Modeling and simulation of walking with a mobile gait rehabilitation system using markerless motion data

Abstract

Research and development of gait rehabilitation systems and devices such as orthosis, prosthesis and wearable robots are complex processes in which simulation techniques are exploited in order to accelerate development process, reduce development costs, optimize the proposed solution, analyse the interaction between the system and human, etc. The modelling and simulation results can give valuable insights in the functionality of the system and directions for optimization and improvement of the researched system. Within the frame of the RoboWalker project a concept of a mobile robotic gait rehabilitation system, which will improve gait rehabilitation through several novel system features, was investigated. The system consists of a mobile platform with integrated active exoskeleton. In this paper, the modelling and simulation approaches utilized in designing and analysing the concept of mobile gait rehabilitation system are presented together with a novel markerless motion capture system that was used for collecting human motion data for simulation purposes.