Kinematic Design Consideration Based on Actuator Placement of Five-Bar Planar Robot for Arm Rehabilitation

Abstract

In the design of upper limb rehabilitation robots, critical issues to be considered are large workspace with minimum singularities to cover enough patients’ upper limb range of motion and higher manipulability for the patients to easily and freely move their arm with applying almost the same force to every direction in a given posture. This paper presents an analysis of the suggested kinematic design considerations of five-bar planar mechanism according to the actuator locations. A comparison between two different five-bar linkage types is given. Finally, several open challenges for the applicability of five-bar planar mechanisms are discussed from the kinematic point of view to upper limb rehabilitation robots.