New Generation Wearable Ankle Rehabilitation Robot in Undergraduate Courses

Abstract

In daily life, the ankle joint is the most vulnerable joint in the human body. Coupled with the current trend of agin g populations, the number of ankle injuries is continuously incre asing. While traditional manual rehabilitation therapy is effectiv e, the growing number of patients has burdened therapists, leadi ng to a gradual decline in rehabilitation efficiency. This has brou ght certain pressure to the field of rehabilitation medicine, as tra ditional rehabilitation methods can no longer meet the needs of patients. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel wearable ankle rehabilitation robot(WARR). The portable ankle rehabilitation robot, designed with a hybrid mechanism, can be applied in vari ous scenarios. With three degrees of freedom, it can accomplish compound ankle joint movements such as inversion/eversion(Inv /Eve), dorsiflexion/plantarflexion(DF/PF), and abduction/adduct ion(Abd/ Add). It can conduct training in active, passive, and tea ching modes. Additionally, therapists can control the rehabilitati on robot through an application to provide targeted ankle joint rehabilitation training for patients. The application obtains the angle and force of ankle joint movement from the robot's built-i n angle and force sensors, and real-time displays and records the m through a UI operation panel designed with Qt for rehabilitat ion effect assessment. This study is not only significant in the fiel d of rehabilitation medicine but has also been integrated into un dergraduate courses, aiding students in better understanding the design and application of rehabilitation robots. It has enhanced teaching effectiveness and improved students' practical skills.