Background: Shoulder function is achieved by the coordinated movements of the scapula, humerus, and thoracic spine, and shoulder disorders can be associated with altered scapular kinematics. The trunk plays an important role as the kinematic chain during arm elevation. Objects: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of thoracic hyperkyphosis on scapular orientation and trunk motion. Methods: Thirty-one subjects (15 in the ideal thorax group and 16 in the thoracic hyperkyphosis group) performed right-arm abduction and adduction movements in an unconstrained plane. The scapular orientation and trunk motion were recorded using a motion analysis system. Results: Those subjects with thoracic hyperkyphosis displayed greater scapular posterior tilting at a 120˚ shoulder elevation, greater scapular internal rotation throughout the arm raising phase, and greater trunk axial rotation at the upper ranges of the shoulder elevation, compared to those subjects with an ideal thorax (p<.05). Conclusion: Thoracic hyperkyphosis can cause scapular instability, greater trunk rotation and greater scapular posterior tilting, and may contribute to preventing the achievement of a full range of humeral abductions in an unconstrained plane.

This study proposes the design method for the robot rotation arm which the end effector that is connected in end of the arm keeps parallel motion even though the robot arm rotates. So far, most robot arm rotates together the end effector when the arm rotates. For this, this study proposes the mechanism that the arm is linked to each 4 parallel link so that rotation is possible by 4 pins, and the rotation arm connects 2 joints of diagonal line direction to a link in each 4 joint for rotation, and designs so that can change length of the link. For verification of design, this study targeted that develop the rotation arm for medical examination that use in ophthalmology. It is important that a medical robot offers comport to patient and design compactly so that medical examination and treatment space may can be defined enough. It is designed so that all drive elements may be positioned on interior of the arm and optimization of design for main parts was carried out in this study for this. The robot arm which is developed in this study manufactured to use by medical phoropter arm, and got good result by an experiment. The robot rotation arm which is proposed in this study is judged to contribute very effectively in case use of a medical robot arm for medical examination and treatment, also the robot arm which the end effector that is connected in the end of the arm needs to keep parallel motion. And, the robot arm which is developed in this study made an application as license.

During the communication and interaction with a human using motions or gestures, a humanoid robot needs not only to look like a human but also to behave like a human to make sure the meanings of the motions or gestures. Among various human-like behaviors, arm motions of the humanoid robot are essential for the communication with people through motions. In this work, a mathematical representation for characterizing human arm motions is first proposed. The human arm motions are characterized by the elbow elevation angle which is determined using the position and orientation of human hands. That representation is mathematically obtained using an approximation tool, Response Surface Method (RSM). Then a method to generate human-like arm motions in real time using the proposed representation is presented. The proposed method was evaluated to generate humanlike arm motions when the humanoid robot was asked to move its arms from a point to another point including the rotation of its hand. The example motion was performed using the KIST humanoid robot, MAHRU.