Wearable Elbow Exoskeleton Actuated with Shape Memory Alloy

This paper presents a wearable rehabilitation exoskeleton for the elbow joint with two degrees of freedom (DOF), flexion-extension and pronationsupination, actuated with Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) based actuators. Due to the actuation system, the proposed exoskeleton presents a light weight, low noise, and is designed in a simple structure. The number of actuators and the preliminary designed was calculated based on a biomechanical simulation with a specific category of patients.