Systematic Design of a Parallel Robotic System for Lower Limb Rehabilitation

Calin Vaida,Adrian Pisla,Giuseppe Carbone,Daniela Tarnita,Doina Pisla,Ionut-Mihai Ulinici,Iosif Birlescu

doi:10.1109/access.2020.2974295

Abstract

This paper presents the design of an innovative robotic system for lower limb post-stroke rehabilitation of bed confined patients during the acute stage of the treatment. To establish the particularities of each targeted joint motion, experimental measurements are performed on healthy subjects. The acquired data is used to determine the operational workspace, namely the limits of the anatomic joints motion for the lower limb. Based on the prescribed operational workspace, an innovative parallel robotic architecture is designed for achieving the rehabilitation of the lower limb. A detailed kinematic modelling and analysis is carried out to demonstrate the robot capability to safely achieve the required motions. The design of the robotic rehabilitation device is discussed in detail alongside with numerical simulations for validating its performance while performing medically relevant rehabilitation motions.

Highlights

In recent years stroke became the third most common cause of disability making up 4.5% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) worldwide
It is widely understood that the kinematics of the anatomic joints are more complicated that simple revolute or spherical joints used in mechanism science
For the robotic assisted rehabilitation one challenge is to develop robotic systems that comply with the kinematic requirements of the limb

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In recent years stroke became the third most common cause of disability making up 4.5% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) worldwide. The motion amplitudes for each targeted anatomic joint (hip, knee and ankle) were analyzed using healthy subjects to determine the task (operating workspace) of the rehabilitation exercises (considering that the exercises start with lower amplitudes but they progress towards the values that describe healthy subjects) Using this information a new robotic structure can be designed integrating the above defined sensors. In order to solve the kinematic model for RAISE, one must underline that, in the rehabilitation process, the kinetotherapist which sets up the exercises will never configure the robot based on the coordinates of certain points of interest but rather by setting angular amplitudes for the parameters which correspond to the motions of the lower limb.

DISCUSSION

Findings

VIII. CONCLUSION