title: Analysis of elbow-joints misalignment in upper-limb exoskeleton.
abstract: This paper presents advantages of introducing elbow-joints misalignments in an exoskeleton for upper limb rehabilitation. Typical exoskeletons are characterized by axes of the device as much as possible aligned to the rotational axes of human articulations. This approach leads to advantages in terms of movements and torques decoupling, but can lead to limitations nearby the elbow singular configuration. A proper elbow axes misalignment between the exoskeleton and the human can improve the quality of collaborative rehabilitation therapies, in which a correct torque transmission from human articulations to mechanical joints of the device is required to react to torques generated by the patient.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, Italian National Council of Research via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy. matteo.malosio@itia.cnr.it
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malosio
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pedrocchi
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vicentini
authors.forename: Lorenzo Molinari
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Tosatti
mesh_terms: D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004551:Elbow Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D012782:Shoulder / Q000502:physiology