Development of an Improved Rotational Orthosis for Walking With Arm Swing and Active Ankle Control

Abstract

Based on interlimb neural coupling, gait robotic systems should produce walking-like movement in both upper and lower limbs for effective walking restoration. Two orthoses were previously designed in our lab to provide passive walking with arm swing. However, an active system for walking with arm swing is desirable to serve as a testbed for investigation of interlimb neural coupling in response to voluntary input. Given the important function of the ankle joint during normal walking, this work aimed to develop an improved rotational orthosis for walking with arm swing, which is called ROWAS II, and especially to develop and evaluate the algorithms for active ankle control. After description of the mechanical structure and control schemes of the overall ROWAS II system, the closed-loop position control and adjustable admittance control algorithms were firstly deduced, then simulated in Matlab/Simulink and finally implemented in the ROWAS II system. Six able-bodied participants were recruited to use the ROWAS II system in passive mode, and then to estimate the active ankle mechanism. It was showed that the closed-loop position control algorithms enabled the ROWAS II system to track the target arm-leg walking movement patterns well in passive mode, with the tracking error of each joint <0.7 • . The adjustable admittance control algorithms enabled the participants to voluntarily adjust the ankle movement by exerting various active force. Higher admittance gains enabled the participants to more easily adjust the movement trajectory of the ankle mechanism. The ROWAS II system is technically feasible to produce walking-like movement in the bilateral upper and lower limbs in passive mode, and the ankle mechanism has technical potential to provide various active ankle training during gait rehabilitation. This novel ROWAS II system can serve as a testbed for further investigation of interlimb neural coupling in response to voluntary ankle movement and is technically feasible to provide a new training paradigm of walking with arm swing and active ankle control.

Mechanical Design and Control System Development of a Rehabilitation Robotic System for Walking With Arm Swing

“…The HMI on the touch panel provided for convenient start and stop of the system, and also allowed easy tuning of the control parameters. The operator-friendly HMI included comparable functions to what the user interfaces in a typical rehabilitation robotic system provide ( 25 ), and give substantial advantages compared to our previous systems ( 11 – 13 ).…”

“…Motivated by the theory and clinical results described above, we previously developed three rotational orthoses for walking with arm swing ( 11 – 13 ), but the reaction forces on the foot sole during walking in those systems were not satisfactory. The initial prototype of a rotational orthosis for walking with arm swing (ROWAS) validated the mechanical feasibility of producing passive arm-leg movement in various positions ( 11 ).…”

“…However, it is challenging to produce walking on a fixed ground-simulation plate when the hip, knee and ankle joints are all controlled in passive mode. Therefore, an improved system, ROWAS II, was developed, which implemented an admittance control strategy for active walking, and finally produced “walking” on a ground-simulation plate ( 13 ). The participants wore two rigid shoe platforms with wheels at the bottom that rolled on the ground-simulation plate during the stance phase.…”

Data_Sheet_1.ZIP

“…The HMI on the touch panel provided for convenient start and stop of the system, and also allowed easy tuning of the control parameters. The operator-friendly HMI included comparable functions to what the user interfaces in a typical rehabilitation robotic system provide (25), and give substantial advantages compared to our previous systems (11)(12)(13).…”

“…Motivated by the theory and clinical results described above, we previously developed three rotational orthoses for walking with arm swing (11)(12)(13), but the reaction forces on the foot sole during walking in those systems were not satisfactory. The initial prototype of a rotational orthosis for walking with arm swing (ROWAS) validated the mechanical feasibility of producing passive arm-leg movement in various positions (11).…”