Inverse kinematics for a novel rehabilitation robot for lower limbs

Abstract

We present in this paper a new structure of cable robot for rehabilitation of lower limbs. The proposed concept is distinguished by the ability to synchronize and coordinate the joints of the hip, knee and foot. It explains a modeling approach to find explicit relations expressing the relationship between the desired trajectories in the physiological limb and the articular variables to be applied to the robot motors. The proposed robot (KINECAB) can be deployed in two configurations. In this work, we study a configuration that allows the two lower limbs to be manipulated to reproduce planar movements helping human walk or similar exercises. The inverse kinematics developed will be analyzed on the basis of a kinematic reference model of the physiological members. Validation tests by simulation and experimentation are also proposed. A patent application is deposited by ETS, University of Quebec (Applica-tion Number PCT/CA2016/051376).