Submission date: 31 December 2023

Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices

Scope of special issue:

Robotic assistance in the rehabilitation and assistance field has gained much attention recently and has focused largely on solutions for activities of daily living associated to medical sector. Reported works are motivated by the notion that manual treatments are monotonous and time-consuming for a physiotherapist or for a helper - due to the repetition of exercises. An automated rehabilitation/assistive device provides independence to a patient, and that is worth paying attention.

Based upon the reported works, major challenges are normally related to high power-to-weight ratio, human integration of the devices, kinematic compatibility, modelling and control of large number of degrees-of-freedom (dof) and biocompatible components. Advancements are worked upon in each direction, and recent studies need to be compiled and reported on regular basis. One of the other important issue is that a rehabilitation strategy necessary requires co-adapting of interaction techniques with behaviour prediction skills via data-driven models, which is necessary for the speedy and full restoration of lost functionalities.

The current proposal of a special issue in ‘Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices’ s’ will be focusing at all the advancements in several aspects associated to the field, may it be modelling, control, system integration, manufacturing, biomechanical systems, sensors and actuators etc. The issue will provide a focused platform to the potential authors, which will be very helpful in compiling several important aspects associated to the design, control, modelling etc.

 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Modelling strategies of wearable devices

2. System design, data analysis and interpretation

3. Design and control challenges in human-robot integration

4. Sensors and actuators for wearable technologies

5. Soft Exoskeletons and Exo-suits

6. Wearable devices for defense, medical and industrial applications

7. Coupled analysis strategies for human-exoskeleton systems.

8. Wearable assistance for upper- and lower-limb rehabilitation.

Guest Editors:

1. Dr Fengfeng (Jeff) Xi, Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson University)

email: fengxi@torontomu.ca, fengxi@ryerson.ca

Research Interests: Robotics, Mechanisms, Computational mechanics

2. Name: Dr Ashish Singla  Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala

Google scholar:

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=BMl6HaUAAAAJ&hl=en