Kinematic Design of an Adjustable Foot Motion Generator for Gait Rehabilitation

Abstract

Gait rehabilitation devices strive to adapt to the human body’s biomechanics and other characteristics. Not all patients have the same gait movement: it depends on their height, the length of their limbs, or other parameters. As a matter of fact, it has been shown that it is necessary for the rehabilitation device to be adjustable in both length and height separately in order to help the patient effectively. However, devices that are able to adapt to every patient’s body are usually very complex and/or expensive. This paper introduces new concepts for affordable foot motion generators that can separately and continuously adapt the length and the height of the generated gait trajectory. It especially focuses on a slider crank mechanism combined with a cam mechanism which allows for a compact, exact, and easily adjustable gait trajectory generation.