Comfort of two shoulder actuation mechanisms for arm therapy exoskeletons: a comparative study in healthy subjects

Nef, Tobias; Riener, Robert; Müri, René; Mosimann, Urs P. (2013). Comfort of two shoulder actuation mechanisms for arm therapy exoskeletons: a comparative study in healthy subjects. Medical & biological engineering & computing, 51(7), pp. 781-789. Springer-Verlag 10.1007/s11517-013-1047-4

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Robotic exoskeletons can be used to study and treat patients with neurological impairments. They can guide and support the human limb over a large range of motion, which requires that the movement trajectory of the exoskeleton coincide with the one of the human arm. This is straightforward to achieve for rather simple joints like the elbow, but very challenging for complex joints like the human shoulder, which is comprised by several bones and can exhibit a movement with multiple rotational and translational degrees of freedom. Thus, several research groups have developed different shoulder actuation mechanism. However, there are no experimental studies that directly compare the comfort of two different shoulder actuation mechanisms. In this study, the comfort and the naturalness of the new shoulder actuation mechanism of the ARMin III exoskeleton are compared to a ball-and-socket-type shoulder actuation. The study was conducted in 20 healthy subjects using questionnaires and 3D-motion records to assess comfort and naturalness. The results indicate that the new shoulder actuation is slightly better than a ball-and-socket-type actuation. However, the differences are small, and under the tested conditions, the comfort and the naturalness of the two tested shoulder actuations do not differ a lot.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research > ARTORG Center - Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > Forschungsbereich Pavillon 52 > Forschungsgruppe Perzeption und Okulomotorik
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology

UniBE Contributor:

Nef, Tobias, Müri, René Martin, Mosimann, Urs Peter

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0140-0118

Publisher:

Springer-Verlag

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pascal Wurtz

Date Deposited:

25 Mar 2014 14:53

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:29

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s11517-013-1047-4

PubMed ID:

23440454

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.43024

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/43024

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