A robotic exoskeleton for lower limb rehabilitation controlled by central pattern generator

Abstract

A robotic exoskeleton system of lower extremity controlled by central pattern generators (CPGs) was developed for physical rehabilitation of paraplegic patients. The exoskeleton system has two degrees of freedom for each limb to assist motion of hip and knee joints with help of a body weight support device. Mechanical design of the exoskeleton considering ergonomics adopted some regulation mechanisms for a more comfortable human-machine interaction. The CPG network was designed as the controller, and provided natural gait patterns for users wearing the exoskeleton. Relevant parameters of CPG were off-line tuned using the Genetic Algorithm (GA). For evaluating this rehabilitation platform, three healthy subjects participated in a preliminary experiment and the results showed good performance of the exoskeleton system.