An Adjustable Single Degree-of-Freedom System to Guide Natural Walking Movement for Rehabilitation

Tsuge, Brandon Y.; McCarthy, J. Michael

doi:10.1115/1.4033329

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…There are several groups that have tried to find a mechanical way to replicate human-like ankle joint trajectories while walking forward on flat ground. In Flores et al (2013), Tsuge and Michael McCarthy (2016), Copilusi et al (2014), Choi et al (2017), Shao et al (2016) they all synthesized trajectories starting from different number of bar linkage mechanisms for human gait rehabilitation and mobility enhancement. The biggest drawback to this kind of systems is the difficulty to make adjustments while it is working, thereby limiting the range of modifications that can be performed to generate different walking conditions, i.e., changing step length while the subject is running a test or adjusting the height of the exoskeleton segments to fit different subjects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Adaptable Human-Like Gait Pattern Generator Derived From a Lower Limb Exoskeleton

et al. 2019

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Walking rehabilitation processes include many repetitions of the same physical movements in order to replicate, as close as possible, the normal gait trajectories, and kinematics of all leg joints. In these conventional therapies, the therapist′s ability to discover patient′s limitations—and gradually reduce them—is key to the success of the therapy. Lower-limb robotic exoskeletons have strong deficiencies in this respect as compared to an experienced therapist. Most of the currently available robotic solutions are not able to properly adapt their trajectories to the biomechanical limitations of the patient. With this in mind, much research and development is still required in order to improve artificial human-like walking patterns sufficiently for valuable clinical use. The work herein reported develops and presents a method to acquire and saliently analyze subject-specific gait data while the subject dons a passive lower-limb exoskeleton. Furthermore, the method can generate adjustable, yet subject-specific, kinematic gait trajectories useful in programming controllers for future robotic rehabilitation protocols. A human-user study with ten healthy subjects provides the experimental setup to validate the proposed method. The experimental protocol consists in capturing kinematic data while subjects walk, with the donned H2 lower-limb exoskeleton, across three experimental conditions: walking with three different pre-determined step lengths marked on a lane. The captured ankle trajectories in the sagittal plane were found by normalizing all trials of each test from one heel strike to the next heel strike independent of the specific gait features of each individual. Prior literature suggests analyzing gait in phases. A preliminary data analysis, however, suggests that there exist six key events of the gait cycle, events that can adequately characterize gait for the purposes required of robotic rehabilitation including gait analysis and reference trajectory generation. Defining the ankle as an end effector and the hip as the origin of the coordinate frame and basing the linear regression calculations only on the six key events, i.e., Heel Strike, Toe Off, Pre-Swing, Initial Swing, Mid-Swing, and Terminal Swing, it is possible to generate a new calculated ankle trajectory with an arbitrary step length. The Leave-One-Out Cross Validation algorithm was used to estimate the fitting error of the calculated trajectory vs. the characteristic captured trajectory per subject, showing a fidelity average value of 95.2, 96.1, and 97.2%, respectively, for each step-length trial including all subjects. This research presents method to capture ankle trajectories from subjects and generate human-like ankle trajectories that could be scaled and computed on-line, could be adjusted to different gait scenarios, and could be used not only to generate reference trajectories for gait controllers, but also as an accurate and salient benchmark to test the human likeness of gait trajectories employed by existing robotic exoskeletal de...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Adaptable Human-Like Gait Pattern Generator Derived From a Lower Limb Exoskeleton

et al. 2019

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“…The UCI Gait Mechanism [69] is a mechanism design composed of two main linkages. The main linkage is a six-bar linkage to guide a patient's leg as an end-effector (through the ankle joint).…”

Section: Planar Five-bar Linkages and Six Bar-linkagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Review and Systematic Design Approach for Linkage-Based Gait Rehabilitation Devices

Paiva,

Gonçalves,

Carbone

2024

Robotics

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This study aims to provide a comprehensive critical review of the existing body of evidence pertaining to gait rehabilitation. It also seeks to introduce a systematic approach for the development of innovative design solutions in this domain. The field of gait rehabilitation has witnessed a surge in the development of novel robotic devices. This trend has emerged in response to limitations observed in most commercial solutions, particularly regarding their high costs. Consequently, there is a growing need to explore more cost-effective alternatives and create opportunities for greater accessibility. Within the realm of cost-effective options, linkage-based gait trainers have emerged as viable alternatives, prompting a thorough examination of this category, which is carried out in this work. Notably, there is a wide heterogeneity in research approaches and presentation methods. This divergence has prompted discourse regarding the standardization of key elements relevant to the proposals of new linkage-based devices. As a result, this study proposes a comprehensive and standardized design process and offers a brief illustration of the application of this design process through the presentation of a potential new design.

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“…Certain institutions have synthesized low DoFs mechanisms for end-effector-based gait retraining systems. The University of California in Irvine used a one-DoF Stephenson III linkage to help guide and develop the relative trajectory of the ankle relative to the hip [26]. A similar system was designed by Tianjin University, using cam-linkage mechanisms for individual therapy rather than generalized treatment at rehabilitation centers; however, the use of a pantograph mechanism was to be studied to scale the generated trajectory in terms of patient anthropometry [27].…”

Section: Introduction 1motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical Design of a 2-PRR Parallel Manipulator for Gait Retraining System

Risk-Mora,

Durango-Idárraga,

Jiménez-Cortés

et al. 2023

Machines

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Robotic gait retraining systems typically function by employing mechanisms that move a patient’s lower limbs in a controlled manner. In this paper, an end-effector gait retraining system was designed, utilizing a 2-PRR mechanism (PRR refers to the structure of each robot’s limb, consisting of an active prismatic pair (P) and two passive rotational pairs (RR) pairs). The mechanism, which corresponds to a parallel robot, was synthesized through visual design tools (design atlases) to evaluate performance indices, such as the workspace size, local and global conditioning, and mechanism stiffness. Quasi-static force analyses were conducted to calculate worst-case scenario operational loads. These loads were then used to obtain a valid cross-section geometry that would withstand static stress, buckling failure, and fatigue failure.

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An Adjustable Single Degree-of-Freedom System to Guide Natural Walking Movement for Rehabilitation

Cited by 21 publications

References 23 publications

An Adaptable Human-Like Gait Pattern Generator Derived From a Lower Limb Exoskeleton

An Adaptable Human-Like Gait Pattern Generator Derived From a Lower Limb Exoskeleton

A Critical Review and Systematic Design Approach for Linkage-Based Gait Rehabilitation Devices

Mechanical Design of a 2-PRR Parallel Manipulator for Gait Retraining System

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