Control Aspects of Prosthetics and Orthotics covers the proceedings of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Symposium that tackles issues relating to the control systems of prosthetics and orthotics device. The book organizes topics according to the sessions of the symposium. Session 1 deals with the functional muscle and nerve simulation, while Session 2 discusses the man-machine mechanical and information interface. The third session covers sensory replacement and artificial organs, while the fourth session tackles instrumentation, medical devices, and clinical procedures. The last session discusses robotics and mechanics. The text will be of great interest to physicians, physical therapists, orthotists, and prosthetists, whose line of work involves prosthetics and orthotics systems.

Wearable Robotics: Systems and Applications provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field of wearable robotics, including active orthotics (exoskeleton) and active prosthetics for the upper and lower limb and full body. In its two major sections, wearable robotics systems are described from both engineering perspectives and their application in medicine and industry. Systems and applications at various levels of the development cycle are presented, including those that are still under active research and development, systems that are under preliminary or full clinical trials, and those in commercialized products. This book is a great resource for anyone working in this field, including researchers, industry professionals and those who want to use it as a teaching mechanism. Provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field, with both engineering and medical perspectives Helps readers quickly and efficiently design and develop wearable robotics for healthcare applications

Neuro-robotics is one of the most multidisciplinary fields of the last decades, fusing information and knowledge from neuroscience, engineering and computer science. This book focuses on the results from the strategic alliance between Neuroscience and Robotics that help the scientific community to better understand the brain as well as design robotic devices and algorithms for interfacing humans and robots. The first part of the book introduces the idea of neuro-robotics, by presenting state-of-the-art bio-inspired devices. The second part of the book focuses on human-machine interfaces for performance augmentation, which can seen as augmentation of abilities of healthy subjects or assistance in case of the mobility impaired. The third part of the book focuses on the inverse problem, i.e. how we can use robotic devices that physically interact with the human body, in order (a) to understand human motor control and (b) to provide therapy to neurologically impaired people or people with disabilities.

This book describes non-conventional methods of control of human extremities, emphasizing the fact that conventional approaches used in robotics are limited when used in humans for restoration of reaching and grasping (goal-oriented movements), and standing and locomotion (cyclic movements). The use of artificial neural networks, inductive learning, skill-based expert systems and finite-state representation of movements is the base of this non-conventional control theory. A specific number of realized applications are included in the book to illustrate how these computer techniques can improve the function of assistive systems in physically challenged humans. The theory presented is applicable to the control of robots and industrial manipulators.

This is the fifth publication under the IIIT-A Series on e-Governance. It is a collection of 20 articles based on the presentations made in the Seminars. This book will of interest to all stakeholders in the disability rehabilitation management as the population of people with disabilities in growing.