Abstract

It is a general assumption that pneumatic muscle-type actuators will play an important role in the development of an assistive rehabilitation robotics system. In the last decade, the development of a pneumatic muscle actuated lower-limb leg orthosis has been rather slow compared to other types of actuated leg orthoses that use AC motors, DC motors, pneumatic cylinders, linear actuators, series elastic actuators (SEA) and brushless servomotors. However, recent years have shown that the interest in this field has grown exponentially, mainly due to the demand for a more compliant and interactive human-robotics system. This paper presents a survey of existing lower-limb leg orthoses for rehabilitation, which implement pneumatic muscle-type actuators, such as McKibben artificial muscles, rubbertuators, air muscles, pneumatic artificial muscles (PAM) or pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA). It reviews all the currently existing lower-limb rehabilitation orthosis systems in terms of comparison and evaluation of the design, as well as the control scheme and strategy, with the aim of clarifying the current and on-going research in the lower-limb robotic rehabilitation field.

Highlights

  • The outcomes of rehabilitation therapy that implements body weight support treadmill training for incomplete spinal cord injuries (SCIs) and stroke patients have been reported in several previous studies since the 1990s

  • The paralysis may be identified as a weakness, which might occur with abnormal tone

  • Numerous assistive orthosis systems for gait rehabilitation have been developed that delve into several types of lower-limb rehabilitation, such as treadmill gait trainers, over-ground gait trainers, stationary gait and ankle trainers, foot-plate-based gait trainers and active foot orthoses for the neurologically impaired (including stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI) patients) [5,6,7,8]

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Summary

Introduction

The outcomes of rehabilitation therapy that implements body weight support treadmill training for incomplete spinal cord injuries (SCIs) and stroke patients have been reported in several previous studies since the 1990s. The patients involved in this training were provided with motor-driven treadmill training therapy, along with a body weight support (BWS) and assisted limb movements by therapists, for daily upright walking training. Based on the rehabilitation sessions, nearly 80% of patients with incomplete spinal cord injuries (a total of 33 individuals) were capable of walking independently after the treadmill training, with partial body weight support. This training procedure was physically difficult for therapists to execute for long durations of time. They will be compared to each another, with the intent of clarifying current and on-going research in the lower-limb robotics rehabilitation field

Existing Lower-Limb Orthoses for Gait Rehabilitations and Evaluations
Motorized Lower-Limb Orthosis Systems for Rehabilitation
Pneumatic Muscle Actuated Lower-Limb Rehabilitation Orthosis System
Control Scheme and Strategy
Pneumatic Muscle Actuators’ Control System
Co-Contraction of Antagonistic Muscle Control
Simulation of the Co-Contraction Model for Antagonistic Muscles
Co-Contraction Model for Antagonistic Actuators
Conclusions
Findings
Conflicts of Interest

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