Daniele Cafolla

Swansea University | SWAN · Department of Computer Science

The system presented in this paper allows rehabilitation and/or physical-motor exercise sessions, usually carried out at the healthcare facility, directly at the home of each patient. The proposed system combines the convenience of performing sessions remotely with a quantitative biomechanical analysis, operated by a system that is guided and suppo...

This paper proposes a new upper-limb exoskeleton to reduce worker physical strain. The proposed design is based on a novel PRRRP (P-Prismatic; R-Revolute) kinematic chain with 5 passive Degrees of Freedom (DoF). Utilizing a magnetic spring, the proposed mechanism includes a specially designed locking mechanism that maintains any desired task postur...

To address most of the cable-driven robot challenges, this work aims to create a fully modular, portable, customizable, adaptable, collaborative, and reconfigurable cable-driven robot. An actuation unit composed of a reconfigurable SP (Spherical-Parallel) serial architecture that manipulates a cable is the core of the proposed design. The proposed...

This work outlines the design and testing of an astronaut robot TORVEASTRO. This paper presents the results of designing and testing the TORVEASTRO astronaut robot. In this demonstration, the prototype is held up by ropes and chains, so it does not contact any surface. Two sequences are programmed for the demonstration. In the first, the three limb...

This paper presents the aspects to be taken into account when analyzing the risk of injury to the neck of vehicle occupants as a consequence of an impact. To carry out the analysis, a low-cost driver monitoring system is designed and prototyped, consisting of wearable head, neck and torso units in which acceleration sensors are installed. Two dista...

Improvement of the conditions of bedridden patients is analyzed in terms of the effects of prolonged time or bed rest in order to define a design solution for a bed that can improve comfort and avoid worsening. The structure and functionality of a robotized bed solution is presented with characteristics which can be useful for bedridden patients an...

For on-orbit servicing (OOS) tasks including as docking, berthing, refuelling, repairing, upgrading, transporting, rescuing, and orbital trash removal, space robots is considered as one of the most promising options. In the previous two decades, numerous enabling techniques and technological demonstration missions have been created and executed. Se...

This paper presents a cable-driven mechanism that is designed with the aim of performing as a revolution joint. The proposed solution is analysed to characterize its operation referring to problems and requirements for its implementation in robot structures. The mechanical design is verified through a dynamic simulation.KeywordsMechanism designRobo...

The monitoring of the human torso is presented using a system that is designed with a portable and easily wearable structure with inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors suitable for acquiring movement in terms of angular configuration and acceleration. The design of the experimental device is reported with monitoring procedures for easy acquisitio...

Space robots are one of the most promising solutions for on-orbit servicing (OOS) duties like docking, berthing, refueling, repairing , upgrading, transporting, rescuing, and orbital trash disposal. Numerous enabling techniques and technological demonstration missions have been developed and completed over the past two decades. There have been seve...

Longtime bedridden patients may have serious problems from the immobilization and a reposition of their body can be often request at least to mitigate effects in pulmonary complications and pressure ulcers. This paper approaches the problem on how to give basic movements to those patients to help in those situations by permitting body repositioning...

Resumen Este artículo presenta los problemas y necesidades que puede enfrentar un robot astronauta de servicio cuando se utiliza en una estación espacial. Los requisitos tienen en cuenta los límites de lanzamiento y operación en el espacio, así como todos sus problemas. Se ha construido un prototipo TORVEASTRO V2 de un brazo antropomórfico con cabl...

The gait cycle of humans may be influenced by a range of variables, including neurological, orthopedic, and pathological conditions. Thus, gait analysis has a broad variety of applications, including the diagnosis of neurological disorders, the study of disease development, the assessment of the efficacy of a treatment, postural correction, and the...

Teleoperation is becoming increasingly popular in a variety of applications. The core to a successful teleoperation system is the so-called Human Robot Interaction (HRI) design, which aids in the human operator’s situational awareness. Normally, the control operator’s command actions match directly to movement of the controlled vehicle. As a result...

The purpose of this paper is to bring up the problems and requirements that an astronaut service robot presents when it is to be used in a space station, considering the launch and the operation in space with all its inconveniences. As a preliminary development, a functional prototype has been built reproducing an arm with joints that simulate the...

Positron Emission Tomography is a non-disruptive and high-sensitive digital imaging technique which allows to measure in-vivo and non invasively the changes of metabolic and transport mechanisms in plants. When it comes to the early assessment of stress-induced alterations of plant functions, plant PET has the potential of a major breakthrough. The...

