Guidance-control-based Exoskeleton Rehabilitation Robot for Upper Limbs: Application to Circle Drawing for Physiotherapy and Training

Wei-Wen Wang ； Bing-Chun Tsai ； Li-Chun Hsu ； Li-Chen Fu ； Jin-Shin Lai

《Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering》 34卷3期 (2014/06) Pp. 284-292

https://doi.org/10.5405/jmbe.1663

並列摘要

Cerebral vascular disease is the leading cause of functional disability among adults. Approximately half of all stroke survivors continue to suffer from severe neurological deficits and hemiparesis in the upper extremities as well as many secondary complications due to immobilization. Robotics can provide highly intensive intervention in stroke rehabilitation as well as an objective means of measuring patient progress. This study designs an upper limb rehabilitation (Rehab) robot with multiple degrees of freedom. This design provides a wider range of motion in 3-dimentional space than that provided by an existing endpoint-fixation system. In addition, unlike cable suspension systems that lack biofeedback, the sensors incorporated into the proposed design can be used to detect the voluntary force produced by the stroke patient. The Rehab robot features an exoskeleton-type design with in-built redundancy, a guidance control system, and force feedback using an electromyographic trigger. Three rehabilitation modes can be selected by physical therapists according to the severity of the patient's upper-limb impairment: passive, active, and guidance. Guidance mode assists patients in motor training, with programs such as drawing circles, which involves complex movements that require coordination between the shoulder and elbow joints. Such skills are ideally suited to relearning functional tasks following a stroke. Physical experiments were conducted in this pilot study to evaluate the performance of the Rehab robot. The results indicate that the robot could be effective. Guidance mode achieves the desired guidance functions, informing the subject of the pose required to complete the task as well as enabling them to reduce unnecessary muscle use.

並列關鍵字

Rehabilitation ； Exoskeleton ； Kinematics ； Robot-assisted therapy