Abstract
Hemiplegia, apoplexia, or traffic accidents often lead to unilateral lower limb movement disorders. Traditional lower limb rehabilitation equipments usually execute walk training based on fixed gait trajectory; however, this type is unsuitable for unilateral lower limb disorders because they still have athletic ability and initiative walking intention on the healthy side. This article describes a wearable lower limb rehabilitation exoskeleton with a walk-assisting platform for safety and anti-gravity support. The exoskeleton detects and tracks the motion of the healthy leg, which is then used as the control input of the dyskinetic leg with half a gate-cycle delay. The patient can undergo walk training on his own intention, including individual walking habit, stride length, and stride frequency, which likely contribute to the training initiative. The series elastic actuator is chosen for the exoskeleton because the torque output can be accurately detected and used to calculate the assisted torque on the dyskinetic leg. This parameter corresponds to the recovery level of a patient’s muscle force. Finally, the walk-assisting experiments reveal that the rehabilitation exoskeleton in this article can provide the necessary assisting torques on the dyskinetic leg, which can be accurately monitored in real time to evaluate a patient’s rehabilitation status.
Highlights
Human walking is the most basic mode of coordinated and voluntary movement with smooth transition, appropriate step length, and stable energy consumption.[1]
Exercise therapy based on neurodevelopment facilitation theory is a fundamental rehabilitation method for lower limb movement disorders caused by hemiplegia, apoplexia, or accidental disability resulting from traffic accidents or natural disasters.[2]
Foot parts are usually not considered in these exoskeletons, such as WalkTrainer[3] and Lokomat[4] developed in Switzerland, SUBAR developed at Sogang University,[5] ALEX developed at the University of Delaware,[6] and lower limb walking assistant robot developed at Zhejiang University.[7]
Summary
Human walking is the most basic mode of coordinated and voluntary movement with smooth transition, appropriate step length, and stable energy consumption.[1]. The exoskeleton detects and tracks the healthy leg’s motion in real time; the exoskeleton provides the necessary assisting torque of the dyskinetic leg. The clinical gait analysis (CGA) data are generally used for the human walking analysis and the exoskeleton design.[11] The walking motion is implemented by a multi-dimensional pelvic movement and associated rotations of the hip, knee, and ankle joints.
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