Abstract
Lower limb rehabilitation exoskeletons usually help patients walk based on fixed gait trajectories. However, it is not suitable for unilateral lower limb disorders. In this article, a hybrid training mode is proposed to be applied in rehabilitation for unilateral lower limb movement disorders. The hybrid training includes two modes, that is, the passive training mode and the active assist mode. At an early stage of the rehabilitation therapy, the passive training mode is utilized, in which microelectromechanical systems-based attitude and heading reference system is used to collect the gait trajectory of the healthy limb. The exoskeleton on the unhealthy limb will be driven to track the joint trajectory of the healthy limb. If the patient’s abilities recovered, the rehabilitation system can be switched to the active assist mode. Two force sensors are imbedded into the interface on the thigh to measure the interaction information in order to detect the patient’s initiative walking intention. In the active mode, the walking gait trajectory is modified and generated based on the gait trajectory of the healthy side via the attitude and heading reference system. In this article, a position close control loop is designed to drive the mechanical leg to help the unhealthy limb walk. Laboratory experiments are performed on a healthy human subject to illustrate the proposed approach. Experimental results show that the proposed method can be applied and extended in the passive and active rehabilitation mode for the unilateral lower limb disorders.
Highlights
Patients with various diseases and injuries, for example, spinal cord injury, stroke, and unilateral lower limb disorders have a dysfunction and impaired mobility in the lower limbs
Intensive labor should be involved in the traditional rehabilitation training, and physical therapists have to provide the patients with highly repetitive training that is usually inefficient.[2]
Robotic exoskeletons for lower limb rehabilitation are developed for patients suffering from neurological disorders.[4]
Summary
Patients with various diseases and injuries, for example, spinal cord injury, stroke, and unilateral lower limb disorders have a dysfunction and impaired mobility in the lower limbs. The unhealthy side duplicates the movement of the healthy limb in the passive mode and adapts the gait trajectory online based on the interaction signals collected at the connection cuff using force sensors in the active mode. Gyroscope sensors are utilized to measure the angular position of joints, that is, the knee and hip joint, on the healthy leg. There are two gyroscope sensors for the measurement of angular position of hip and knee joint, respectively. Gyroscopes, placed on the healthy limb, are applied to measure the angular position of the hip joint and the knee joint. The modified gait d;aðkÞ is the desired trajectory and the PID controller will drive the mechanical leg to shadow d;aðkÞ to achieve active rehabilitation The transition of those two modes can be performed by the user via pressing the trigger switch
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