Advances in Medical and Rehabilitation Robots

A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics, Mechatronics and Intelligent Machines".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 377

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Automation and Intelligence, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
Interests: medical robot; human–robot interaction

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Guest Editor
School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Interests: mechanism; robot control; biosignal processing

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Guest Editor
School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
Interests: robot and intelligent system; continuum robot

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the aging of the global population and the increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases and disabilities, traditional medical treatment and rehabilitation methods are facing challenges, such as insufficient resources and inefficiency. By combining artificial intelligence, robotics, and precision medicine, medical and rehabilitation robots can provide efficient and accurate solutions for surgery, diagnosis, rehabilitation, and other fields.

This Special Issue aims to explore recent advances and technologies in the field of medical and rehabilitation robots, providing doctors and academics with new solutions and perspectives on medical problems.

Dr. Xu Liang
Dr. Jiantao Yang
Dr. Tingting Su
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • medical and rehabilitation robots
  • force sensing and force control
  • bionic design
  • multi-agent cooperative control
  • trajectory planning
  • intelligent control
  • mechanical structure optimization
  • human–robot interaction
  • kinematics and dynamics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

37 pages, 2396 KiB  
Review
A Review of Hierarchical Control Strategies for Lower-Limb Exoskeletons in Children with Cerebral Palsy
by Ziwei Kang, Hui Li, Yang Wang and Hongliu Yu
Machines 2025, 13(6), 442; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13060442 - 22 May 2025
Abstract
In recent years, with the deepening research on exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, increasing evidence has highlighted their unique characteristics. Unlike adult exoskeletons, pediatric exoskeletons cannot be simply realized by scaling down adult designs; instead, special attention must be given to their [...] Read more.
In recent years, with the deepening research on exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, increasing evidence has highlighted their unique characteristics. Unlike adult exoskeletons, pediatric exoskeletons cannot be simply realized by scaling down adult designs; instead, special attention must be given to their unique training requirements. Although current studies have incorporated specific design adaptations and summarized the distinct features of these devices, a comprehensive review of control strategies remains lacking. This study adopts a structured narrative review approach, referencing the PRISMA framework to enhance transparency in the literature selection. Relevant publications were identified based on clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, but no formal systematic review or meta-analysis was conducted. The exoskeleton control strategies from the 106 selected articles are classified using a hierarchical framework, dividing them into the supervision layer, action layer, and execution layer, with a further categorization into 12 specific control methods. Findings indicate that the supervision level primarily employs finite state machines and linear phase estimation, while the action level predominantly utilizes position trajectory control, torque trajectory control, and impedance control. At the execution level, closed-loop torque control and position control are commonly adopted. Overall, existing studies still face challenges in personalized adaptation, real-time control, and application scenarios. With advancements in controller hardware and the introduction of novel actuators, emerging technologies such as machine learning, virtual constraints, and sliding mode control may offer promising directions for future pediatric exoskeleton control design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Medical and Rehabilitation Robots)
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