Leg hybrid rehabilitation based on hip-knee exoskeleton and ankle motion induced by FES

Abstract

To regain mobility, stroke patients need to receive repetitive and intensive therapy. Robot-assisted rehabilitation is an active area of research. Cheap robotic leg rehabilitation devices should be developed to meet the demands and assist most patients. A low cost hip-knee exoskeleton prototype powered by pneumatic muscles was developed. On this basis, Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) induced paralyzed muscles to realize ankle joint rehabilitation training. As both of pneumatic muscle and FES induced muscle possess highly nonlinear characteristics, a sliding control algorithm called Chattering mitigation Robust Variable Control (CRVC) was applied to leg hybrid rehabilitation. The combination of exoskeleton and FES is a promising way to reduce the cost and the complexity of designing hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton. The proposed hybrid method is verified by treadmill-based gait training experiments.