A Hybrid Mechanism-Based Robot for End-Traction Lower Limb Rehabilitation: Design, Analysis and Experimental Evaluation

Lipeng Wang,Jianye Niu,Jiazheng Du,Siyuan Zheng,Zhengyan Zhang,Junjie Tian,Jiang Wu

doi:10.3390/machines10020099

Lipeng Wang, Jianye Niu + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/machines10020099

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Abstract

Conventional lower-limb rehabilitation robots cannot provide in-time rehabilitation training for stroke patients in the acute stage due to their large size and mass as well as their complex wearing process. Aiming to solve the problems, first, a novel hybrid end-traction lower-limb rehabilitation robot (HE-LRR) was designed as the lower-limb rehabilitation requirement of patients in the acute stage, in this paper. The usage of (2-UPS + U)&(R + RPS)&(2-RR) hybrid mechanism and a mirror motion actuator had the advantages of compact structure, large working space and short wearing time to the HE-LRR. Then, the mobility of the HE-LRR was calculated and the motion property was analyzed based on screw theory. Meanwhile, the trajectory planning of the HE-LRR was carried out based on MOTOmed® motion training. Finally, the motion capture and surface electromyography (sEMG) signal acquisition experiments in the MOTOmed motion training were performed. The foot trajectory experimental effect and the lower-limb muscle groups activation rules were studied ulteriorly. The experimental results showed that the HE-LRR achieved good kinematic accuracy and lower limb muscle groups training effect, illustrating that the HE-LRR possessed good application prospects for the lower-limb rehabilitation of patients in the acute stage. This research could also provide a theoretical basis for improving the standardization and compliance of lower-limb robot rehabilitation training.

Highlights

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralLimb motion function recovery is an urgent problem faced by stroke patients in the rehabilitation process [1,2]
Design lower limb movement of human body mainly comprises walking in the sagittal plane,The stepping themovement coronal plane, and turning aroundcomprises the longitudinal axis of the hulowerin limb of human body mainly walking in the sagittal man body
MOTOmed training as an example, we further designed and signal experiments to evaluate the motion and training of surface electromyography (sEMG) acquisition signal acquisition experiments to evaluate theperformance motion performance andeffects training the basic information of volunteers is shown in

Summary

Introduction

Limb motion function recovery is an urgent problem faced by stroke patients in the rehabilitation process [1,2]. For the lower-limb rehabilitation process, continuous passive motion (CPM) and straight leg raise (SLR) are effective training methods in the early bedridden period when patients are too weak to support their weight [5,6,7]. It is of great significance to develop a lower-limb rehabilitation robot that can cover the entire course of the disease, which can assist the patient to receive early rehabilitation treatment, prevent complications [9], improve the rehabilitation effect of patients, reduce the burden on doctors, and optimize the multi-scenario application of rehabilitation equipment [10,11]

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Results

Conclusion