Design of A Clinically Relevant Elbow Exoskeleton Robot for Stroke Patients

Abstract

The number of stroke patients is increasing each year. In this situation and with growing interest in im-proving the quality of life for the handicapped, rehabilitation robots are growing in importance. Among them, exoskeleton robots will help many disabled and old people to be able to live normal lives. Also, it can be utilized in physiotherapy and occupational therapy. The purpose of this thesis is the design of a clinically relevant elbow exoskeleton that meets the clinical requirements. At first, the proposed robot was designed to have sufficient torque for passive exercise therapy of post-stroke patients with spasticity (≤ MAS grade 3). Because the therapy of patients with high level spasticity can be hard work for therapists by increased muscle tone, and the patients cannot get enough rehabilitation treatment. Secondly, the proposed robot was designed to guarantee the safety for the robot-aided passive training of patients with spasticity. Robot-aided therapy can be an advantage in the strength and repetitive motion for alleviation and prevention of spasticity, but it is not trustworthy in safety issues. Thus, a safety algorism that includes catch detection and mode change was applied to this robot system to insure the patient’s safety by providing compliant motion to spastic arm. Thirdly, medical robot needs to meet the requirements in clinical field. Thus, the proposed robot was de-signed to have modular feature that is easy to assemble and disassemble with existing hand robot for practi-cal use. It can be useful for therapist’s work and merits as it is able to undercut. In addition, this robot is also adjustable to 90% of Korean people's arms. In the design of this exoskeleton robot, ergonomic aspects are considered so that therapists can use this robot easily and the patient will be felt comfortable. This robot also can be applied to both the right arm and the left arm through segmentation and reassembly. ⓒ 2015 DGIST