Patent Application
20240108530
The present invention relates to an exoskeleton for neuromotor rehabilitation of the upper limb.
The neuromotor rehabilitation of the upper limb, following a neurological event (stroke, brain traumas, spinal injuries) or neurodegenerative diseases (multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) has a fundamental role to allow the person to re-learn the main motor functionalities and regain autonomy in the activity of daily life.
In order to provide long, repeatable rehabilitation treatments that allow to quantify treatment performance, robot-assisted rehabilitation has been proposed for years as an instrument with great potential. Rehabilitation robots can follow two design approaches. On the one hand end-effector robots (e.g. MIT-Manus, Bi-Manu-Track) are characterized by a single point of contact with the person, usually the hand or the wrist, through which they guide, assist, disrupt, train the movement in the space or in the plane of the hand itself. These robots are simple from a mechanical point of view, have low safety requirements, but have the great disadvantage of not being able to control (or measure) the movement of the individual joints of the upper limb, making it impossible to recognize and treat any compensation strategies implemented by the patient to perform the movement. The second category of robots are the exoskeletons (e.g. Arm-In III, LIMPACT), which are characterized by an extensive man-robot interface and the ability to control joint movements of individual joints; the main disadvantage of this approach lies in the complex human-robot interaction, which involves high safety standards to prevent the robot from causing pain to the person or forcing a “non-physiological” movement.
The need to develop safe exoskeletons for the user has led to the development of intelligent software and hardware solutions: these solutions mean that the patient does not interface with the robot in a rigid (stiff) way but with a yielding (compliant) interface. The software solutions are mainly control algorithms that allow to simulate a particular dynamic behavior of the robot (e.g. in the impedance check we define a “mechanical impedance” reference function that describes the dynamic behavior of the actuator in the interaction with the patient). The performance of these algorithms depends strongly on the accuracy of the model used, and are based on the force and/or speed/position measurements on the robot. The hardware solutions concern the design of systems that integrate a mechanical “compliance” on the robot: these actuation systems create a mechanically intrinsically safe human-robot interface, even in the event of malfunctions in the control system. Among the hardware solutions, particular attention deserves the so-called series-elastic-actuators, in which a mechanical spring is inserted inside the actuator, in series between the “gear-train” and the load.
Furthermore, in order to develop a device that can become a commercial product, it is necessary to implement solutions that allow the robot to be adapted to different user sizes and different conditions of use (mounted in a rehabilitation gym, on a wheelchair, on a chair), to increase its versatility.
Several exoskeletons have been proposed in the literature for the mobilization of the upper limb, some of which have already become commercial devices and are constantly used in many rehabilitation centers.
However, one of the most felt shortcomings in the devices present in the prior art concerns the possibility of having machines usable both for the right and left limbs, depending on the need of the patient undergoing rehabilitation. Having a single machine that can be used in the right or left configuration has considerable economic implications, as it is more “palatable” from the commercial point of view. Obviously, the complexity of the design of such a system can be found in literature: there are very few examples of machines that include all the degrees of freedom of the shoulder (flexion-extension, abdo-adduction and, particularly, intra-extra rotation) and that at the same time they are “invertible”, for right or left use.
It is therefore a feature of the present invention to provide an exoskeleton for assistance of the movement of intra-extra rotation of a shoulder of a user which can be applied to the left or right limb depending on the motor condition of the patient under examination, without any mechanical components being moved, dismantled or screwed by the technical staff.
It is still a feature of the present invention to provide such an exoskeleton that allows adaptation to patients with different anthropometric measurements and motor skills.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide such an exoskeleton that allows correct alignment between the robotic and anatomical joints, allowing the patient to move without suffering parasitic forces which impede the movement.
These and other objects are achieved by an exoskeleton for assistance of the movement of intra-extra rotation of a shoulder of a user comprising a rotational joint of intra-extra rotation, said rotational joint comprising:
Substantially, when the conical wheel makes a rotation Θ, a rotation φ=k0 (where k is the transmission ratio between the conical wheel and each circular guide) is transmitted in a direction to the first circular guide and in the opposite direction to the other circular guide. This way, for each rotation Θ of the conical wheel, the two circular guides have a relative rotation of 2φ.
