DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING OF A REHABILITATION ASSISTANCE ROBOT

Abstract

Inspired by the difficulties behind specification requirements as well as realizing the applicable capacity of upper exoskeleton robots, this paper presents the design and development of an upper extremity limb exoskeleton for human assistance in rehabilitation. The exoskeleton has been designed through the analysis of human factors engineering, biomechanics, and dynamics properties of the human upper limb. Based on the requirements of the exoskeleton’s power and the torques of human joints, the solutions of mechanism, actuator for the robot have been drawn. As a contribution to robotic exoskeletons field, we present an original prototype of Rehabilitation Assistance Robot (RAR). During development of the RAR, a basiccally control network has been developed to increase the ability of integration, and ensure real-time control performance besides a custom-built control panel for users. The robot’s applicable efficience has been evaluated through several rehabilitation traning tests on both healthy persons and patients as fundamental criteria in the exoskeleton development.