Synthesis of Lower Limbs Exoskeleton for the Rehabilitation of Patients with Disorders of Motor and Proprioceptive Systems

Abstract

In this work is presented a new design of a rehabilitation exoskeleton intended for the rehabilitation of disabled people and patients with impaired motor functions. A distinctive feature of this design is that the auxiliary legs used in it, in addition to rotational motion drives that simulate the work of the hip joints, are equipped with controlled artificial knee joints, providing biologically natural kinematics of patient during the rehabilitation process. In addition, to solve the problem of motor redundancy in the algorithms of the exoskeleton control system, synergistic quality criteria are used, which also contribute to the realization of biologically natural movements, and, consequently, the quality of rehabilitation effects. The drive control of joints is carried out using commands generated by a hierarchical control system operating based on information from inertial and resistor sensors mounted directly on the exoskeleton elements.