Abstract:
The number of older people is growing rapidly around the world. Ageing process results in
reduced or restricted mobility which is essential to perform activities of daily living. Currently, there are
numerous powered assistive exoskeletons commercially available as well as are being developed to support
and rehabilitate lower limbs. Significant attention is also been given to develop upper limb rehabilitation
devices, however the question of what kind of assistive devices can be used by elderly group of people for
their upper limbs and what technical characteristics they should incorporate is not properly researched. This
paper presents the state of the art of currently available assistive exoskeletons which can be exploited to
support the motions of upper limbs of elderly to perform activities of daily living. Mechanism type, degrees
of freedom, type actuators and materials selected for the fabrication of these porotypes are presented in
detail. Also, the type of control systems utilized for these upper limb exoskeletons are discussed in detail
with the insight on the feedback signal methods. A detailed discussion on the challenges in the fields of
mechanism development, actuation and control for these upper limb powered exoskeletons is presented with
the opportunities for future technological developments.