Developing a novel bilateral arm training on rehabilitation robot NTUH-II for neurologic and orthopedic disorder

Abstract

Patients with upper limb disabilities caused by neurologic or orthopedic disorder required rehabilitation for the motor function recovery. In this research, based on a novel physical therapy, "bilateral arm training", the bilateral control interface connecting an IMU system and the exoskeleton robot NTUH-II is developed for patients to conduct passive or active-assistive rehabilitation. As for the active-assisting strategy, it is to generate the virtual guidance torque as a sufficient aid to the impaired side if needed with reference to the motion of the healthy side. Various experiments have been conducted to verify the tracking performance and assisting effect of proposed bilateral control. From these results, the utility of the developed bilateral control method has been confirmed.