A patient-driven control method for lower-limb rehabilitation robot

Abstract

Lower-limb rehabilitation robots can support the training of patients with neurological gait disorders. Compared to the robot-driven control strategy which permits patients to remain passive during the training, Patient-driven control strategy can motivate the patient's participation and accelerate the rehabilitation process. In this paper, based on a self-developed lower-limb rehabilitation robot, a patient-driven control method is developed and implemented to realize a patient-in-charge gait training strategy. During the training, the proposed control algorithm adapts the motion pattern of the robot according to the estimated patient's voluntary efforts and increases the patient's movement freedom by a certain amount of robot compliance. By adjusting the parameters, the degree of robot compliance can be set based on the patient's voluntary abilities. Experiment results are presented to evaluate the basic principal and technical function of the proposed method and show positive for improving the subject's voluntary contribution during the training.