Abstract
Research on the lower limb exoskeleton for rehabilitation have developed rapidly to meet the need of the aging population. The rehabilitation exoskeleton system is a wearable man–machine integrated mechanical device. In recent years, the vigorous development of exoskeletal technology has brought new ideas to the rehabilitation and medical treatment of patients with motion dysfunction, which is expected to help such people complete their daily physiological activities or even reshape their motion function. The rehabilitation exoskeletons conduct assistance based on detecting intention, control algorithm, and high-performance actuators. In this paper, we review rehabilitation exoskeletons from the aspects of the overall design, driving unit, intention perception, compliant control, and efficiency validation. We discussed the complexity and coupling of the man–machine integration system, and we hope to provide a guideline when designing a rehabilitation exoskeleton system for the lower limbs of elderly and disabled patients.
Highlights
At present, there are a large number of people in China who suffer various movement dysfunctions at different levels caused by stroke, spinal cord injury, and aging
We reviewed the rehabilitation exoskeletons from the aspects of ergonomic design, actuation, perception, control, and validation
Some novel actuators were introduced into the rehabilitation exoskeletons, such as pneumatic muscles (PMs) and shape memory alloy (SMA), inspired by their bionic characteristics
Summary
There are a large number of people in China who suffer various movement dysfunctions at different levels caused by stroke, spinal cord injury, and aging. Appropriate medical treatment is an essential procedure, and rehabilitation doctors need to formulate detailed treatment plans according to the patient’s condition and complete regular procedures of body exercise training [8] Facing such a large number of patients with movement dysfunction, the relevant professional technicians will be in short supply with the aging population. The contributions of this paper include: (1) as a paper dedicated to reviewing the rehabilitation exoskeletons, five aspects are listed to summarize state of the art technologies; (2) the advantages and limitations for every aspect are proposed; (3) the challenges of the ergonomic design, sensor-based motion perception, actuation, and control were discussed. We hope this paper could provide a guideline when designing a rehabilitation exoskeleton system for the lower limbs of the elderly and disabled
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