Research On A Wearable Pneumatic Partial Weight Bearin Walking Assist Robot

Partial body weight bearing walking rehabilitative robot runs through many areas of rehabilitation medicine, machinery, electronics, computer science and robotics, is a hot research topic in the robotics field. When many diseases of the lower limb enter the recovery period, partial body weight bearing walking rehabilitation is a common and effective treatment. Compared with United States, Japan and the other developed countries, China has not many experiences in the field of rehabilitation engineering research. As China’s tendency of aged population has become more and more prominent, Chinese government gradually realized that the medical equipment aids have an important role in improving quality of life for elders. Therefore the state has increased investment in medical equipment aids in Chinese12th Five-Year Plan, Partial body weight bearing walking assist rehabilitative robot is a top priority of medical equipment aids. In summary, research on partial body weight bearing walking assist rehabilitative robot is very important.This paper discusses some current researches on the lower limbs rehabilitation training at home and outdoor, then propose a new design concept of a wearable partial body weight bearing walking assist rehabilitative robot. According to the design concept, a prototype of the wearable partial weight bearing walking asssit rehabilitative robot is developed. The control systems, pneumatic systems,and the developed robot experimental prototype is proposed in detail in this paper. The mechanical system of the robot prototype includes brackets, rails with self-locking function and pedals. Rails with self-locking function is the difficulty part of the design, and is a innovation of the design. The control system provide control signals for the pneumatic system, and has the function of improving robot’s balance and security. The control system uses two Advantech data acquisition cards, and the control program is written and run under Matlab Simulink software and Realtime Windows Target toolbox software. The pneumatic system consists of the cylinders, electrical proportional valves, solenoid valves and other components. The cylinders are used to provide the support force for the patients.Using the experimental robot prototype, the calibration experiment of the partial body weight bearing walking assist rehabilitative robot is done first. Then a real-time waling assit experiment is done. In the calibration experiment16force sensor is calibrated using a standard weight, the experimental results shows error of the center of foot pressure is less than -1.9%which is good enough to meet the experimental precision requirment. In the real-time walking assist experiment, the optimal parameters of the control system is found and a maximum weight bearing ratio of56%body weight support is achieved. The experimental results of the Real-time walking assist and a subjective evaluation by people confirmed that the design concept is correct and effective.