A 3D End-Effector Robot for Upper Limb Functional Rehabilitation of Hemiparesis Patients

Abstract

Robot-assisted therapy is a new type of rehabilitation that allows for highly repetitive, intensive, adaptable, and quantifiable physical training. It is increasingly being used to restore motor function, particularly in stroke survivors with upper limb paresis. The end-effector type robot allows natural movements without complex structure which is ideal for functional rehabilitation training. A 3D end-effector base on a five-bar linkage has been proposed to improve the common end-effector type that covers mechanical design, dynamic control strategy, and application of rehabilitation training or exercise. The dynamic controllers are deweighting with gravity compensation, passive mobilization or active assistive, and the virtual spring-damper wall concept. These controllers are used for developing functional rehabilitation training or exercise from an engineering point of view based on experiences in developing various types of rehabilitation robots. The experiments, based on the performance of the controllers, have been conducted with healthy subjects. The experimental results have shown very promising results and can be extended to various types of functional rehabilitation.