19 accepted papers
This study introduces a novel kinematic synergy-based exoskeleton designed for gait rehabilitation studies in rats. The exoskeleton assists all three hindlimb joints of the rat (hip, knee and ankle) while ensuring proper interjoint coordination and the natural quadrupedal posture. This assistance is…
Conventional radiography is the widely used imaging technology in diagnosing, monitoring, and prognosticating musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases because of its easy availability, versatility, and cost-effectiveness. Bone overlaps are prevalent in conventional radiographs, and can impede the accurate ass…
This study introduces a novel kinematic synergy-based exoskeleton designed for gait rehabilitation studies in rats. The exoskeleton assists all three hindlimb joints of the rat (hip, knee and ankle) while ensuring proper interjoint coordination and the natural quadrupedal posture. This assistance is
Dropped Head Syndrome (DHS) causes a passively correctable neck deformation. Currently, there is no wearable orthopedic neck brace to fulfill the needs of persons suffering from DHS. Related works have made progress in this area by creating mobile neck braces that provide head support to mitigate de
In this study, we propose a method for electric wheelchairs to climb steps using a passive add-on mechanism. The mechanism utilizes the rider's postural shift motion and canes to enable independent step climbing without the need for caregiver support. In this mechanism, auxiliary wheels are affixed
Automated radiology report generation aims to generate paragraphs that describe fine-grained visual differences among cases, especially those between the normal and the diseased. Existing methods seldom consider the cross-modal alignment between textual and visual features and tend to ignore disease…
Autonomous navigation in highly populated areas remains a challenging task for robots because of the difficulty in guaranteeing safe interactions with pedestrians in unstructured situations. In this work, we present a crowd navigation control framework that delivers continuous obstacle avoidance and…
This letter proposes a novel manually actuated mechanism to control the position and posture of a passenger for preventing accidents due to stroller tipping while ascending or descending steps. This mechanism is designed as a four-bar linkage, which uses the rotational torque applied to the stroller
This letter presents a passive control method for multiple degrees of freedom in a soft pneumatic robot through the combination of flow resistor tubes with series inflatable actuators. We designed and developed these 3D printed resistors based on the pressure drop principle of multiple capillary ori
In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel human-machine interface (HMI) for controlling a standing mobility vehicle or person carrier robot, aiming for a hands-free control through upper-body natural postures derived from gaze tracking while walking. We target users with lower-body impairment w…
Wearable robots suffer from issues of usability, cost-performance, and battery life. These drawbacks hinder the development of their market and their implementation in healthcare and industry. Back support exoskeletons in particular rely heavily on mechanical storing of energy but are still mostly u…
Walking rehabilitation must be performed based on voluntary motion intention, and for this purpose, the development of a control method for an exoskeleton robot based on voluntary intention is investigated. This study proposes a method of exoskeleton robot control to estimate the voluntary lower lim…
This study describes a novel active rotary-legs mechanism for a stair-climbing mobility vehicle. We have previously developed a stair-climbing up and down wheelchair with lever propelled rotary-legs operated using the human upper body. The previous results indicated that the required torque for the
This letter describes a method for automated liquid manipulation using a ferrofluid-based robotic sheet. The robotic sheet consists of a ferrofluid wrapped with thin polytetrafluoroethylene films. The robotic sheet automatically transports a target liquid using the deformation characteristics of fer
This paper describes a novel passive exoskeleton for voluntary sitting-standing posture transition for children with lower limb impairment. The design of the exoskeleton is based on the utilization of the center of gravity transition through the user's upper body motion. The passive exoskeleton powe…
We propose a new wearable device for human joint impedance estimation. The device utilizes snap-through buckling of closed-elastica to impose perturbations on human joints. Actuation is based on the law of momentum conservation, that is, the proposed device induces an impact on human joint dynamics.
In this paper, we propose the design of an exoskeleton with support at the knee joint and lower torso for sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit (STS) posture transitions; devised for users with spinal cord injury and other complete lower-body impairments. The STS transitions assistance is achieved through a…
This study proposes a novel facial wearable robot for supporting eyelid movements. The robot is designed for people with facial paralysis, especially on one side of the face. People with facial paralysis are not able to blink, which leads to dry eyes and could cause permanent damage to the cornea. T…
There are a few types of step-climbing wheelchairs in the world, but most of them are large and heavy because they are power-assisted. Therefore, they require large space to maneuver, which is not always feasible with existing house architectures. This study proposes a novel step-climbing wheelchair…