Abstract
The patient population needing physical rehabilitation in the upper extremity is constantly increasing. Robotic devices have the potential to address this problem, however most of the rehabilitation robots are technically advanced and mainly designed for clinical use. This paper presents the development of an affordable device for upper-limb neurorehabilitation designed for home use. The device is based on a 2-DOF five-bar parallel kinematic mechanism. The prototype has been designed so that it can be bound on one side of a table with a clamp. A kinematic optimization was performed on the length of the links of the manipulator in order to provide the optimum kinematic behaviour within the desired workspace. The mechanical structure was developed, and a 3D-printed prototype was assembled. The prototype embeds two single-point load cells to measure the force exchanged with the patient. Rehabilitation-specific control algorithms are described and tested. Finally, an experimental procedure is performed in order to validate the accuracy of the position measurements. The assessment confirms an acceptable level of performance with respect to the requirements of the application under analysis.
Highlights
Stroke is one of the main causes of long-term disability worldwide and the most common in Western countries [1]
Robotic devices for neurorehabilitation have been widely investigated, developed and introduced in the market to offer a valid alternative to conventional therapy and fill the constantly growing gap between supply and demand [2,3]
It is characterized by a structure made up of four links and a fixed frame connected by five revolute joints
Summary
Stroke is one of the main causes of long-term disability worldwide and the most common in Western countries [1]. Wu et al developed an admittance-controlled Cartesian serial kinematic architecture [20], while Zollo et al proposed a planar orthogonal parallel rehabilitation device [21] Both these devices are characterized by an inherent isotropic kinetostatic behaviour. The authors consider its design outstanding, the goal of this work was to develop a device able to exploit extensively the range of motion of the upper limb, without leading to a relatively bulky structure. In these terms, the notable architecture of H-MAN would have resulted in a big and not straightforwardly portable device if properly scaled to allow large movements of the upper limb, mainly because of its Cartesian structure.
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