In particular, the first and the second circular guide comprise respective conical portions arranged to engage directly on the conical wheel for transferring the rotational motion. In this case there is a direct transmission of the motion. The transmission ratio k is given then by the ratio between the primitive radiuses.
Advantageously, the support element comprises at least three first rotating elements and three second rotating elements arranged to force, respectively, the first and the second circular guide to have as only degree of freedom a rotation about the respective rotation axes r and r′.
Advantageously, the exoskeleton comprises a rotational joint of flexion/extension having a rotation axis y arranged in the horizontal plane n, said rotational joint of flexion/extension arranged to assist a movement of flexion/extension of the shoulder of the user.
In particular, the exoskeleton also comprises a second rotational joint of flexion/extension having a rotation axis y′, said second rotational joint of flexion/extension arranged to assist a movement of flexion/extension of an elbow of the user.
In particular, the exoskeleton also comprises a rotational joint of abdo-adduction having a rotation axis x arranged in a horizontal plane n passing through an anatomical joint of a shoulder of a user, said rotational joint of abdo-adduction arranged to assist a movement of abdo-adduction of the shoulder of the user.
Advantageously, the exoskeleton also comprises a spacer joint arranged in the horizontal plane n and arranged to connect the rotational joint of abdo-adduction and the rotational joint of flexion/extension for adjusting the distance along a direction parallel to the rotation axis y and/or along a direction parallel to the rotation axis x.
In particular, the spacer joint comprises:
In particular, the rotational joint of intra-extra rotation is located between the rotational joint of flexion/extension and the second rotational joi′, of flexion/extension, said rotation axes r and r′ being orthogonal to rotation axes y and y′, said rotational joint of flexion/extension arranged, in response to a rotation Θ of the conical wheel, to provide a relative rotation of 2φ between the rotational joint of flexion/extension and the second rotational joint of flexion/extension about axes r and r′.
Advantageously between the rotational joint of intra-extra rotation and the second rotational joint of flexion/extension a third spacer joint is provided arranged to adjust the distance between the rotation axis y and the rotation axis y′. This way, it is possible to adjust the engagement point between the exoskeleton and the arm on the basis of the specific anthropometric measurements of the user and allow passive adaptation during the movement of the arm.
Advantageously, the rotational joint of abdo-adduction, the rotational joint of flexion/extension and the second rotational joint of flexion/extension can carry out rotations of 360° about the respective rotation axes x, y and y′, both clockwise and anti-clockwise. This way, the exoskeleton is completely symmetrical, and it can be fixed both to the right and left upper limb.
In particular, the rotational joint of intra-extra rotation can carry out a relative rotation of 2φ both clockwise and anti-clockwise.
According to another aspect of the invention, an exoskeletal system is claimed for assistance of the movement of intra-extra rotation of a shoulder of a user comprising an exoskeleton according to claim 1 and a support frame connected to the exoskeleton, whose characteristic is that the support frame comprises:
said at least one counterweight having mass equal to the sum of the masses of the kinematical chain and of the exoskeleton, in such a way that the slide maintains its own equilibrium position along the rotation axis z. Advantageously, the support frame also comprises an engagement system arranged to engage with the support frame to an outer support.
In particular, the outer support can be a wheelchair for the transport of disabled people.
Alternatively, the outer support can be a support that allows the user to stand up.
Alternatively, there is not an outer support and the engagement system allows the support frame to be tied directly to a user's body.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a support frame is claimed arranged to place an exoskeleton of upper limb in a plurality of relative spatial position with respect to an outer support, whose characteristic is that it comprises:
In particular, the slide is connected to at least one counterweight by a pulley, said at least one counterweight having mass such that the slide maintains its own equilibrium position along the rotation axis z.
Further characteristic and/or advantages of the present invention are more bright with the following description of an exemplary embodiment thereof, exemplifying but not limitative, with reference to the attached drawings in which:
With reference to
Furthermore, the two circular guides 110,120 are pivotally connected by a conical wheel 140 having a rotation axis s perpendicular to rotation axes r and r′, said conical wheel 140 being pivotally constrained to the support element 130.
