Developments and clinical evaluations of robotic exoskeleton technology for human upper-limb rehabilitation

Abstract

The development of upper limb and lower extremity robotic exoskeletons has emerged as a way to improve the quality of life as well as act as a primary rehabilitation device for individuals suffering from stroke or spinal cord injury. This paper contains extractions from the database of robotic exoskeleton for human upper limb rehabilitation and prime factors behind the burden of stroke. Various studies on stroke-induced deficiency from different countries were included in the review. The data were extracted from both clinical tests and surveys. Though there have been splendid advancements in this field, they still present enormous challenges. This paper provides the current developments, progress and research challenges in exoskeleton technology along with future research directions associated with the field of exoskeletons and orthosis. Robot-assisted training (RT) was found to be more effective than conventional training (CT) sessions. The present research articles in this field have many weaknesses as they do not cover the systematic review including the clinical studies and various surveys that lay a foundation for the requirement of robotic assistive devices. This review paper also discusses various exoskeleton devices that have been clinically evaluated.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Upper-limb exoskeleton
• disability
• stroke rehabilitation
• assistive robotics
• orthosis

Acknowledgment

This research is supported by the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Research and Development under SEED grant UPES/R&D/07022019/11.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Akash Gupta http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9557-8726

Anshuman Singh http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0573-4903

Varnita Verma http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8730-045X

Amit Kumar Mondal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8157-4828

Mukul Kumar Gupta http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8440-9599

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Research and Development under SEED grant UPES/R&D/07022019/11.

Notes on contributors

Akash Gupta

Akash Gupta is working as a doctoral research fellow at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India. He graduated as Mechanical Engineer from VTU, Belgaum, India in 2014 and received postgraduate degree in Robotics Engineering from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India in 2016. He is currently working on a low cost upper-limb active exoskeleton device and has published a few research articles, book chapters and filed a patent recently. He also received acceptance of a research proposal from the University of Alberta, Canada under the SERB OVDF scheme in the year 2018. His active research interests include rehabilitation and assistive robotics.

Anshuman Singh

Anshuman Singh earned his B.Tech Mechatronics degree from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in 2019. Singh is currently pursuing his M.S.in Systems Engineering degree with a focus on Robotics at the University of Maryland, College Park under the guidance of Prof. Dr. John McCarthy. Before joining the University of Maryland, in 2018, Singh interned at Ecole Nationale Superieure De Mecanique Et Des Microtechniques, France under the guidance of Dr. Joel Imbaud where he worked on the implementation of Software Defined Radios on a Red Pitaya Board. In the same year, Singh and his team won the state-level award for DRDO Robotics and Unmanned Systems Exposition (DRUSE) for Autonomous Landmine Detection and Clearance System. Singh also has a book chapter publication titled Computer Vision for Human-Machine Interaction using hand gesture recognition in the book titled Intelligent Decision Support Systems: Applications in Signal Processing.

Varnita Verma

Varnita Verma received her B.Tech degree in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering from Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow, India in 2013, and M.Tech degree in Robotics Engineering from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India in 2016. Currently, she is a Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India. Her research interests include the area of robotics, intelligent control systems, human-robot interaction, machine vision, and its applications.

Amit Kumar Mondal

Dr. Amit Kumar Mondal is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai, UAE. His areas of research interest are Mobile Robotics, Autonomous System, and Industrial Automation. Published more than 40 papers in national and international journals and conferences. He has filed 3 patents and completed 3 externally funded projects from SERB, IUSSTF.

Mukul Kumar Gupta

Mukul Kumar Gupta received his master's degree in Control Systems from VJTI Mumbai and Ph.D. (Nonlinear dynamics and control) from the University of petroleum and energy studies Dehradun (India). His active research areas include robotics and control, soft computing, control of the multi-agent system. He has guided more than 16 postgraduate students in the field of robotics. He has published more than 45 research articles in various journals and conference proceedings. He also filed one Indian patent and two book chapters. He also received a young faculty award (Engineering) in the area of Nonlinear Dynamics and control.