Mechanical design, fabrication, kinematics and dynamics modeling, multiple impedance control of a wrist rehabilitation robot

Abstract

Rehabilitation is the best approach for patients who suffer physical disability of their upper-limbs. Maintaining the intensity of exercise during treatment is the main factor that makes the robots suitable for rehabilitation since robots do not get tired and do the exercises with constant intensity under supervision of the doctor. Two main categories of rehabilitation robots are End-Effector based robots and wearable robots. According to the fact that most problems occur in need of rehabilitation for hand wrist area, in this paper a wearable rehabilitation robot has been developed for the wrist. Nowadays, wearable robots attract more attention than the other group. Wearable robots are categorized into three types: Exoskeleton robots, Prosthetic robots and Orthotic robot. In this paper, a new structure for an Orthotic wearable robot is developed for human wrist rehabilitation. This structure has an automatic base that makes the robot suitable for both hands. This robot has three degrees of freedom that is similar to human wrist joint. In the remaining of the paper, Conceptual design, mechanical design, kinematics and dynamic analysis of the robot as well as multiple impedance control are presented.