The operation safety of rehabilitation devices must be addressed early in the development process and before being tested on people. In this paper, the operation safety of a 2-DoF (degrees of freedom) planar mechanism for arm rehabilitation is addressed. Then, the safety and efficiency of the device operation is assessed through the Transmission In...

The increasing use of robots in the industry, the growing energy prices, and higher environmental awareness have driven research to find new solutions for reducing energy consumption. In additional, in most robotic tasks, energy is used to overcome the forces of gravity, but in a few industrial applications, the force of gravity is used as a source...

This paper proposes a methodology for user-tailored orthosis design for 3D printing that aims to give a non-expert, user-oriented tool that easily generates a customized orthosis. Additionally, this work aims to verify the biocompatibility of the PLACTIVE TM (PLACTIVE AN1TM, nano-additive concentration 1%, Copper 3D, Santiago, Chile) filament after...

This paper presents a novel concept for a cable-driven device for upper-limb exercising. The proposed device is based on a specific innovative architecture, which is driven by cables . Additionally, magnets are considered as a technical solution for partially compensating gravity and reducing energy consumption. The paper content includes a detaile...

This paper introduces a novel kinematic model for a tendon-driven compliant torso mechanism for humanoid robots, which describes the complex behaviour of a system characterised by the interaction of a complex compliant element with rigid bodies and actuation tendons. Inspired by a human spine, the proposed mechanism is based on a flexible backbone...

This paper introduces an innovative robotic foot design inspired by the functionality and the anatomy of the human foot. Most humanoid robots are characterized by flat, rigid feet with limited mobility, which cannot emulate the physical behavior of the foot–ground interaction. The proposed foot mechanism consists of three main bodies, to represent...

Out of all the changes to our daily life brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most significant ones has been the limited access to health services that we used to take for granted. Thus, in order to prevent temporary injuries from having lingering or permanent effects, the need for home rehabilitation device is urgent. For this reason, this...

An implantable device such as a stent is discussed in this article. The device has a tubular structure with a longitudinal cavity that extends from the first to the second end, with two or more ultrasonic transductors positioned properly, so that an ultrasonic signal is produced and received which spreads through a transducer in the cross cavity of...

Even though scientific studies of smart stents are extensive, current smart stents focus on pressure sensors. This paper presents a novel implantable biocompatible smart stent for monitoring eventual restenosis. The device is comprised of a metal mesh structure, a biocompatible and adaptable envelope, and pair-operated ultrasonic sensors for resten...

Activity in Cultural Heritage frames aims to have a good monitoring of unknown cultural heritage also in an inaccessible site decreasing the cost of interventions. There are several robotics systems available both as rovers and drones. They are suited for inspection tasks in risky environments or for surveillance purposes provided of several sensor...

The efficacy of Lokomat on motor recovery in stroke patients is well known. However, few studies have examined Lokomat tools to assess stiffness, joint torque and range of motion (ROM) during the subacute phase of stroke. The purpose of this retrospective observational study is to assess the changes of joint torque, ROM and stiffness that were esti...

Please, find full paper in: https://doi.org/10.36909/jer.v8i3.6523

Studies have demonstrated the validity of Kinect-based systems to measure spatiotemporal parameters of gait. However, few studies have addressed test-retest, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability for spatiotemporal gait parameters. This study aims to assess test-retest, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of SANE (eaSy gAit aNalysis system) a...

The contribution briefly illustrates the HeritageBot project, currently in the prototype phase, which concerns the construction of a drone structure with robotic legs. The system is equipped with high dexterity locomotion mobility and the possibility of small flights. Its platform, structured in modular mode, allows to host various sensors, both co...

This paper presents a novel exoskeleton mechanism for finger motion assistance. The exoskeleton is designed as a serial 2-degrees-of-freedom wearable mechanism that is able to guide human finger motion. The design process starts by analyzing the motion of healthy human fingers by video motion tracking. The experimental data are used to obtain the k...

Locomotion over different terrain types, whether flat or uneven, is very important for a wide range of service operations in robotics. Potential applications range from surveillance, rescue, or hospital assistance. Wheeled-legged hexapod robots have been designed to solve these locomotion tasks. Given the wide range of feasible operations, one of t...

Patients with neurological or orthopedic lesions require assistance during therapies with repetitive movements. NURSE (cassiNo-qUeretaro uppeR-limb aSsistive dEvice) is an arm movement aid device for both right- and left-upper limb. The device has a big workspace to conduct physical therapy or training on individuals including kids and elderly indi...

Hybrid legged-wheeled robots are gaining interest in various service applications, like surveillance or inspection in hospitals. The autonomy of these robots is not only related to their power consumption, it mostly refers to their capability to safely move in complex partially structured environments. This paper proposes to investigate the combina...

