Abstract
Nowadays, the rehabilitation robot has been developed for rehabilitation therapy. However, there are few studies on upper arm exoskeletons for rehabilitation training of muscle strength. This article aims to design a surface electromyography-controlled lightweight exoskeleton rehabilitation robot for home-based progressive resistance training. The exoskeleton’s lightweight structure is designed based on the kinematic model of the elbow joint and ergonomics sizes of the arm. At the same time, the overall weight of the exoskeleton is controlled at only 3.03 kg. According to the rehabilitation training task, we use torque limit mode to ensure stable torque output at variable velocity. We also propose a surface electromyography-based control method, which uses k- Nearest Neighbor algorithm to classify surface electromyographic signals under progressive training loads, and utilizes principal component analysis to improve the recognition accuracy to control the exoskeleton to provide muscle strength compensation. The assessment experiment of the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot shows that the dynamic recognition accuracy of this control method is 80.21%. Muscle activity of biceps brachii and triceps brachii under each training load decreases significantly when subjects with the exoskeleton robot. The results indicate that the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot can output the corresponding torque to assist in progressive resistance training. This study provides a solution to potential problems in the family-oriented application of exoskeleton rehabilitation robots.
Highlights
The level of medical care has been continuously improved in recent years, a large number of patients are still suffering from physical disabilities
The study focuses on a lightweight exoskeleton rehabilitation robot for muscle strength training
The experiments are designed to collect the Surface electromyographic (sEMG) of the upper arm of subjects under progressive training loads
Summary
The level of medical care has been continuously improved in recent years, a large number of patients are still suffering from physical disabilities. Statistics show that more than 200 million people in the world suffer from various disabilities.[1]. Long-term nonexercise will cause more serious muscle damage and worsen the condition.[2,3] At this stage, the intervention methods of mirror therapy, virtual reality training, and repetitive task training can effectively promote the rehabilitation of injured limbs.[4] it is difficult for patients to restore their injured limbs to normal levels during hospitalization. Home-based rehabilitation training is a key factor for post-rehabilitation treatment, which is proved to efficiently reduce the anxiety of the patients and help them regain the ability to participate in social activities.[5,6] these rehabilitation exercise prescriptions still require nursing staff or family members to assist patients in rehabilitation training, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive
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