Robot-assisted ankle rehabilitation for the treatment of drop foot: A case study

Abstract

Abstract-

Reviewing Clinical Effectiveness of Active Training Strategies of Platform-Based Ankle Rehabilitation Robots

“…After excluding studies involving training conducted not in a seated position [ 1 , 24 – 29 ], proposition and verification of novel technologies and algorithms [ 22 , 30 – 37 ], single passive training [ 5 , 38 , 39 ], proposition and verification of novel robots [ 8 , 16 – 19 , 40 – 45 ], single subject [ 46 ], conference papers merged into peer-reviewed journals [ 47 – 49 ], and analyzing the biomechanics of ankle joints [ 11 , 12 , 50 , 51 ], a total of 21 studies were finally selected with 311 patients involved; of them, 13 studies applied a single group while another eight studies used different groups for comparison to verify the therapeutic effect. Virtual-reality (VR) game training was applied in 19 studies, while two studies used proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) training, as shown in Table 1 .…”

“…In 2013, over 7.5 million of stroke patients existed in China, with an increasing proportion of younger patients [ 4 ]. In New Zealand, there is an estimated number of 60,000 stroke patients; many of them have an abnormal gait pattern [ 5 ].…”

“…Ankle robots can provide accurate and uniform rehabilitation exercises in a long-time session of the training, the difficulty of which can be adaptively modified based on real-time feedback of therapeutic effects [ 10 ]. Also, the use of robot-assisted ankle rehabilitation technique allows for real-time data collection throughout the training, to further judge the accuracy of the training [ 5 ], evaluate the biomechanical properties of ankle joints [ 11 , 12 ], assess the performance of motion ability of ankle joints [ 10 , 13 ], and customize future therapies [ 14 ]. Ankle robots can be classified to two kinds, one of which is wearable ankle robots applied to improve gait and locomotor ability, and the other of which is platform-based robots applied in a sitting position to enhance physical function and motion ability of ankle joints [ 15 ].…”

Hierarchical Compliance Control of a Soft Ankle Rehabilitation Robot Actuated by Pneumatic Muscles

“…However, this paper can be regarded as a preliminary step in testing the new hierarchical compliance control method for soft robots and can provide basic information for use in more complete studies. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed strategy in practice, we are conducting experiments on a larger number of patients (Zhu et al, 2016 ) and will report the controller’s long-term effectiveness in the near future. On the other hand, to improve the analysis of the admittance performance, the human ankle’s model must include more higher order damping and inertia terms and biological components.…”

Research on control strategies for ankle rehabilitation using parallel mechanism

“…Ankle rehabilitation robot can provide long‐term accurate and uniform rehabilitation training, and can adaptively modify the difficulty of rehabilitation training according to the real‐time feedback of training effect [1]. In addition, the application of robot‐assisted ankle rehabilitation techniques allows real‐time data collection throughout the training process to further determine the accuracy of training [2], assessing the biomechanical properties of the ankle [3, 4] and mobility [5] to customise future treatments [6].…”