A comprehensive review of wearable assistive robotic devices used for head and neck rehabilitation

Numerous risk factors for musculoskeletal pain have been identified in the survey, including physical risk factors such as high-intensity exercises, trauma, ageing, dizziness, accidents and damages owing to wear and tear of daily activities. These physical risk factors effect cervical spine, cause dysfunction, reduce the range of motion and coordination ability, and also affect their activities of daily living (ADL). The present scenario for treating individuals suffering from neck pain is through the use of static braces which helps keeping the patient head steady from dropping. However, the use of static braces can help stopping the head drop but the head is immobilized and restricted to a single configuration, which inevitably leads to the muscle strain. This motivated researchers and engineers to develop mechatronics based wearable assistive devices at low and affordable cost to effectively aid, mimic and restore the natural active range of motions. Research on dynamic neck braces for restoration of head/neck movements for individuals suffering with neck muscle weakness is limited, due to minimal space availability to incorporate a mechanism between head and shoulder. The main objective of this study is to carry out an extensive and detailed survey on the existing conventional and wearable assistive devices that aid the individuals to assist in achieving their head/neck motions, recent trends in assistive devices, incorporation of various sensors, actuators, and control techniques for achieving optimal head/neck range of motion