Development of a Prototype Overground Pelvic Obliquity Support Robot for Rehabilitation of Hemiplegia Gait

Abstract

In this work, we present the overground prototype gait-rehabilitation robot for using motion assistance and training for paralyzed patients. In contrast to the existing gait-rehabilitation robots, which focus on the sagittal plane motion of the hip and knee, we aim to develop a mobile-based pelvic support gait-rehabilitation system that includes a pelvic obliquity support mechanism and a lower-limb exoskeleton. To achieve this, a scissor mechanism is proposed to generate the paralyzed patient’s pelvic obliquity motion and weight support. Moreover, the lower limb exoskeleton robot is integrated with the developed system to provide the patient’s gait by correcting mechanical aids. We used computer-aided analysis to verify the performance of the prototype hardware itself. Through these methods, it was shown that our motor can sufficiently lift 100 kg of user weight through the scissor mechanism, and that the mobile driving wheel motor can operate at a speed of 1.6 m/s of human walking, showing that it can be used for gait rehabilitation of patients in need of a lower speed. In addition, we verified that the system drives the model by generating pelvic motion, and we verified the position controller of the integrated system, which supports the multi-degree motion by creating hip/knee/pelvic motion with a human dummy mannequin and systems. We believe that the proposed system can help address the complex rehabilitation motion assistance and training of paralyzed patients.