WAKE-up: A wearable ankle knee exoskeleton

Abstract

In this paper we present the alpha-prototype of the WAKE-up, a wearable robotic device for the rehabilitation of locomotion of pediatric subjects with neurological diseases such as Cerebral Palsy. The WAKE-up is an active knee-ankle orthosis. It is composed of two robotic modules for the rehabilitation of knee and ankle, respectively. Each module can be utilized either alone or together with the other one. The working principle is based on series elastic actuators (SEA), i.e., dc motors equipped with a torsional spring mounted in series to avoid the direct connection of the actuator with the patient's limb. A SEA permits the control of the force and the emulation of different orthoses with given value of stiffness. The torque transmission is achieved by a timing belt and it is mediated by a torsional spring. The experimental tests conducted on each modules confirmed a good precision of the spring deflection control (position error <; 2°) and good overall performances of the force control obtained with the spring stiffness chosen at the design phase.