Page 299 - Handbook of Biomechatronics

Upper and Lower Extremity Exoskeletons 291

robotic teleoperation with force feedback. Later, exoskeleton applications
were considered for the rehabilitation and assistance of disabled or elderly
people, for example, upper- and lower-limb orthoses. Assist of upper-limb
motion is important in daily activities, and several kinds of upper-limb exo-
skeletons have been proposed (Maciejasz et al., 2014) in order to improve
the quality of life of physically weak persons. Usually, the movable range
of human shoulder is 180degrees in flexion, 60degrees in extension,
180degrees in abduction, 75degrees in adduction, 100–110degrees in inter-
nal rotation, and 80–90degrees in external rotation. The limitation of the
movable range of forearm pronation-supination motion is 50–80degrees
in pronation and 80–90degrees in supination, and the elbow flexion-
extension motion is 145degrees in flexion and 5degrees in extension,
see Fig. 3. Those exoskeletons are controlled to assist the upper-limb motion

Fig. 3 Upper-limb motions: (A) shoulder flexion/extension, (B) shoulder abduction/
adduction, (C) shoulder internal/external rotation, (D) elbow flexion/extension,
(E) forearm supination/pronation, (F) wrist flexion/extension, and (G) wrist ulnar/radial
deviation. (From Gopura, R.A.R.C., Bandara, D.S.V., Kiguchi, K., Mann, G.K.I., 2016. Develop-
ments in hardware systems of active upper-limb exoskeleton robots: a review. Robot. Auton.
Syst. 75, 203–220, with permission from Elsevier.)