This paper presents the design, kinematics, dynamics and control of a low-cost parallel rehabilitation robot developed at the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia. Several position and force controllers have been tested to ensure accurate tracking performances. An orthopedic boot, equipped with a force sensor, has been placed over the platform of the parallel robot to perform exercises for injured ankles. Passive, active-assistive and active-resistive exercises have been implemented to train dorsi/plantar flexion, inversion and eversion ankle movements. In order to implement the controllers, the component-based middleware Orocos has been used with the advantage over other solutions that the whole scheme control can be implemented modularly. These modules are independent and can be configured and reconfigured in both configuration and runtime. This means that no specific knowledge is needed by medical staff, for example, to carry out rehabilitation exercises using this low-cost parallel robot. The integration between Orocos and ROS, with a CAD model displaying the actual position of the rehabilitation robot in real time, makes it possible to develop a teleoperation application. In addition, a teleoperated rehabilitation exercise can be performed by a specialist using a Wiimote (or any other Bluetooth device).

It is a challenging task for a human operator to manipulate a robot from a remote distance, especially in an unknown environment. Excellent teleoperation provides the human operator with a sense of telepresence, mainly including real-world vision, haptic perception, etc. This paper presents a novel virtual environment building method using the red–green–blue (RGB) colour information, the surface normal feature-based 3D-point-cloud registration method and the weighted sliding-average least-square-method-based real-world dynamic modelling for teleoperation. The experiments prove the method to be an accurate and effective means of teleoperation.

Haptic devices have proven effective in stimulating proprioceptive sensing in post-stroke patients. In this work, pre-existing devices were used together in a remote environment for the teleassessment of impaired hands. A four-channel bilateral control system in the presence of large and variable time delay is proposed as a proof of concept. Time delay is managed with a novel communication disturbance observer (CDOB). The system also employed a scaling down compensation value (SDCV) for the CDOB. The proposed control system was tested successfully in bilateral haptic interaction, simulating a remote motor and functional evaluation of patients' hands, guaranteeing safe and stable interaction, even in the presence of large network delays.

Redundancy in motion, and synergy in neuromuscular coordination provides significant versatility to the human fingers while performing coordinated grasping and manipulation tasks in several ways. This paper explores how humans may resolve the redundancy in their thumb, index and middle fingers when these digits flex to cooperatively translate a small object toward the palm. It is observed that humans actively employ a secondary subtask of maximizing instantaneous manipulability that helps determine all intermediate finger configurations when performing the primary subtask of following a tip trajectory. This behavior is accurately captured by an inverse kinematic model based on a redundancy parameter. The joint angles get determined unambiguously though the redundancy parameter is shown to depend on the instantaneous finger configurations and also, to attain negative values. Further, this parameter is noted to vary significantly across subjects performing the same kinematic task. The findings, that are based on the experimental finger motion data garnered from 12 subjects, are reckoned to be of significant importance, especially in reference to the challenges in design and control of finger exoskeletons for cooperative manipulation.

The modules of parallel tool heads with 2R1T degrees of freedom (DOFs), i.e., two rotational DOFs and one translational DOF, have become so important in the field of machine tools that corresponding research studies have attracted extensive attention from both academia and industry. A 3-PUU (P represents a prismatic joint, U represents a universal joint) parallel mechanism with 2R1T DOFs is proposed in this paper, and a detailed discussion about its architecture, geometrical constraints, and mobility characteristics is presented. Furthermore, on the basis of its special geometrical constraint, we derive and explicitly express the parasitic motion of the 3-PUU mechanism. Then, the inverse kinematics problem, the Jacobian matrix calculation and the forward kinematics problem are also investigated. Finally, with a simplified dynamics model, the inverse dynamics analysis for the mechanism is carried out with the Principle of Virtual Work, and corresponding results are compared with that of the 3-PRS mechanism. The above analyses illustrate that the 3-PUU parallel mechanism has good dynamics features, which validates the feasibility of applying this mechanism as a tool head module.

In this paper, design, analysis and real-time trajectory tracking control of a 6-degree of freedom revolute spherical-spherical type parallel manipulator, actuated by six hybrid stepper motors, has been studied. Two different control approaches have been used to improve the trajectory tracking performance of the designed manipulator. The first approach considered a single input-single output (SISO) linear quadratic regulator (LQR) for trajectory tracking control of the manipulator. Another controller type based on a nonlinear sliding mode controller method has been utilized to take decoupled dynamic approximation model of the manipulator into account and to improve tracking performance of the manipulator. Real-time experimental results for the two different control techniques have been verified. Finally, according to the results, the nonlinear sliding mode controller method has improved the tracking performance of the designed manipulator.

Optimization is an important step in the design and development of a planar parallel manipulator. For optimization processes, workspace analysis is a crucial and preliminary objective. Generally, the workspace analysis for such manipulators is carried out using a non-dimensional approach. For planar parallel manipulators of two degrees of freedom (2-DOF), a non-dimensional workspace analysis is very advantageous. However, it becomes very difficult in the case of 3-DOF and higher DOF manipulators because of the complex shape of the workspace. In this study, the workspace shape is classified as a function of the geometric parameters, and the closed-form area expressions are derived for a constant orientation workspace of a three revolute–revolute–revolute (3-RRR) planar manipulator. The approach is also shown to be feasible for different orientations of a mobile platform. An optimization procedure for the design of planar 3-RRR manipulators is proposed for a prescribed workspace area. It is observed that the closed-form area expression for all the possible shapes of the workspace provides a larger solution space, which is further optimized considering singularity, mass of the manipulator, and a force transmission index.

For wheeled mobile robots moving in rough terrains or uncertain environments, driving failure will be encountered when trafficability failure occurs. Continuous mobility of mobile robots with special ability for overcoming driving failure on rough terrain has rarely been considered. This study was conducted using a four-wheel-steering and four-wheel-driving mobile robot equipped with a binocular visual system. First, quasi-static force analysis is carried out to understand the effects of different driving-failure modes on the mobile robot while moving on rough terrain. Secondly, to make the best of the rest of the driving force, robot configuration transformation is employed to select the optimal configuration that can overcome the driving failure. Thirdly, sliding mode control based on back-stepping is adopted to enable the robot achieve continuous trajectory tracking with visual feedback. Finally, the efficacy of the presented approach is verified by simulations and experiments.

The original version of this article listed the authors in the wrong order. The correct order is as follows:

He Xu, Yan Xu, Kaifeng Wang, X.Z. Gao, Khalil Alipour, Hongpeng Yu, Zhen Li, Ozoemena Anthony Ani.

The authors apologise for this error.