Actuators and Robotic Devices for Rehabilitation and Assistance

Dear Colleagues,

Robotic rehabilitation offers repeated, adaptable, and personalized exercises that supplement the work of physiotherapists. Robotic devices in rehabilitation offer several notable benefits. These include intense repetitive training, the ability to perform rehabilitation at home with remote control, automatic adjustment of device support based on the patient's progressive recovery, increased patient engagement through computerized activities presented as games, and objective monitoring of progress through outcome assessment. Assistive robotic devices may efficiently aid the elderly or permanently damaged individuals in performing essential activities of daily living with increased autonomy, aiming to mitigate impairments or partial functional impairment.

The actuation subsystem of a rehabilitative or assistive device is responsible for generating mechanical power at the joint level. It encompasses the power source, actuator type, and transmission design options. New innovative solutions of actuation have been specially created for the fields of robotic and assistive rehabilitation.

In this Special Issue, we would like to present recent research findings and novel approaches in the field of Actuators and Robotic Devices for Rehabilitation and Assistance. This includes but is not limited to:

• Robotic rehabilitation devices;
• Robotic assistance devices;
• Rehabilitative or assistive device control;
• Rehabilitative or assistive actuation;
• Exoskeletons for rehabilitation or assistance;
• End-effector robots;
• Service robotics;
• Series-elastic actuators;
• Pneumatic artificial muscles;
• Soft actuators;
• Supernumerary extra limbs;
• Wearable robots.

Dr. Monica Tiboni
Dr. Monica Malvezzi
Dr. Maria Cristina Valigi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• rehabilitative robotics
• assistive robotics
• exoskeleton robots
• end-effector robots
• device control
• device actuation