Several robotic rehabilitation systems have already been developed for the hand requiring the biological joints to be aligned with those of the exoskeleton making the standardization of this devices for different anthropomorphic sizes almost impossible. This problem together with the usage of rigid components can affect the natural movement of the...

3D tracking of mechanisms in a non-structured environment is a very challenging task. It is important for the development of robotic applications, since key points can be tracked and used to control or to validate the system. In this paper, a 3D object-tracking method is presented. The proposed method allows to track a marker or a specific point al...

In the last years the autonomy in service robots became an important feature to develop different kinds of indoor and outdoor service tasks, like sur-veillance or inspection in hospitals. This autonomy is not only related to power consumption, it is also related with the capability to avoid obstacles without crashing. The aim of this paper is to pr...

In this paper, a novel cable-driven parallel robot, CUBE, is introduced for the assistance of patients in rehabilitation exercising of both upper and lower limbs. The system is characterized by a lightweight structure that is easy to set-up and operate, for both clinical and home usage for both pre-determined and customized exercises, with control...

A novel robotic leg mechanism based on a parallel architecture is described in this paper. A walking operation of the mechanism is defined and characterized as function of its main design parameters through a numerical simulation. The same operation is then performed by a prototype of the proposed design that has been manufactured through 3D printi...

This paper presents a cable-driven assisting device, which has been designed and built at LARM in Cassino. Experimental tests are presented as the basis for design improvements aiming to achieve a portable user-oriented solution of the cable-driven assisting device for applications in human upper limb exercising and rehabilitation. Experimental tes...

In this paper, a novel exoskeleton for finger rehabilitation is presented. The exoskeleton is designed as a serial, 2-degrees-of-freedom wearable mechanism that is able to follow human finger motion. Motion tracking is used to characterize the movement of the human finger. Thereby the design requirements are outlined. The mechanism is synthesized,...

This paper presents a design of an adaptive gear variator together with lab experiences for its operation characterization. The proposed design is based on a solution with a differential planetary gear system in which the second degree of freedom is activated when the input torque exceeds the possibility for the first degree of freedom. Both kinema...

This paper presents the mechanical design of LARMbot 2, a low-cost, user-oriented humanoid robot. The design of humanoid robots has been one of the main challenges of robotics in the last fifty years, and the most successful solutions are all based on serial architectures, since the focus on humanoids is usually on control and Artificial Intelligen...

In this paper a redesign solution for CaPaMan structure is presented to build a scaled low-cost prototype with market components and 3D printed parts. A CAD design is worked out to define 3D printing manufacturing for link parts and to adjust the mechanical design and its assembly after performance evaluation ensuring characteristic features of CaP...

This paper describes an example of internship experience at LARM, Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics, at University of Cassino and South Latium. In particular, the main focus of this paper is the learning process as basis of a proper internship. Namely, a specific experiential learning approach is proposed as referring to a low-cost servo moto...

Movement performance in patients with neurological or orthopaedic traumas can be improved with Task-oriented repetitive movement. The application of robotics can assist, enhance, evaluate, and document neurological and orthopaedic rehabilitation of movements. A key point is the mechanical interface between the device and the user, it has to be adap...

This paper introduces CUBE, a cable-driven parallel robot for the assistance of patients in rehabilitation exercising for both upper and lower limb. The system is characterized by a lightweight foldable structure that is easy to set-up in different configurations. It can adapt to different exercises and to the available environment. Its cable-drive...

Rehabilitation devices are designed applying techniques that can determine the adaptability level of the patient using different type of exercises. It is important for the rehabilitation therapy applications to reproduce the exercise made by the therapist for a good recovery of the patient’s motor functions. Thus, it is essential to track and use t...

This paper proposes a design concept for a novel robotic hand with a metamorphic palm mechanism. A design inspiration is elaborated from laboratory experiences on human grasping. The proposed design is presented with concepts and kinematic design that is based on linkages. A design model has been implemented in SolidWorks environment for a performa...

This paper describes a hybrid omniwheeled-legged hexapod robot, named as Cassino Hexapod III, which has been designed and built at LARM in Cassino. Direct and inverse kinematics are outlined and implemented in a proper Arduino code for achieving a user interface with an Android application, which can manage robot operation in a simple user-friendly...

In this paper, a novel exoskeleton linkage is proposed for finger motion assistance in rehabilitation therapies because of reproducing finger motions. The exoskeleton linkage is composed of two chains in series giving a 2-degree-of-freedom full mechanism that is easily wearable. Design requirements are discussed to formulate a synthesis procedure w...

