preferred in working places. Future directions may be oriented towards multi-domain approaches able to exploit the potential of combined analyses, exploitation of instrumental approaches in workplace, targeting a wider range of people and implementing more structured trials to translate pilot studies to real practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Brambilla
- Istituto di Sistemi e Tecnologie Industriali Intelligenti per il Manifatturiero Avanzato (STIIMA), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Previati 1/E, 23900 Lecco, Italy
| | - Matteo Lavit Nicora
- Istituto di Sistemi e Tecnologie Industriali Intelligenti per il Manifatturiero Avanzato (STIIMA), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Previati 1/E, 23900 Lecco, Italy
- Industrial Engineering Department, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Fabio Storm
- Bioengineering Laboratory, Scientific Institute, IRCCS “Eugenio Medea”, 23842 Bosisio Parini, Italy
| | - Gianluigi Reni
- Informatics Department, Autonomous Province of Bolzano, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
| | - Matteo Malosio
- Istituto di Sistemi e Tecnologie Industriali Intelligenti per il Manifatturiero Avanzato (STIIMA), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Previati 1/E, 23900 Lecco, Italy
| | - Alessandro Scano
- Istituto di Sistemi e Tecnologie Industriali Intelligenti per il Manifatturiero Avanzato (STIIMA), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Previati 1/E, 23900 Lecco, Italy
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Di Tocco J, Lo Presti D, Zaltieri M, Bravi M, Morrone M, Sterzi S, Schena E, Massaroni C. Investigating Stroke Effects on Respiratory Parameters Using a Wearable Device: A Pilot Study on Hemiplegic Patients. Sensors (Basel) 2022; 22:6708. [PMID: 36081165 PMCID: PMC9459881 DOI: 10.3390/s22176708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Revised: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 09/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Quantitatively assessing personal health status is gaining increasing attention due to the improvement of diagnostic technology and the increasing occurrence of chronic pathologies. Monitoring physiological parameters allows for retrieving a general overview of the personal health status. Respiratory activity can provide relevant information, especially when pathologies affect the muscles and organs involved in breathing. Among many technologies, wearables may represent a valid solution for continuous and remote monitoring of respiratory activity, thus reducing healthcare costs. The most popular wearables used in this arena are based on detecting the breathing-induced movement of the chest wall. Therefore, their use in patients with impaired chest wall motion and abnormal respiratory kinematics can be challenging, but literature is still in its infancy. This study investigates the performance of a custom wearable device for respiratory monitoring in post-stroke patients. We tested the device on six hemiplegic patients under different respiratory regimes. The estimated respiratory parameters (i.e., respiratory frequency and the timing of the respiratory phase) demonstrated good agreement with the ones provided by a gold standard device. The promising results of this pilot study encourage the exploitation of wearables on these patients that may strongly impact the treatment of chronic diseases, such as hemiplegia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Di Tocco
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Daniela Lo Presti
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Martina Zaltieri
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Bravi
- Unit of Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Michelangelo Morrone
- Unit of Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Silvia Sterzi
- Unit of Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Emiliano Schena
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Carlo Massaroni
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
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