Development of Body-Weight-Support System for Walking Rehabilitation

Abstract

As the population of elderly people and disabled people are increased, various demands for human welfare using robot system are raised. Especially autonomous rehabilitation system using robot could reduce the human effort while maintaining the its intrinsic efficacy. This study deals with mobile gait rehabilitation system which combined with BWS (Body Weight Support) for training of elderly and handicapped people who suffer the muscle force weakness of lower extremity. BWS which is designed by kinematic analysis of body lifting characteristics and walking guide system are integrated with main control system and wheeled platform. This mobile platform is operated by UCS (User Command System) and autonomous trajectory planning algorithm. Finally, through the EMG (Electromyography) signal measuring and its analysis for subject, performance and feasibility of developed system is verified.