The rotational joint 100 is configured in such a way that, when the conical wheel 140 makes a rotation Θ about its rotation axis s, the first circular guide 110 makes a rotation φ about its rotation axis r and, at the same time, the second circular guide 120 makes a rotation q′=−αφ about its rotation axis r′.
Substantially, when the conical wheel 140 makes a rotation Θ it is transmitted a rotation φ=k0, where k is the transmission ratio between the conical wheel 140 and each circular guide 110,120. Such rotation φ=k0 is transmitted in a direction to the first circular guide 110 and in the opposite direction at the other circular guide 120. This way, for each rotation Θ of the conical wheel 140, the two circular guide 110,120 have a relative rotation of 2P.
In particular, in an exemplary embodiment of
In
With reference to
In particular, the exoskeleton 200 comprises a rotational joint of abdo-adduction 210 having a rotation axis x arranged in a horizontal plane n passing through an anatomical joint of a shoulder of a user, said rotational joint of abdo-adduction 210 arranged to assist a movement of abdo-adduction of the shoulder of the user.
It is then provided a rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 having rotation axis y arranged in the horizontal plane a, said rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 arranged to assist a movement of flexion/extension of the shoulder of the user.
The rotational joint of abdo-adduction 210 and a rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 are connected by a spacer joint 230 arranged in the horizontal plane n. In particular, the spacer joint 230 comprises two translational joints 231,231 similar to a car jack. The first translational joint 231 is arranged to adjust the distance between the rotational joint of abdo-adduction 210 and the rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 along a direction parallel to the rotation axis y, whereas the second translational joint 232 is arranged to adjust the distance between the rotational joint of abdo-adduction 210 and the rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 along a direction parallel to the rotation axis x.
Downstream of the rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 a second rotational joint of flexion/extension 240 is then provided having a rotation axis y′ parallel to said rotation axis y, said second rotational joint of flexion/extension 240 arranged to assist a movement of flexion/extension of the elbow of the user.
Between the rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 and the second rotational joint of flexion/extension 240 is placed the rotational joint of intra-extra rotation 100 so that the rotation axis s of the conical wheel 140 is parallel to the rotation axis y and to the rotation axis y′.
This way, the rotational joint of intra-extra rotation 100 allows a relative rotation of 2φ between the rotational joint of flexion/extension 220 and the second rotational joint of flexion/extension 240 about axes r and r′, thus allowing to assist the movement of intra-extra rotation of a user's shoulder.
Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment of
In this exemplary embodiment two slides 260 are also provided arranged to be constrained to user's forearm, allowing an adjustment of the point of engagement between exoskeleton and limb on the basis of the particular anthropometric measurements of the user itself and allowing a passive adaptation during the movement of the limb.
With reference to
In particular the support frame 310 comprises:
This way, the rotational joint of abdo-adduction 210 of the exoskeleton 200 is disposable in a plurality of relative spatial positions with respect to the containment shell 311.
In particular, with reference even at
Alternatively, with reference to
Furthermore, the exoskeletal system 300 is completely symmetrical and adaptable to assistance of the movement both of the left and right upper limb. In fact the rotational joints 210, 220 and 240 can carry out rotations of 360° about the respective rotation axes x, y and y′, both clockwise and anti-clockwise, whereas the rotational joint of intra-extra rotation 100 can carry out a relative rotation of 2φ both clockwise and anti-clockwise. Furthermore, the rotational joint 321′ can carry out a rotation of 1800 about its axis z, allowing to arrange the exoskeleton 200 near both the upper limbs of the user.
The foregoing description some exemplary specific embodiments will so fully reveal the invention according to the conceptual point of view, so that others, by applying current knowledge, will be able to modify and/or adapt in various applications the specific exemplary embodiments without further research and without parting from the invention, and, accordingly, it is meant that such adaptations and modifications will have to be considered as equivalent to the specific embodiments. The means and the materials to realize the different functions described herein could have a different nature without, for this reason, departing from the field of the invention, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology that is employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102017000049732 | May 2017 | IT | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16611255 | Nov 2019 | US |
| Child | 18529711 | US |
