Conceptual Design of a Gait Rehabilitation Robot

Gait rehabilitation using body weight support on a treadmill is a recommended rehabilitation technique for neurological injuries, such as spinal cord injury. In this paper, a new robotic orthosis is presented for treadmill training. In the presented design the criteria such as low inertia of robot components, backdrivability, high safety and degrees of freedom based on human walking are considered. This robot is composed of a leg exoskeleton for leg control and a segment for pelvis control. In the exoskeleton two degrees of freedom are considered for the hip joint and one for the knee joint. Also two degrees of freedom are considered for the pelvis joints. The inertia of moving components and the required force for the robot motion are measured to evaluate the robot backdrivability and transparency. Further, a walking algorithm is implemented on the robot and is tested on a human subject. Evaluation of the design showed that the robot is suitable for gait rehabilitation exercises.