People with (neuro-)muscular diseases have problems lifting their arms against gravity because of degeneration of their muscles. Many of them are in need of a device that supports the weight of their arms, so as to regain some independence. Existing solutions do not meet all of the requirements. This paper presents the design of a new type of spring-compensation mechanism which is adjustable to varying load. The most important part of this design is a wrapping cam with variable transmission to compensate for errors, which rolls on a support plane to minimize friction.
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Lucieer et al. (2005) studied this question.