In this paper, the mechanical design of the LARMbot 2, a low-cost user-oriented humanoid robot was presented. LARMbot 2 is characterized by parallel architectures for both the torso and legs. The proposed design was presented with the kinematics of its main parts—legs, torso, arms—and then compared to its previous version, which was characterized b...

A service robot for Cultural Heritage frames is proposed as a novel robotic platform with a modular design for both ground locomotion and flight capability. The peculiarities of the system are discussed by performance evaluation via simulation. A prototype has been built and tested both to prove the feasibility of the proposed design and to charact...

This paper presents an experimental characterization of NURSE, a device for arm motion guidance. The laboratory setup and testing modes are presented to explain the experimental procedure. Two exercises for the upper limb exercise are used to test the NURSE behaviour, and successful results are presented. Trajectories and linear accelerations are t...

The paper presents the design of a prototype of HeritageBot Platform for demo purposes with features of low-cost construction and user-oriented performance. The design requirements are presented for application in monitoring and working within frames for conservation of goods of Cultural Heritage. The design of the robotic platform is conceived wit...

This paper addresses the feasibility of using a cable-driven parallel robot for upper limb exercising. Design aspects are defined as referring to the main features of upper limb motions are briefly outlined. Main addressed issues are kinematics and structural stiffness, which are used as basis for the design feasibility. A preliminary validation is...

A conceptual design of a novel mechanism is proposed to assist the training exercises for the human arm. The proposed mechanism is based on a mechanism of 2 degrees of freedom whose workspace has been amplified by using a pantograph mechanism. The proposed assisting mechanism can reproduce any trajectory for arm exercise within a large suitable spa...

In this paper the developed wireless IMU (inertial measurement unit) system for human motion characterisation has been described. The experimental layout, test modes and protocols were defined. The experiments for the knee joint characterisation during walking on an inclined treadmill were presented. The human knee joint’s characterisation with the...

The paper presents of a prototype of HeritageBot Platform for demo purposes with features of low-cost construction and user-oriented performance. The design requirements are presented for application in monitoring and working within frames for conservation of goods of Cultural Heritage. The design of the robotic platform is conceived with modular s...

An artificial torso is a fundamental part of a humanoid robot for imitating human actions. In this paper, a prototype of CAUTO (CAssino hUmanoid TOrso) is presented. Its design is characterized by artificial vertebras actuated by cable-driven parallel manipulators. The design was conceived by looking at the complex system and functioning of the hum...

This paper describes the design of a gripper for horticulture product grasping. The design solution has been achieved by means of a systematic approach by evaluating all the possible architecture. The proposed structure is optimized and numerically simulated. Then, a prototype has been built and tested in laboratory. The design process and test res...

This paper presents results of HeritageBot, a regional research project for developing a robotic platform to be used in Cultural Heritage frameworks. The design and a prototype of HBOT Platform for demo purposes is introduced with features of low-cost construction and user-oriented performance. The design requirements are presented for application...

In this paper a novel humanoid torso prototype is presented in two design configurations: the torso structure and the humanoid torso with head, arms and hands. An experimental validation has been carried out for each configuration while replicating human-like basic movements. The aim of this paper is to characterize the performance of the prototype...

The article is focused on experimental knee joint characterisation by measurements of essential parameters of relative angular motion of thigh and shin by using IMU sensors. A wireless IMU system was developed for this purpose and a procedure was designed for building an experimental setup, with calibration, programming, testing and visualization....

In this paper, 3D printing is presented as useful means for checking design feasibility of mechanism structures for robots. A procedure is outlined for rapid prototyping that can produce scaled prototypes for experimental validation since early stages of robot developments. An example from LARM activities shows the soundness and practical implement...

This paper presents the testing and design of several arm therapy exercises with medical de-vice applications which use manipulators. The description of human arm motions and arm rehabilita-tion movements are presented together with the acquisition of the trajectories through demonstrations of arm rehabilitation exercises. A reference trajectory is...

In this paper 3D printing is presented as useful means for checking design feasibility of mechanism structures for robots. A procedure is outlined for rapid prototyping that can produce scaled prototypes for experimental validations since early stages of robot developments. An example from LARM activities for developing LARMbot humanoid is illustra...

LARMbot project aims to develop a humanoid robot with biomimetic inspiration from human anatomy by using parallel mechanisms. Previous related work is presented particularly referring to torso and leg modules. A specific design of LARMbot is proposed by using proper parallel mechanisms in torso and leg designs. A CAD model is elaborated in SolidWor...