Lower-Limb Movement Assistance through Wearable Robots: State of the Art and Challenges

Recent technological advances made necessary the use of robots in various types of applications. Unlike traditional robot-like scenarios dedicated to industrial applications with repetitive tasks, the current focus of attention is on applications that require close human interactions. One of the main fields of such applications concerns assisting and rehabilitating of dependent/elderly persons. In this study, the state-of-the-art of the main research advances in lower-limbs human assistance is presented. This includes a review on research covering mainly lower-limb actuated exoskeletons. Some case studies related to full-limb exoskeletons are presented as well. Lower-limb movement restoration using functional electrical stimulation and treadmill-based rehabilitation devices is also investigated. In addition, the seamless integration of wearable robots in ambient intelligence spaces appears as one of the major challenges for ubiquitous environments and ambient assisted living. Some open issues related to this integration are discussed in this paper. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden and The Robotics Society of Japan, 2012