Force Analysis and Evaluation of a Pelvic Support Walking Robot with Joint Compliance

Abstract

The force analysis of a pelvic support walking robot with joint compliance is discussed in this paper. During gait training, pelvic motions of hemiplegic patients may be excessively large or out of control; however, restriction of pelvic motions is not likely to facilitate successful rehabilitation. A robot-assisted pelvic balance trainer (RAPBT) is proposed to help patients control the range of motion via force field, and force analysis is necessary for the control of the compliant joints. Thus, kinematic model and static model are developed to derive the Jacobian and the relation between the interaction forces and the pelvic movements, respectively. Since the joint compliance is realized through a nontorsional spring, a conventional (linear) Jacobian method and a piecewise linear method are derived to relate the interaction forces with the pelvis movements. Three preliminary experiments are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and the feasibility of the RAPBT. The experiment results indicate that the piecewise linear method is effective in the calculation of the interaction forces. Gait with pelvic brace strongly resembles free overground walking and partly decreases motion range via force field. The findings of this research demonstrate that the pelvic brace with joint compliance may provide effective interventions.