Tremor constitutes the most common motor disorder, and poses a functional problem to a large number of patients. Despite of the considerable experience in tremor management, current treatment based on drugs or surgery does not attain an effective attenuation in 25 % of patients, motivating the need for research in new therapeutic alternatives. In this context, this paper presents the concept design, development, and preliminary validation of a soft wearable robot for tremor assessment and suppression. The TREMOR neurorobot comprises a Brain Neural Computer Interface that monitors the whole neuromusculoskeletal system, aiming at characterizing both voluntary movement and tremor, and a Functional Electrical Stimulation system that compensates for tremulous movements without impeding the user perform functional tasks. First results demonstrate the performance of the TREMOR neurorobot as a novel means of assessing and attenuating pathological tremors.

The mechanics of a soft external skeleton (orthosis) for the assistance of gait in paralyzed patients is described. This biomechanical model describes a biomechanism consisting of the active external orthosis and the handicapped human. The orthosis acts on the man's skeleton via a viscoelastic interface. Variable-length orthotic links are introduced in the model to enable matching of orthotic joints to the human polycentric one. The practical realization of the proposed soft brace is known as the self-fitting modular orthosis (SFMO). Bipedal and quadrupedal gait analyses of the SFMO are presented.>