Design and Simulation of an Assisting Mechanism for Arm Exercises

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 space in a horizontal plane. Two configurations of the mechanism are presented with the conceptual features. Analysis of the displacement, velocities, accelerations and torques are worked out to compare two possible configurations and to characterize the mechanism solution as the feasible one for future developments.