Abstract
In this paper, a four degrees-of-freedom robotic hip exoskeleton was proposed for gait rehabilitation. The robotic hip exoskeleton was designed with active flexion/extension and passive abduction/adduction at each hip joint to comply with the movement of the thigh. Due to each user’s different lower limbs characteristics and unknown torques at hip joints, model-free linear extended state observer (LESO)-based controllers were proposed for rehabilitation gait control. The prototypes of the robotic hip exoskeleton and controller designs were validated and compared through walking and ascending rehabilitation experiments. Additionally, a motion captured system and EMG signals were used to investigate the walking assistance of the robotic hip exoskeleton.
Highlights
Accidents, aging, stroke, and neural diseases cause the impairment of motor functions.Those with movement difficulties have their daily living activities hindered
This paper concludes with the following main contributions: a 4-DOF robotic hip exoskeleton was proposed to perform a gait rehabilitation exercise smoothly and robustly
Research efforts were concentrated on the controller design for the reliable implementation of the walking assistance
Summary
Accidents, aging, stroke, and neural diseases cause the impairment of motor functions. Those with movement difficulties have their daily living activities hindered. A rehabilitation exercise should be executed to help those impaired to recover motor abilities [1]. The conventional therapist-led manual assisting rehabilitation treatment is a repetitive, progressive, and typically time consuming and labor-intensive task. Research studies on robots demonstrate that robotic devices can assure consistency in repetitive rehabilitation therapy and are available for rehabilitation treatment [2]. Wearable robotic exoskeletons are characterized by light weight, portability, low cost, and safety and receive attention for facilitating rehabilitation training or power assistance [3,4]
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