Development of rehabilitation support robot with guidance control based on biarticular muscle mechanism

Abstract

This study presents the guidance control provided by a rehabilitation support robot that is intended to assist with the movement of a patient's arm. The guidance control is accomplished using a stiffness ellipse. The characteristic that the direction of force acted upon changes depending on the settings of the stiffness ellipse is used for guiding the movement. The system developed in this study adjusts the stiffness ellipse by using a musculoskeletal manipulator with biarticular mechanism. It was verified that the movement of a subject could be guided by changing the stiffness ellipse and assisting the movement. The experimental results demonstrate that it is possible to guide the movement without any dependency on the control bandwidth of the actuator.