The biomechanical evaluation of metacarpal fractures fixation methods during finger movements: a finite element study.

Objective: This study used finite element analysis to simulate four commonly used fixation methods for metacarpal shaft oblique fractures during finger motion and evaluate their biomechanical performance. The aim was to provide evidence for clinically selecting the optimal fixation method, guiding early rehabilitation treatment, and reducing the risk of complications.

Methods: Finite element analysis simulated dynamic proximal phalanx motion (60° flexion, 20° extension, 20° adduction, and 20° abduction).

Adaptive Gravity Compensation Framework Based on Human Upper Limb Model for Assistive Robotic Arm Extender.

The Assistive Robotic Arm Extender (ARAE) is an upper limb assistive and rehabilitation robot that belongs to the end-effector type, enabling it to assist patients with upper limb movement disorders in three-dimensional space. However, the problem of gravity compensation for the human upper limb with this type of robot is crucial, which directly affects the deployment of the robot in the assistive or rehabilitation field. This paper presents an adaptive gravity compensation framework that calculates the compensated force based on the estimated human posture in 3D space.

Plasma Polishing as a New Polishing Option to Reduce the Surface Roughness of Porous Titanium Alloy for 3D Printing.

Porous titanium alloy implants with simulated trabecular bone fabricated by 3D printing technology have broad prospects. However, due to the fact that some powder adheres to the surface of the workpiece during the manufacturing process, the surface roughness in direct printing pieces is relatively high. At the same time, since the internal pores of the porous structure cannot be polished by conventional mechanical polishing, an alternative method needs to be found.

Injectable composite hydrogels encapsulating gelatin methacryloyl/chitosan microspheres as ARPE-19 cell transplantation carriers.

Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell transplantation is being explored as a feasible approach for treating age-related macular degeneration. The low aggregation ability of RPE cell suspensions or microtissues after transplantation has limited cell utilisation. Therefore, alternative transplantation strategies should be explored to induce cell aggregation and maintain cell viability.

Kinematic Redundancy Analysis during Goal-Directed Motion for Trajectory Planning of an Upper-Limb Exoskeleton Robot.

The kinematic redundancy of human arm imposes challenges on joint space trajectory planning for upper-limb rehabilitation robot. This paper aims to investigate normal motion patterns in reaching and reach-to-grasp movements, and obtain the unique solution in joint space for a five-DOF exoskeleton. Firstly, a six-camera optical motion tracking system was used to capture participants' arm motion during goal-directed reaching or reach-to-grasp movements.

A Greedy Assist-as-Needed Controller for Upper Limb Rehabilitation.

Previous studies on robotic rehabilitation have shown that subjects' active participation and effort involved in rehabilitation training can promote the performance of therapies. In order to improve the voluntary effort of participants during the rehabilitation training, assist-as-needed (AAN) control strategies regulating the robotic assistance according to subjects' performance and conditions have been developed. Unfortunately, the heterogeneity of patients' motor function capability in task space is not taken into account during the implementation of these controllers.

Design and control of a 3-DOF rehabilitation robot for forearm and wrist.

This paper presents a 3-DOF compact rehabilitation robot, involving mechanical structure design, control system design and gravity compensation analysis. The robot can simultaneously provide assistance for pronation/supination(P/S), flexion/extension(F/E) and adduction/abduction(A/A) joints rehabilitation training. The P/S and F/E joints are designed to be driven by cable transmission to gain a high backdrivability, and an adjustment plate is adopted to decrease the distance between the rotation axis of F/E joint of the human wrist and the robot.