Development of a Biofeedback Therapeutic-Exercise-Supporting Manipulator

Abstract

Although much equipment for physical therapy has been developed, equipment to improve the quality of physical therapy is scarce. We propose a robotic biofeedback exercise device that can display human joint torque and muscle force during training without a problematic electromyogram (EMG). The purpose is to increase the therapeutic value by understanding a person's condition during exercise and to provide an incentive to improve performance. The manipulator supports lower limb rehabilitation in the sagittal plane. With its ability to adjust the maximum speed and the time constant, the manipulator provides simultaneous and safe isokinetic exercise for the knee and hip joints. This paper describes the estimation of the human joint torque and muscle force. The display of the joint torque and the muscle force is realized during exercise of the knee joint using the developed manipulator. The estimation of the muscle force from Crowninshield's method and Hase's method generally agrees with the EMG.

An EMG-based force prediction and control approach for robot-assisted lower limb rehabilitation

“…Another problem is that many works of force/torque estimation have been done on exoskeleton robots (e.g. [2] [8] [11]), while few can be found on end-effector robots. But, the end-effector robot is a very important type of rehabilitation and assistive devices.…”

Bilateral Control Method Based on Transformation Matrix Relating Motion Features and Tool Coordinates

“…In many cases, the human environment is the space in which we spend our daily lives (e.g., kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms). The study of robots working in the human environment includes indoor robots (1) , physiotherapy robots (2) , electric bicycles (3) and electric wheelchairs (4) . Teleoperation systems (5) using master-slave robots are attracting particular attention as systems that can physically support human motion (6) .…”

Total Harmonic Distortion and Content Rate of Spatial Modal Information for Haptic Parallel Motion Analysis

“…The advanced computer vision technology can realize the human motion capture [1] and the vision-based motion analysis [2]. The sensor and actuator technology can realize the human motion sensing [3] and the physical support based on biological information [4,5]. Biomechanical knowledge about human physicality can enhance the human-systeminteraction [6].…”